REVIEWED BY PAUL

TITLE: Blah Humbug

AUTHOR: Dawn Flemington

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 83 Pages

BLURB:

Haven Marley’s having the worst December ever. Work was terrible, his car wouldn’t start… and then it gets even worse. His Christmas is awfully blue until he meets Sander Klaus. They quickly discover that when it comes to celebrating, they are total opposites: Haven hates the holidays, while Sander—a mall Santa—embraces everything about the season. Haven may be a Scrooge, but with Sander, he’ll learn more about the joys of being in the Christmas spirit than he’d ever imagined

REVIEW:

Haven Marley’s having the worst December ever. Work was terrible, his car wouldn’t start… and then it gets even worse. His Christmas is awfully blue until he meets Sander Klaus. They quickly discover that when it comes to celebrating, they are total opposites: Haven hates the holidays, while Sander—a mall Santa—embraces everything about the season. Haven may be a Scrooge, but with Sander, he’ll learn more about the joys of being in the Christmas spirit than he’d ever imagined.

In this lovely 80 page Christmas-story Flemington gets the reader acquainted with Haven a store-manager that hates Christmas, due to past experiences.

She takes great effort into letting the characters introduce themselves. And by knowing almost all there is to know about them, they still have secrets and the reader wants to find out.

After being mugged Haven is saved by Santa, or Sander, who uses the Holiday Season to spread the love of Santa but not to Haven, as he bad things tend to happen to him every single year in December.

Gradually in the story a relationship of trust grows between Sander and Haven, but Sander gets called away at the most importune moments. When the reader urges them on to get physical and gets excited, the excitement gets cut short because Sander needs to leave. And thus Haven starts to believe Sander is hiding something from him, and he is, but the reader only finds out in the end of the story.

The intimate moments between Sander and Haven are well captured and gradually, but in a naturally way, develop into something more. Touches and caressing slowly shift into a more carnal loving. but even a simple jack-off is written with a sense of erotic comprehension that makes the reader wanting to be at the receiving end of that stick 😉

Sanders love for Christmas is inspiring to the reader and to Haven. In an interview Flemington tells us she greatly identifies with Haven, being a sufferer from the Holiday blues, but in this book she shows us that every one can overcome their moments of despair.

Just add a little joy, some hot m/m romance (in books or real life) and some lovely Christmas sceneries to get all warm and cosy.

A lovely read on those cold December evenings. I would rate this 4 stars as the plot keeps the reader wanting more, the love-scenes are beautifully written and it restored my faith in having a joyful Christmas.

RATING :

BUY LINKS: Dreamspinner Press

ADVENT CALENDER EVENT

Dreamspinner Press and The Blog of Sid Love bring to you an opportunity where you get to win a free set of DSP’s “Heartwarming” Advent Calender 2013. Yes! The full set with 31 stories including contributions from authors like Andrew Grey, Cardeno C., Grace R. Duncan, and many more…

If you wish to enter yourself into this contest, all you have to do is comment on every advent event post we make each day till the end of this month. Look out for titles with “Advent Calender Event” mentioned in them (such as this one) and the posts will be reviews on each and every story from this anthology.

The contest will end on 1st January, 2014 and the winners will be announced on the 2nd of January.

So, good luck to you all and Happy Holidays!