We will review the Dreamspinner Press advent calendar one review a day. At the end of the month THREE winners will be picked to receive some great prizes!

First prize is 10 books from your Dreamspinner wishlist .

Second prize is 5 books from your Dreamspinner wishlist.

Third prize is 3 books from your Dreamspinner wishlist.

December 7th

 Day 7

Reviewed by Sarina

TITLE: Pixies and Paperwork

SERIES: 2016 Dreamspinner Advent Calendar – Bah Humbug

AUTHOR: Cassia Rose

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 55 pages

RELEASE DATE: December 1, 2016

BLURB:

Micheal Donovan’s family has kept the peace between mortal and magical realms for generations, but Micheal skipped out on glory for other plans. He finished school, got a nine-to-five, and tried to fit in. When his cousin meets an unfortunate end on All Hallows, Micheal abruptly inherits the position of Riftkeeper, along with all the prestige and responsibility he didn’t want. Estranged from his family, Micheal never learned the details of the job. All the grumpy, ancestral spirit now possessing his goldfish can tell him is that a mistake could be catastrophic. Micheal isn’t feeling the holiday cheer, and coworkers’ attempts to encourage him only add to a headache of magical proportions.

To make matters worse, Ryan Nickles, Micheal’s colleague and cubicle neighbor, has assembled enough Christmas decorations to attract more pixies than Micheal can hide. When Micheal’s attempts to find the Winter Court on the week of the solstice leave him with nothing but a bad cold, he fears he’ll be the first Riftkeeper to break ancient contracts. He’s too stressed to handle Ryan’s attempts to get him into the holiday spirit, but Ryan might know more about the magic of the season than Micheal realizes.

REVIEW:

I enjoyed this story quite a bit; there’s just something about the mix of paranormal and the magic of Christmas that I find really appealing. Micheal is kind of your typical bah humbug grouch but, in this particular instance he has an excuse. The end of the year is always busy with his job, his normal, no magic included everyday job but when you add in an unexpected death in the family and Micheal getting said relative’s job as Riftkeeper, well, he’s under a bit of stress.  Micheal seems to be getting the silent treatment from the rest of his family, as well, and since he has no idea what he’s doing or how to go about preventing a localized version of the apocalypse, this is looking to be the worst Christmas in history.  And Micheal pretty much hates Christmas just on principle anyway.

The magical/paranormal elements were fairly understated from what I was expecting but were used quite effectively. It was kind of obvious who the contact for the Winter Court is but I wasn’t really disappointed by that; I liked how Micheal was sort of smacked in the face with the realization though. 😀

This was a pretty sweet, kind of fluffy (even with Micheal so prickly) start to a romance that used magic and paranormal elements quite successfully. It was an enjoyable read and I’m really glad I chose it! If you enjoy a more literal ‘magic of Christmas’ type of story, you should enjoy this one.

RATING:

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