Reviewed by Sarina
TITLE: Nicolas
AUTHOR: Dianne Hartsock
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 200 PAGES
BLURB:
Betrayed by a lover, Jamie rents an isolated cabin on Lake Huron, wanting only to be left alone. Instead, he is pulled from his solitary existence as an artist and tumbles headlong into the legend of Saint Nicolas.
As a young man, Nicolas accidentally killed a man intent on murdering three children, only to have the man’s malicious spirit rise up against him. Fleeing through the centuries from the Krampus, the evil troll-like creature that dogs his steps, Nico finds refuge with the young artist who takes him into his home and bed. But Jamie has questions. Who is Nicolas, and why does the Krampus want to destroy him?
When the Krampus begins to torment and torture anyone Nico comes in contact with to punish him, Jamie’s life is put in danger. And Jamie isn’t sure whether he can help Nico defeat his nemesis or if he’s merely a pawn in the Krampus’s game.
REVIEW:
One too many bad relationships has Jamie saying goodbye to the city and hello to a cabin in the wilderness. Determined to embrace his time away from other people, his solitude is instead disturbed by the arrival of a man in desperate need of help. Nicolas has been running for so long it sometimes seems like he’ll never be able to stop and meeting Jamie certainly wasn’t part of his plan. The connection between them is instant and too strong to ignore but Nic is a hunted man and he’s determined to keep Jamie from harm, even if that means losing him altogether.
The premise of this story was excellent and with the all the trailers for the Krampus movie playing, I was really looking forward to diving into this book. The reality of the story unfortunately failed to live up to my expectations, however. The beginning of the story showed promise but things quickly became repetitive. Nic and Jamie basically declared their love for one another less than 24 hours after meeting while Jamie has unknowingly been drawn into Nic’s conflict with the Krampus. From that point forward it was mostly as follows: have a small run in with the Krampus, have sex, go to sleep. Rinse, lather, repeat in any combination of those three things while occasionally throwing something else like painting or eating into the mix. I just wanted so much more. I understand Nic being beaten down by how long he’s been dealing with the Krampus but Jamie had such determination in him that I wanted to see him kick some ass! I kept waiting for him to go all Buffy on someone but it sadly never happened. There also didn’t seem to be any actual climax to the story (sex aside); things would start building up and then would just kind of deflate like someone letting air out of a balloon. I don’t even want to get started on the Krampus: he was more horny than horror. The ending was by far the best part of the book and there were no loose ends left so at least it finished well but I honestly can’t see myself reading this one again; I just feel too let down.
RATING: 
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