When Jonah Levinson flies home to spend Hanukkah with his parents, he is expecting to spend eight days eating latkes, staring at the Menorah, and avoiding his mother’s questions regarding his love life. He’s not looking forward to eight days of guilt and feeling like a failure, but he is prepared to suffer in silence. However, when Dr. Ethan Rosenburg – childhood neighbor, object of his adolescent fantasies, and high school nemesis – picks him up at the airport and informs him that he is also staying with Jonah’s parents, Jonah knows he cannot possibly survive the holiday. He endured Ethan calling him a fag and pushing him around in as a teen; there is no way that he can spend so much time in tight quarters with this man now. And to make things worse, it appears that Jonah’s entire extended family will be celebrating Hanukkah with them.

Ethan is not as bad as Jonah remembers him, however. Not only is he openly gay, but he insists on flirting with Jonah, who has not yet come out to his family. Jonah would love the attention if he weren’t so worried about his parents finding out. Early into the visit, a snowstorm hits town, trapping the entire household in the house as well as cutting the power. When a family heirloom subsequently goes missing, and Jonah and Ethan decide to alleviate the boredom of being housebound by playing amateur sleuth. The investigation will bring Jonah and Ethan closer together. It will also bring facts to light that will surprise and delight them.

In Holiday Outing, Astrid Amara mixes humor, sex, and romance with a touch of suspense to come up with a story that is both entertaining and touching. This lighthearted look into a dysfunctional family Hanukkah is well written, wonderfully characterized and just plain fun to read. The interaction between family members is both barbed and gently humorous, stirring this reader to laughter a number of times.

The characters in Holiday Outing are as memorable as they are well depicted. Jonah’s mother is the quintessential Jewish mother – she is queen of the guilt trip, and she loves her son to distraction but nags him incessantly. Jonah himself is very witty and intelligent, but he is so caught up in worrying about how his parents might react to him revealing his sexuality that he gives himself an inferiority complex. He doesn’t realize that his parents love him enough to accept him as he is and to celebrate his successes. Ethan is Jonah’s perfect complement. He is confident and serene where Jonah is anxious, but he also has just a touch of his own insecurity deep inside. With their small anxieties and imperfections, these characters give the impression of being real people and lend credence to the story.

With Holiday Outing, Ms Amara has given us a story that is filled with love and humor, and readers who pick up this story should expect a real treat.

Reviewed by: Whitney