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 31
Review by: Alexander
TITLE: The Werewolf Before Christmas
SERIES: 2017 Advent Calendar – Stocking Stuffers
AUTHOR: Charles Payseur
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 12,620 words
RELEASE DATE: December 1. 2017
BLURB:
Ray seems like the perfect boyfriend—he’s gorgeous, incredibly romantic, and has a mechanical suit he invented to become the dastardly MantaRay. For Alec, who also spends his nights making life difficult for do-gooders everywhere, it’s a match made in supervillain heaven. Except that Ray is a bit too into the hit soap opera All My Werewolves. When tempers flare during what’s supposed to be a quiet night out, Alec nearly ruins everything over a stupid bet with an alien gorilla.
Desperate to prove his feelings to Ray, and with Christmas fast approaching, Alec decides the fastest way to Ray’s heart is to embrace the thing that threatens to divide them—a certain werewolf show with a certain actor who Ray admires. A simple kidnapping promises to do the trick, only fur (and fandom) fly when Alec’s romantic gesture leads to a very hairy situation. Can Alec prove to Ray how much their relationship means to him, or will his plans be ruined by the werewolf before Christmas?
REVIEW:
First admission: I had some difficulty getting into the story the first time I tried. Second admission: I had no idea that this is the third story in the author’s Spandex and Superpowers series.
Third admission: I loved it.
As I mentioned above, I had a bit of difficulty getting into the story, but once I did…wow! I enjoyed it so much that I re-read it within 48 hours. Ray (AKA supervillain MantaRay) was by far my favourite character, who was well written and exhibited traits that you would expect to see in an everyday person, such as his dislike for drama in his relationship, and his extreme love for the soap opera All My Werewolves. Alec was a little less likeable, and not because he isn’t a fan of AMW, with his need to prove himself, even when unnecessary, and his devious ways, made him a suitable albeit less than impressive supervillain.
The storyline was well thought out and worked extremely well, and in the spirit of an alternate universe, was totally believable and the ending, satisfying. I liked the fact that the title has a dual meaning, and thought that the way Payseur painted the supervillain community in a strangely positive light while almost mocking the one superhero, Tech Knight was original and fun. Definitely something different and well worth the read.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
I am super intrigued now! Thank you for the wonderful review! I need to check out this series!
I knew the author’s name sounded familiar. Thanks for pointing out that there were stories in the same universe before this one. The one from last year was quite fun. Good to hear that this year’s story seems to be as good.
Thanks for the review. This sounds like an interesting read.
Sounds like the whole series is worthwhile!
High praise for a short story that has a two books preceding it. Sounds like quite the read. Thank you for the review!
Sounds like fun… Thank you for the review
Always good to know when they are set AU but sounds intriguing!
I also had no idea it was part of a series and it is absolutely NOTHING like stories I usually read. In fact, stories of this sort I have generally not liked in the past. But this was adorable and I really liked it!