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 8th

Reviewed by Kat

TITLE: All I Want for Christmas… Is No Christmas 

SERIES: 2016 Dreamspinner Press Advent Calendar – Bah Humbug  

AUTHOR: Colton Aalto 

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press 

LENGTH: 38 Pages

RELEASE DATE: December 1, 2016 

BLURB: 

Alec Ryder’s arrest in Aspen, early on the morning of December 25, is the latest disaster in his series of unhappy Christmases. He’s dreaded the holiday since being subjected to endless church services as a child. Being kicked out on Christmas Day after he came out to his parents, followed by an improbable series of yearly yuletide trips to the emergency room, haven’t made his Christmases any merrier. But getting busted for prostitution is the worst catastrophe; it means Alec’s dream of a college degree is gone, replaced by the specter of jail time.

Just when Alec thinks things can’t get worse, Hayden Adler shows up to interrogate him. Hayden is a glamorous attorney who also happens to be Alec’s college roommate’s cousin. Alec’s had a crush on Hayden for years, but whatever miniscule chance Alec might’ve had is now history—just like the life he’s been trying to build for himself.

But things aren’t quite what they seem. In a long line of miserable Christmases, Alec will never forget this one, although not for the reasons he suspects. 

REVIEW:

I love these Advent novellas. They get me into the Christmas Spirit and I get to discover new-to-me authors in the process. I count that as a win-win!

Alec Ryder has every right to dislike Christmas. It has never been the fun and joyous holiday it should have been growing up. A bible for a child as their only gift when all the other kids brag about their toys is hard. Getting thrown out of your own home on Christmas at seventeen for coming out is criminal. Add to that a series of disasters in recent years, and no wonder Alec hates Christmas. Now getting busted on Christmas morning in a hotel for being a rent boy is ending any hope of a future. To put the star atop the tree, so to speak, being interrogated by the object of his lust for years, in the buff no less, is just making this one more disastrous Christmas…or is it???

I haven’t read very many rent boy stories. The whole “needing to sell your body to survive” is so depressing and degrading to me that these young men have to endure. However I know, for some of our youth, that have been discarded by their families after coming out, it is a harsh reality and their only means to survive. It pains me to think that a family with “supposed” Christian values would throw away the most precious gift given to them, a child. Fortunately we don’t have to witness much of those horrors in this tale but have some descriptions of the past events.

For me, the bright spot was the spark between Hayden and Alec. They just naturally belong with each other. Hayden’s open acceptance of Alec’s past, because he knew that was his only means to attend college, was admirable. I loved his non-judgmental positive attitude.

I can honestly recommend this short, sweet Christmas novella. It was a refreshing look at a rent boy theme.

RATING:  

BUY LINKS: 

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon