Reviewed by Paul

TITLE: Summer Santa

SERIES:  2018 Advent Calendar – Warmest Wishes

AUTHOR: Ward Maia

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH:  52 pages

RELEASE DATE: December 1 , 2018

BLURB:

Sam is a journalist struggling with the recent transfer to his magazine’s Brazilian office. He doesn’t speak the language and isn’t all that familiar with the customs. It also isn’t easy to make friends when you’re the new guy. Then there’s James, his friendly and gorgeous coworker, who is so out of Sam’s league, he knows he doesn’t stand any chance with the handsome Brazilian.

Just as Sam is preparing to spend Christmas away from his family, an unexpected surprise spins his lonely holiday plans around. Another unforeseen gift is James’s offer to show Sam some of the city’s holiday traditions. With his significant low self-esteem, Sam doesn’t know what to make of James’s offer and apparent interest. Can some last-minute decorations and an impromptu meal make Sam’s apartment feel more homely?

Maybe everything could come together in a wonderful way—if Sam can find the courage and confidence to accept all James wants to give.

A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2018 Advent Calendar “Warmest Wishes.”

REVIEW:

As a Christmas/story this book is a little different. No Snow, no gloomy nightfall’s, but as it is set in Brazil, where the main character has taken up a job as a reporter, so in December it is full-on summer.

The main character Sam suffers from low self-esteem and some insecurities. At his job he meets James, a gorgeous co-worker, which he feels is out of his league. For a short story a lot of characters were introduced as Sam’s whole family came to visit him to celebrate Christmas with him from the other side of the world. The family banter that Sam was subjected to, was fun to read and definitely heartwarming.

Too bad only female characters (his mom, sister and ant) were the ones urging Sam on to find love and tease him about it.

The story could have used a brother, father or other male figure joining in the banter. The Brazilian sense is best as the family meets James at the street festival at nighttime. Here the local knowledge from the writer shines through. As with many short stories it is hard to add in enough detail to make a story believable, but Maia manages this perfectly, but at the end of the story I cannot escape from the thought that the writer wanted to end the story with a happy ever after.

To try and do that in one page, after the consummation of the relationship showed me that she had a time/page limit imposed upon her, which was a shame as the story deserved a happy ever after that lasted a little longer.

The writer, Ward Maia, is a native Brazilian, so she is able to set the picture pretty life-like, although captured in a lot of repetitions that might be considered tedious. When describing Sam’s mood and insecurities she reverts to the same language time after time, whether this is due to the fact that she writers in another language or that she wasn’t very inspired is unclear to me.

My final conclusion is, due to the quick ending and the repetitions, I can only rate this story at 3,5 hearts, although I did like the premise very much and the connection between the characters was real and very enjoyable to read.

RATING: 

BUY LINKS:

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon