Reviewed by Cindy
TITLE: A Swift Herd for Solstice
AUTHOR: Andi Van
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 50 pages
BLURB: Martin Jones is driving home after working retail on Black Friday when he nearly hits an elk in the middle of the road. A drunk elk. A drunk, talking elk. Martin is pretty sure he’s hallucinating—right up until he discovers shape shifter Haven Clarke in his bed the next morning. Their awkward meeting leads to a friendship that quickly deepens, and soon Haven has to take Martin to meet his herd’s leaders. What Martin finds out may change his life forever.
A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2013 Advent Calendar package “Heartwarming”.
REVIEW:
This short story made me smile. It’s no secret that I love a shifter-story and this one is really cute.
When Martin almost runs over an elk after work he finds himself entering a world he never dreamed existed. Of course, going to bed and waking up the Haven Clarke lets him know its not all a dream.
The two characters mesh almost immediately and their chemistry is adorable. However, meeting the family, deciding their future…well this is why short stories often don’t work for me. There was too much detail in too little story and it made it hard to connect with the characters.
The other shifters in the story provide tons of comic relief and I would have loved to have known more about them.
Martin and Haven seem to be made for each other and I love how sweet they are with each other. Martin needs people who love him and it’s wonderful to see him finally get it.
This is smart and funny and has real potential for something more, I just wish we could have gotten it.
RATING: 
BUY LINK: Dreamspinner Press
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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!
Imagining all sorts of Christmassy reindeer themes!!
sounds like this one would make a good complete novel 🙂
I don’t know why it’s taken me so long, but I read my first shifter stories a couple months ago, and I loved them! I’d love to read this one as it sounds pretty funny and cute.
Another good review. Thanks. 🙂
That is also why short stories are hard form e as well. They need more pages.
I enjoy shifter stories so this one interested me a lot. Drunk elk shifter hmm.