Like the last few years we at Love Bytes are reviewing the whole dsp advent calender
There will be a review posted each day throughout the month of December.
Let us know what you think of the reviews and the stories and have a chance to win a fabulous giveaway.
First Price: 10 Dreamspinner Press ebooks (winner’s choice)
Second Price: 5 Dreamspinner Press ebooks (winner’s choice)
Third Price: 3 Dreamspinner Press ebooks (winner’s choice)
Day 19
Reviewed by Kat
TITLE: A Gift of Family
SERIES: Dreamspinner Press 2017 Advent Calendar collection Stocking Stuffers
AUTHOR: Tami Veldura
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 32 pages
RELEASE DATE: December 1, 2017
BLURB:
A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2017 Advent Calendar collection Stocking Stuffers.
Scott Burke has always desired a big family, but as a divorced single dad, all he has is his young daughter, Lexi. He pours himself into raising her, half-convinced he’ll never find what he’s looking for. When Brennan Price strolls into Scott’s life, he’d better have enough patience for both Lexi and Scott if he intends to stick around.
Brennan has a huge family and a successful career, but no one to call his own. Wooing Scott and his daughter is right up his alley, though, and he steps up to the challenge to prove he’s enough for both of them. His attraction to Scott is immediate, but he recognizes a family man when he sees one and hatches a plan to win Lexi over. Her handsome father is sure to follow….
REVIEW:
Very fast moving short story.
Scott Burke is at the park with his toddler, Lexi, when a very attractive man approaches to interact with them. He has a large dog in tow with antlers attached to its head. After a brief meeting they agree to meet up the next day for a date.
This, unfortunately, wasn’t my favorite story of the season. I’m not a fan of immediate insta-love and it went from zero to 90 in a very short time. One of my problems was that until Brennan walked up we had absolutely no clue that Scott was gay or even bi. The author went on about his relationship with his ex-wife and his celibacy since his daughter’s birth and two days later he is hot and heavy with the man while his sick baby is in the next room. But what really got to me was that this all took place in three days and they were in love and ready to settle down together. Just too much too fast.
The baby and the dog were cute and it wasn’t a badly written story, it just wasn’t the story for me. If you have a family man that has devoted his life to his infant daughter then I have a hard time reconciling the extremely abrupt change in behavior.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
I can usually suspend disbelief for a short story and instalove. I may give this one a try.
Wow, sound too much of instant love for me. Thanks for the review!
Instalove can be a trick genre. Sorry to see it didn’t work out for you. The premise sounds interesting. I’m not too keen on rushed stories but since I’ve already bought the anthology it won’t hurt to give it a read. Thank you for the review.
Insta love is one of the most difficult tropes to develop… It takes a lot to convince me of it, and in a short story is even more difficult. I may be passing on this one
Perhaps it just needed more length? Don’t know!
I get what you are saying about the change between devoted dad to the insta-drop everything dad. Insta- attraction is fine but developing it further if you are out of your teens is tricky!!!
Thanks for the review. I liked the way the story started out, but then it went to fast for me.