Reviewed by Sarina

TITLE: Northern Lights

SERIES: Dreamspinner Advent Calendar 2015 — Sleigh Ride

AUTHOR: Asta Idonea

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

BLURB:

A dream romantic vacation to Iceland to see the Northern Lights turns into a nightmare when James’s workaholic boyfriend, Richard, again insists on putting his work first. After a call from Richard’s office, an argument ends with the couple splitting up for good. Not only has Richard left James, he’s left him abandoned to explore the park alone, where James quickly gets lost. But just when things seem darkest, the Solstice works its magic, and James finds the guiding light he needs. Or it finds him.

REVIEW:

Five years into his relationship with Richard and James has had it; they haven’t had a Christmas together since the party they met at and all he wants is some time for them to be together. The romantic trip he planned to see the Northern Lights and reconnect goes south, however, when Richard’s boss calls and less than a day after arriving, Richard is packing to fly back home. Heartbroken but determined to enjoy himself regardless, James sets out to do just that but instead finds himself in trouble and in need of rescue. Could the worst day of his life actually turn out to be the best?

I really liked the premise to this story and within the first few pages I was already rooting for James and wanting to jump into the book to punch Richard in the face. Trust me, he needed it. I think James had to have been some kind of a saint to deal with all the BS that Richard has put him through over the years and honestly, I would have reacted the same way he did when he found out he was being ditched for work again. In spite of the situation, James is still determined to try and enjoy himself and do what he came to do; see and photograph the Northern Lights. Trying to get away from his fellow tourists leads him into trouble, however, and it is only the timely appearance of a local park ranger that saves him. Kari made me think of Thor long before James made the comparison and even though I don’t feel the story spent enough time with him, I still liked his character. He’s kind and unafraid to be himself, even around a total stranger, which was nice to see. Things heat up fairly quickly between James and Kari but I was pleased to see there was no sex in the story as I though it wouldn’t fit so soon.

The only problem I had with this story was that the plans between the two main characters were extensive and we never got to see any of it; the ending just felt so abrupt that I stared at the page for a minute and was like, ‘is that it?’ I almost feel a little cheated with all the things I expected to read but didn’t get to. It also would’ve been nice to have the Northern Lights feature a little more within the story as they were the entire reason James had chosen to go to Iceland in the first place. It was still an enjoyable read, and I’m sure I’ll read it again in the future, but I didn’t get the holiday feels from it that I expected to.

RATING:

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