This is the last review of the Advent calendar 2014. I hope you all enjoyed reading the books as much as we did reviewing them 🙂
I will draw a winner soon !
Thanks for participating in this month of reviews 🙂
Dani
Day 31
Reviewed by Paul
TITLE: Stardust
LENGTH: 62 pages
AUTHOR: Andrew Grey
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
BLURB:
Duncan is an ocean from home over the holidays and expects to spend them alone. To his pleasant surprise, one of his European co-workers, Georg, befriends him and includes Duncan in the holiday traditions of his homeland: cutting a Christmas tree under starry skies at Georg’s country estate, decorating it at the family’s city home, and shopping at the Christmas market in Munich. Both men are lonely and realize they have much in common. But Georg’s life is in Germany and Duncan’s is in Boston. With the project they’re working on nearing completion, any chance for more than a holiday fling seems as elusive as stardust.
A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2014 Advent Calendar package “Celebrate!”.
REVIEW:
This holiday-story takes place in Germany, with one of the MC being an American expat, working on a satellite-project, named Duncan. He’s there to oversee the production of a mirror, so waiting is a big part of his job. This waiting and the fact that he’s all alone in a foreign country sets the backdrop for this story.
Luckily for Duncan Georg (pronounced Gay-org 😉 ) is his new co-worker at this company. Georg, we learn, is a real German count and as he identifies with Duncan loneliness in the strange country. Georg connects with Duncan and they share some personal information. From the outset both know they are gay. In my opinion they were way more forward than is to be expected. But after those introductions Georg shows Duncan around town, tells him about German traditions and all of that feels really natural.
Slowly Duncan gets attracted to Georg, but doubts (stemming from a previous relationship, including a bad break-up) build in Duncan’s mind. He knows he’ll be leaving after Christmas as their project will be done soon. Will this just be another fling for Georg, or is there more.
Come Christmas Georg and Duncan are close and Georg invites Duncan to his house to spend the holidays. Of course Duncan accepts as it’s better to spend those special days with a friend. Lovely intimate scene’s follow and they become an item. But the tension of knowing that Duncan will soon leave is always sensible. Will a long distance relationship be a possibility, or is it over before the New Year?
Andrew Grey presents us with a brilliant story, set in a Christmassy Germany. He creates a warm atmosphere and pays attention to detail describing the main characters and their surroundings. The magical way in which he takes the reader with Duncan (it’s written as a first person story) on his journey to self-rediscovery adds special depth to this Advent short story. This novel is above average by far, engaging the reader into Duncan’s mindset. For this reviewer this is what a Holiday story should be all about. Yes there was sex, but the connection the characters found was dominant. And that is the reason this book earns a solid 4.5 star rating.
RATING: 
BUY-Links:
Beautiful!! Ty
Sounds like a great windup to the series!
Thank you for all the hard work you guys put into reading all the stories and reviewing them. Happy New Year =)