Reviewed by Kat

TITLE: Merry Christmas, Mr. Miggles 

AUTHOR: Eli Easton 

PUBLISHER: Pinkerton Road LLC 

LENGTH: 664kb

RELEASE DATE: November 23, 2016

BLURB: 

Toby Kincaid loves being the junior librarian in his hometown of Sandy Lake, Ohio. He spends his days surrounded by books and chatting with the library patrons. He especially adores the head librarian, Mr. Miggles, who is kind, witty, knowlegable about everything, and hopelessly addicted to Christmas.  Sean Miggles is also pretty cute—especially for an older guy who wears ties and suit pants every day.

But Sean keeps himself at a distance, and there’s a sadness about him that Toby can’t figure out. When Sean is accused of a crime he didn’t commit, he gives up without a fight. Toby realizes that he alone can save the library—and their head librarian.

Toby will need to uncover the darkness in Sean’s past and prove to him that he deserves a second chance at life and at love too.  And while Christmas miracles are being handed out, maybe Toby will get his own dearest wish—to love and be loved by Mr. Miggles. 

REVIEW:

I love when the Christmas novellas start trickling in. They fill my heart with joy and hope.

Toby Kincaid has returned to his hometown to become the junior librarian of the town library for the past two years. He spent a lot of his time as a child growing up in this building and it is fitting that he come back to the place he loved. He has a good life, surrounded by his family, and is dating the local high school football jock, that came out after graduation. Mr. Miggles is the stoic head librarian, seemingly old beyond his years and is filled with a hidden sadness Toby hasn’t unlocked the mystery to yet. There is one time of year that the head librarian really looks forward to and that’s Christmas. Toby loves to give Mr. Miggles a hard time about it. But when an unfortunate situation arises, in the aftermath of trying to help a defenseless child, Toby wishes he had just given in to Mr. Miggles joyful exuberance. Now Toby needs to make it all right again when the town council seems against not only his boss but the town library too.

Toby is a good and sweet young man. Caring and considerate of his family and those around him. He has a boyfriend that is not nearly good enough for him, everyone seems to be in agreement on that, and tends to use him. He loves being back in his childhood hometown and working at his beloved library is his dream come true. He is openly gay and accepted which, for a small town in Ohio, seems rare. He goes through his daily activities but wishes that his boyfriend wanted a little more excitement in their lives once and awhile. When he discovers that he might have feelings for his boss things start to get interesting.

Sean Miggles has returned to his hometown a broken and sad man. He feels he doesn’t deserve anything after a terrible accident in California. When he tries to help a young girl, who keeps getting abandoned by her very young mother at the library, things go all wrong. His kindness for her is thrown against him in an awful and despicable way. When a zealous council member, seeing  an opportunity to get the library budget slashed in order to fund his beloved ball field being built, things go from bad to dire very quickly.

I love how Toby grew through the story. He went from just going with the flow to becoming an activist when challenged. I have seen a growing shift within local governments to keep chopping at our library systems when budgets are tight. But there is something about walking into a library to do research that makes the experience more real and enriching. Toby’s “rallying the troops” approach needs to be activated more and more in our communities to save our library systems. I really loved the townspeople that came to Mr. Miggles defense. It was heartwarming and felt real.

This was a rewarding story that wasn’t just a “feel good” novella but encouraged you to think and care. Nice Christmas story of hope and caring of our fellow mankind.

RATING:

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