Reviewed by Cheryl
TITLE: The Witching Hour
SERIES: Some Like It Haunted Anthology
AUTHOR: Pelaam
PUBLISHER: Pride Publishing
LENGTH: 66 pages
RELEASE DATE: October 20 2020
BLURB:
Legend says that at the witching hour creatures of darkness are at their most powerful. Gerald is about to find it’s more than legend.
Gerald Pickering is an actor with a traveling troupe whose next performance is in the lakeside town of Taupo. When he is purposely excluded from the organized accommodations, he has to find somewhere he can stay. When he’s given a card for another motel, he’s warned about the owner’s odd Goth grandson, but the motel is perfect—and even has a hot tub.
Gerald meets Jules and is immediately drawn to him, despite his unique style of dress and his youth. Soon Jules is helping Gerald with his rehearsals during the day and being his lover by night.
When Gerald finds that the company accounts aren’t balancing, he shares his concerns with a colleague who, like Gerald, is doubling their duties while the company owner is incapacitated. However, when Gerald is lured into an alley at the witching hour, Jules’ true nature is revealed.
Knowing the truth, will Gerald choose love, irrespective of the form in which it comes?
REVIEW:
I have reviewed more than one story from the Some Like It Haunted anthology and every one has been of remarkable quality. This one is a fun little story about an actor in a travelling troupe who is struggling when the producer temporarily drops out and is replaced by a pair of mean, shady characters who make Gerald’s life a misery. Fortunately, their first crime, failing to arrange accommodation for Gerald, turns out to be a turning point in his life and backfires on them.
Because of the lack of accommodation, Gerald is forced to find his own accommodation and finds a remote hotel that is home to Jules, a highly unusual character who catches Gerald’s eye and his heart.
I absolutely loved Jules. He was such a creature of contradiction, and clearly widely read. I loved the little quotes both of them slipped in and it was fun to guess where they came from. Although everyone warned him against Jules, Gerald thankfully ignored them and made up his own mind, which led him straight to the bedroom. Well, not straight, first it led to the hot tub and the summerhouse.
This was a hot little book that packed a lot in. I’m not going to lie, there were times when the story felt rushed and I would have liked to see Jules’ character developed a little more before he leaped into bed with Gerald. The end, in particular, could have done with an extension and more time, but with the word limit, it was the best it could be.
The surprise at the end didn’t really come as much of a surprise but at least it wasn’t jarring as, in a book of this length, it could have been.
There is a wonderful cast of supporting characters, from dastardly, William to sweet and lovable, Mary and they add just enough flavour without overwhelming the story.
All in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and would highly recommend both this story and the anthology as a whole.
RATING: 
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