4.5 out of 5 stars
Kindle Edition. 39 pages. Published December 1st 2018 by Dreamspinner Press
Blurb:
Alex’s traditional family Christmas Compromise means spending the holiday at a second-rate theme park, Poseidon’s Planet, but Alex doesn’t mind. He enjoys the rides and the company of his family, and it’s a good break from his going-nowhere existence back in Indiana. Then he meets a certain sexy employee in a pirate costume, and Alex’s vacation gets even better. But thrill rides last only a short time, and sooner or later everyone has to return to real life. Alex long ago gave up on marrying a handsome prince—will he have to give up on his pirate as well?
A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2018 Advent Calendar “Warmest Wishes.”
Likes:
- Cute.
- Family oriented.
- Made good use of the small page space.
- No forced epilogue that skips over all of the relationship.
Dislikes:
- Not memorable.
- The pirate on the cover is goofy.
I’ve read a number of Kim Fielding’s supernatural novels before, and I expected to like this short story. I did, and it was a fun and cute read, but it’s not particularly memorable. Nothing about the characters really jumped out and caught my attention. They were likeable enough, and well suited to a short story, so I guess I shouldn’t be disappointed. But Fielding’s other novels that I’ve read were each memorable in their own way, and I guess I had expectations based on that.
Fielding’s talent really shines through with this short story. She’s able to build nice characters, include their families and backstories, and create a warm beginning to a romance. My favorite thing is that the story is left with an open ended HFN. There’s no ‘one year later’ epilogue like with the other two short stories I’ve read from the Warmest Wishes collection. Yet you still get the feeling that these two will last. They have a great connection despite the short time they’ve known each other.
Other than wishing the story had had at least one memorable moment to it, and thinking that the pirate on the cover is more goofy than sexy, I have no complaints. Reading this short story definitely makes me want to read more of her novels. According to Goodreads, she has 87 distinct works, so there’s plenty for me to choose from.
Find the Warmest Wishes anthology review here and the full list of stories here.
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