Reviewed by Donna
TITLE: Picture Winter
AUTHOR: Amy Aislin
PUBLISHER: MLR Press
LENGTH: 167 Pages
RELEASE DATE: October 6, 2017
BLURB:
Do something new today.
Why he looks at his horoscope every day, Elias Hood doesn’t know. It’s all garbage, and no nickel fortune ever helped him climb all the way up the corporate ladder. He’s about to make Vice President. Rocking the boat with “something new” is the last thing on his mind.
But there’s this guy.
Ty Green can make friends with a tree and Elias can’t help falling for his easy-going vibe and his perfect smile. He’s a fellow Capricorn, like Elias, but that’s as far as their similarities go. Ty works to live–he doesn’t live to work. When Elias takes his horoscope’s advice and asks Ty out, both men are in for a shock. But as Elias’s walls start to come down, they might just realize that they have more in common than they think. In fact, they might even want the exact same thing.
Who knows? Maybe horoscopes aren’t just trash after all.
REVIEW:
Elias and Ty are kind of an odd couple. Ty’s family is surprised that they’re dating, even Elias is confounded by the fact that Ty is dating him. Especially after the way they met. But from bonding over their favourite tv shows, to being over organized, Elias and Ty find that they have more in common than they first expect. And anyway, they appreciate the differences between them.
First off, I really enjoyed the way this story began. After Elias is rude and dismissive to Ty upon their first meeting, he can’t get the encounter out of his head. So he brings Ty a gift the next day to say sorry. When Ty is less than impressed at his offering Elias stubbornly begins bring Ty something each morning, until Ty accepts his apology. This first part of the story sums up Elias’s character perfectly. He’s a bit of an ass, but is unapologetic when he believes he’s in the right. However, he isn’t too much of an ass to admit when he’s wrong. I guess in that way, Ty is exactly the same as Elias, he’s just way more laid back about life in general. While it seemed, even to me, that these two men shouldn’t have worked together, the author sold me on their relationship.
While the romantic relationship did develop crazy fast, I was happy enough to just go with it. There was basically zero angst to be found here, and very little conflict between Elias and Ty. Most of the conflict was Elias’s internal battle with his plans for his life. Given that the men weren’t fighting over issues constantly, the speed at which their relationship moved wasn’t completely unrealistic. In fact, when the men did have an issue, they discussed it and worked it out. What a novel approach!
Ty’s rather large family and all of their antics provided some needed commotion through out the story. I love it when authors include a rambunctious family somewhere in a story.
This was an enjoyable read. Honestly, I liked it more than I expected. While it isn’t full of drama or action, sometimes you need an amusingly sweet book like this to hit the spot.
RATING: 
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