Reviewed by Donna

TITLE: A Swants Soiree

SERIES: 2019 DSP Advent Calender

AUTHOR: E.J. Russell

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 52 pages

RELEASE DATE: December 1, 2019

BLURB:

Introverted software engineer Brent Levine struggles with the life part of work-life balance, but to hold on to his new job, he’ll have to embrace his employer’s dreaded “staff enrichment” events. This year’s annual ugly holiday sweater party will strain his ambition to remain inconspicuous: everyone has to wear sweaters converted into pants—aka “swants.”

Brent’s an ace at coding, but when it comes to handcrafts, he’s definitely at the far left end of the bell curve. Luckily he encounters seriously cute theater costumer Jonathan at the Goodwill Outlet. Jonathan offers Brent both an acceptably ugly sweater and his expertise in swants conversion. Attraction sparks on Brent’s side, but can Jonathan be interested in a guy like him?

REVIEW:

I have no idea what I was expecting from this story, but I really enjoyed what the author did with this quirky concept.

Have you ever heard of swants? Ever seen a pair? Do yourself a favour and have a quick Google before reading this story. Although I’m highly skeptical that anyone could possibly look good in swants, I now desperately want my own pair and wish that the brief ‘swants fad’ of several years ago truly took hold. The only issue I can see is the difficulty at having to convert your ugly sweater into ugly pants. And that is the basis for this adorable short story.

Poor Brent is already battling his natural introversion when it comes to his job, but the ‘ugly-sweater Christmas party’ turned ‘swants soiree’ is enough to send him over the edge into panic. Added to that are the issues that Brent is so tall any sweater he finds will end up as shorts rather than pants, and he has no talent in the area of sewing. Luckily for Brent our second MC, Jonathan, happens to be practiced in swants conversion – such a coincidence could only be a Christmas miracle!

Honestly, I was impressed that the author managed to spend pretty much the whole story discussing the idea of swants, and the creation of swants and still hold my attention. But I was absolutely fascinated by the concept and was kept thoroughly entertained. Of course there’s also the budding relationship between Brent and Jonathan to provide some witty banter and a whole lot of cuteness to the story. Those two were adorable together, their connection exhibiting the mandatory holiday story sweetness in a fairly realistic way. The swants themselves were almost a third character, with the sweater options offering up further snippets of hilarity. Any story that includes an article of clothing named “Sixty-Nine Santa” is a winner to me.

RATING:

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