Sandra @ My Fiction Nook

Well, this was a cute short piece of Christmas fluff, without any explicit situations (sexy times were fade to black), but a message of love and family and taking a chance that just might save your life.

Beautiful imagery in a tiny little package. And while Kit was certainly over the top swishy, he owned it and thus only skirted the edge of annoying. To me. To Nick, well - that's another story. 

I really liked how the author pointed out their differences, what with Nick being angry and closed off most of the time, for reasons that are revealed slowly as the story progresses, and Kit being mostly happy, but also intuitive and kind and honest, again for reasons that are revealed through the narrative, without ever feeling like telling. Information is shared via dialogue and narrative, and the characterizations slowly emerge. 

I've heard it said that anger can be an external manifestation of profound sadness. That certainly applies here. Grumble Monkey Nick is angry outwardly, hiding his pain so deeply that he doesn't even realize how much pain he is in, or why he reacts the way he does. When he has his epiphany, it's an awwww moment, and he does exactly what I wanted him to do. 

There was one shocking moment toward the end, something that Nick relates as part of the narrative, something that I didn't see coming, but that fit overall with his characterization.

Kit is just so frakking happy most of the time, and innocent to a certain degree, and his character radiates that with most everything he does or says. He's the perfect antidote to someone like Nick.

A really cute Christmas story, with two lovable characters and a sweet message overall.

I received a free ARC from the publisher. A positive review was not promised in return. This short novella is part of the Dreamspinner Press 2013 Advent Calendar which you can purchase here.