Advent Calendar Review: A Peace Offering (2019 Advent Calendar – Homemade for the Holidays) by R.L. Merrill

Reviewed by Taylin

TITLE: A Peace Offering

SERIES: 2019 Advent Anthology – Homemade For The Holidays

AUTHOR: R.L. Merrill

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

RELEASE DATE: December 1, 2019

LENGTH: Pages N/A. Approx. 18k

BLURB:

Dover Billings has sold his handcrafted wares at the Dickens Fair in San Francisco for over twenty years. He’s not as outgoing as the other artisans at this yearly Victorian celebration and prefers to observe the festivities from the shadows. That is until a new corset maker moves into the booth next door and unsettles his carefully constructed life. Landry Malcolm is handsome, well dressed, and the life of the party… one Dover wants no part of. Too bad he’s attracted to his confident younger rival.

Landry desperately wishes to get through to the beautiful artist next door, but every move he makes seems to be the wrong one, until a drunken kiss breaks through Dover’s serious demeanor. Miscommunications plague any attempts to find common ground, though, leaving Landry wondering what—if anything—he can do to make things right. Will a custom-made peace offering open the door to friendship, cooperation… and maybe more?

REVIEW:

Dover is a brooding artist and a bit of a bah humbug. He’s thirty-eight and doesn’t believe a man around ten years younger could be interested in him. He is a man with many talents. Being a people person isn’t one of them.

Landry is full of life and Christmas spirit and is a popular guy. He’s is a natural flirter and people person. There is something about Dover that draws Landry to him. It’s a shame that Dover needs to be hit with a brick before he realizes that someone is attracted to him.

A Peace Offering is told in the third person with named chapters from the relevant viewpoints. The timeline spans approximately two and a half years, which for a short story is a long time. Most anthology tales pick out an event and run with it. Given that Dover is shy, and a difficult nut to crack, I understand why this runs for longer. The story manages the timeframe by jumping from one craft fair to another with brief friends and family interactions filling the gaps. This allows for misunderstandings and Peace Offerings to be presented.

The extended cast adds different elements to the story. One group are the interfering friends who get in the way of progress, while others explain what the main characters are holding back.

Dover and Landry are almost at opposite ends of the personality spectrum, and it was interesting reading how they come together. Eventually, they find common ground, shared, yet, slightly different interests and discover how their qualities harmonize.

One line in the tale really resonated with me. This is a direct quote from the story, “Would you rather do something or be someone you’re not in order to please others?” I firmly believe that until a person is happy with themselves, it is difficult to be happy with anyone else. Once a person accepts who they are, warts and all, those who gravitate towards them will complement one another.

A Peace Offering is a compact story – one that I’d have liked to read an extended version of to get more in-depth with. I think their artistic styles and personalities would have been lovely to get to know, better.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon

Dreamspinner Press