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 Prize: 10 Dreamspinner Press ebooks (winner’s choice)
Second Prize: 5 Dreamspinner Press ebooks (winner’s choice)
Third Prize: 3 Dreamspinner Press ebooks (winner’s choice)
Day 21
Reviewed by Danielle
TITLE: Wreck the Halls
SERIES: 2017 Advent Calendar – Stocking Stuffers
AUTHOR: Jessica Payseur
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 52 pages
RELEASE DATE: December 1, 21017
BLURB:
Business has been good at Paul’s Café in Madison, Wisconsin—until a few months before Christmas. When Nick opens Nick’s Restaurant next door, Paul watches his customers leave for cheaper food and an owner who smiles more. With his livelihood at stake, Paul lashes out, trying to drive away Nick’s customers, but Nick won’t go easy, and escalating sabotage threatens to ruin the holidays for both of them.
Paul thinks all he wants for Christmas is to see Nick’s Restaurant go under, but the more he tries to drive Nick away, the less he’s sure he wants him to go. Nick is everything Paul secretly craves, but by the time he realizes Nick is all he really wants for the holidays, he might have ruined any chance for them to get together. And there might not be a present in the world that can fix that.
A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2017 Advent Calendar “Stocking Stuffers.”
REVIEW:
This short story is part of the Dreamspinner Press advent calendar. These stories are sure to make you feel nice and Christmasy. This is no exception although it starts out pretty harsh.
When Paul finds out about his new neighbour he is less than pleased as he opened a restaurant next to Paul’s cafe. It really bugs him when he finds out that Nick’s place is doing good and Paul seems to be losing business.
He starts up with what you could call a bitch fight and Nick is just the person to reply to that. For me the story lacks exactly there. I felt that it took on way to long especially for a short story and I found myself getting irritated that it kept going back and forth.
When they finally decide to cool it down and meet up on a personal level there is a real connection and unfortunately the author rushes through that quickly.
I would have appreciated less fighting and bitching and more real connection.
As the story is nicely written and indeed has a warm Christmas ending. I rated it up to 3 stars but it could have been much more. For now it was just ok for me.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
Thanks for the review.
Thanks for the review. It seems to be an issue with short stories where many of them spend most of the time on the conflict and not enough on the resolution. I do think the cover is unique and clever.
Thank you for the review! The cover is so eye catching and different.
Aagh, no bickering for me!
Thank you for the review, Danielle. Enemies to lovers is my fav trope, I may give this a chance
I am not big fan of enemies to lovers … so maybe I’ll give this a pass. Thank for the review
Interesting cover, it really catches the eye. Thank you for the review!
An interesting cover. Probably deserves a longer option to believe the change from enemies to lovers
Thanks for the review. The story doesn’t sound that appealing to me, so I’ll probably read this story rather later than sooner.