Reviewed by Taylin
TITLE: True North
SERIES: Yule Lads
AUTHOR: T A Moore
PUBLISHER: Rogue Firebird Press
LENGTH: 203 Pages
RELEASE DATE: December 15, 2023
BLURB:
Despite what his co-workers say Belling, Montana paramedic Dylan Holly does not hate Christmas.
It’s just that as an ex-foster kid he learned early on that Christmas just didn’t have much relevance to his life. He’s seen no evidence since then that he’s wrong.
That said, if Santa ever delivered a six-foot plus wall of hot muscle under his tree he’d be willing to reconsider. He’s even sourced an available one locally in the taciturn Somerset North and his impossibly blue eyes.
So really, at this point the ball is in Santa’s court.
There’s just one problem. Well, just one to start with anyhow. The battered, dying man someone dumped from a height onto Dylan’s car outside the Just-as-High, Somerset’s bar. He gave Dylan an old, well-worn watch and begged him to keep it safe.
Now Christmas is relevant to Dylan’s life in the worst way. The Winter Court has loosed their Wolves on the world and Dylan is on the run with Somerset North. A man who seems to know a lot more about what is going on than a Montana bar owner with exceptional shoulders should.
It turns out that Santa is missing, presumed dead. And the key to the hotly disputed succession crisis is a foster kid who never celebrated the season.
REVIEW:
Being Santa is a calling. But, when the world of men and the alternative world of Santa’s realm mix, the effects are… interesting. Paramedic Dylan Moffat does his best for people, so when an injured man gives him something, Dylan promises to be its custodian. Burley bar owner North Somerset finds himself in the role of Dylan’s protector. What follows is a cutthroat mystery involving Santa’s heritage that could blend more than both worlds.
Ummmm – wow, eccentric is the word that best describes this novel. True North is almost a Brothers Grimm telling of a Christmas tale, containing wolves in human skin, winter magic, riding the wind, and a Mrs Santa that no one would have imagined. I had high hopes for this story, especially given the awesome beginning, but I was confused about much of it. Thankfully, some things made sense by the end. The blurb didn’t give enough of an indication of what I was in for. So, as much as I wanted to like it – the tale skewed my personal ideals of Yuletide and I’m not sure how I feel about it.
The story is told in the third person from the viewpoints of Dylan and North. Technically, it could have been better. There’s the odd autonomous body part. Also, I found a continuity issue where, in one sentence, a character wipes the blood off his knife onto his sleeve, and less than a paragraph later, the same knife (having not been used again) has blood dripping from it. While reading, memories were not in a different font, so their beginning and end were smudged. A character was also able to talk while being strangled.
The world-building was curious, and some parts were incredible. The dialogue was used in an eccentric, almost disjointed way, making me feel I was missing a previous book or there was some sort of in-joke that I wasn’t privy to. Also, the author enthusiastically uses blood and gore at every opportunity. However, it created some stark imagery of a brutal alternative world where Santa’s helpers settle many skirmishes.
Dylan and North are good men. North is a warrior with a practical mindset. He’d never entertained the notion that he could fall for anyone in the human realm, making his journey lovely. Dylan is a paramedic whose personality is ingrained with the need to help and a stubborn streak to match. He was also in the forces. So, I found it strange that he was treated somewhat like a damsel. Then again, when Santa’s henchmen are immortal, I guess anyone else would seem fragile. The scene stealer for me, though, was Santa’s wife. She couldn’t be further from what I expected and fit right in with the weird world created.
True North offers a significantly different view of Christmas – which I applaud. Some readers may see this story as a piece of genius. However, it didn’t hit the mark for me, but I appreciate the creativity involved.
RATING: 
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