[The Blog of Sid Love & Dreamspinner Press comes together once again to make this Valentine’s Day a special one for you! As DSP releases each of its books in their “A Valentine Rainbow” Anthology, you get to read their reviews right here from us and also get a chance to win them. A whole set of this anthology plus individual books will given away during this event. And all you need to do is leave a comment to every post that is tagged “A Valentine Rainbow Event” as this one. You will also find it on the Home Page. Contest Ends 15th February, 2014]

Joint Review by Cindy & Taylor

TITLE: Colors of Romance

SERIES: A Valentine Rainbow

AUTHOR: Ashavan Doyon

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

PAGES: 62 Pages

BLURB: A disastrous date during his freshman year of college has left Theo Dwyer with no faith in men, relationships, or especially Valentine’s Day. When his roommate sets him up on a blind date, naturally Theo refuses. Then a persistent online suitor known only as TruClrs4vr begins sending Theo flowers and arranging romantic virtual meetings. After his treatment by his ex, Theo is reluctant to trust another man, but the determined TruClrs4vr might be the one to rekindle his passion, one color of the rainbow at a time.

Cindy’s Review

Theo is sad and a little broken and a horrible experience has made him angry and hateful toward romance in general and Valentine’s Day in particular. But deep down he’s lonely and it takes just the right man with the right kind of determination to start crumbling the walls he’s built.

I don’t want to give anything away about who the mystery on-line suitor is, but I have to admit, it was the last person I guessed. TruClrs4vr is sweet and romantic in all the right ways and soon sets about sweeping Theo off his feet. And boy does Theo need it.

You can’t help but feel for Theo. His heartbreak is right out there for everyone to see and it makes you want to protect him. When you find out his reasons for hating Valentine’s Day I’m sure you will feel his pain as well.

TruClrs4vr seems to feel the same way and he’s careful while being persistent and I couldn’t help fall for him a little myself. His gestures of love are perfect without being cheesy or over the top and the kind of thing most people would want someone doing for them.

I spent the whole story waiting for them to work it out and I loved the little things that the author got right. Like Theo comforting his mystery man in his time of need and the little conversations Theo has with his friend Jeremy. The fear mixed with hope that finally lets the two men find their way to each other and leave you with a happy ending that is only right for a Valentine’s Day special story.

My only complaint about the whole thing was the some of the text-speak was hard for me to work out, but I’m sure that won’t be a problem for a lot of people.

This was the perfect start for the Dreamspinner Press Valentine Anthology, and I’m looking forward to reading the rest of them.

RATING:

Taylor’s Review

Jeremy and Theo are friends and with Valentine’s Day coming up, Jeremy wants to set up Theo with a date – to change how his friend views that particular day and make it a happy celebration.  After posting something on Twitter, a mysterious man begins sending messages to Theo asking for a chance at romance.

OK, so the premise was cute and I found the characters likable enough, but I had a few issues.  I’m not going to say it’s necessarily the short’s issues, either, seeing as how I don’t like these things in any book, and I probably would have passed on this one had I known it was there.  One aspect is the ‘love at first sight’ gig.  I just don’t like it ever.  I can tolerate it if what follows is legitimate bonding and falling ‘deeper’ in love, but without even that backbone, I just can’t get on board.  Many people will say the tweeting (before and after Mystery Man attempted romance) should count as getting to know each other, but that leads me to my next issue…

I know it was meant to come across as a hopeless romantic doing crazy and sweet gestures to this emotionally-burned man, but I found too much of it creepy.  When Mystery Man states that he thought about leaving the flower inside Theo’s dorm because he had left his door unlocked?  I actually shuddered.  When instead of asking questions about general interests etc., Mystery Man just keeps writing shorthand how much he loves romance, how he knows Theo loves romance, how he lives for romance, and will do anything for romance, I was like whaaaaa?  Like that could have been a great time for the reader to read about them finding common ground or even learning their differences, but it was just page after page of these generic tweets.

I know this had to be short and I know there was the colors prompt for the Valentine series, but I just felt a lot of…well the relationship…was lacking.  Not to mention the big reveal felt really anti-climactic and I kept thinking, “Wait!! What? Who?”  And it’s pretty sappy, but I know some people gobble this kind of stuff up.

So I think people’s mileage may vary: if you love sweet, no sex, love at first sight couplings mixed with some love letters and flowers, you will probably really love this.  It just was too many combinations of things I don’t like in my books.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: Dreamspinner Press