4.5 out of 5 stars
Ebook. 1st edition. 33 pages. Published December 1st 2018 by Dreamspinner Press
Blurb:
Pagan punk musician Lucas is fully prepared to spend this Yule with the rest of the band and his beautiful bass guitar when Oliver, his boyfriend of almost a year, asks if he wants to join the rest of the Han family for their annual winter celebration. It comes as a shock since Ollie has gone to great lengths to keep the two apart, and Lucas always assumed he was the reason. Since they’re planning to be together long-term, Lucas can’t say no to meeting Ollie’s parents, but he better brush up on his manners and his Mandarin because this is going to be a holiday season like no other—and it has some surprises in store for both of them.
A Story from the Warmest Wishes: Dreamspinner Press 2018 Advent Calendar
Likes:
- Trans representation.
- Culturally diverse.
- Cute story.
- Interesting characters.
- Good description of the uncertainty of meeting a significant other’s family.
- Respectful representation of another culture.
Dislikes:
- Wanted it to be longer.
- Doesn’t feel like Oilver and Lucas have been dating for less than a year.
- The blurb doesn’t do the story justice.
I absolutely love that there are more stories being published about other letters of the LGBTTQQIAAP alphabet soup. This story, despite being only 33 pages long, touched on a lot of the difficulties of being trans that had nothing to do with coming out to family and friends. Instead, the story was more about what happens afterwards.
Having the story told through Lucas’s eyes was a good choice, since he’s meeting Oliver’s extended family for the first time and doesn’t have the same emotional baggage with them. It allows the reader to feel overwhelmed right along with him as he’s introduced to cousins, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, and more, all of whom blur together and speak Mandarin, which Lucas doesn’t understand.
Enough is explained about Dongzhì – the Chinese celebration of the winter solstice – for the reader to understand without bogging the story down with unimportant facts. The traditions and culture are treated with respect, while managing to capture the feelings that go with the gathering. However, while the celebration beings everyone together, the real focus of the story is how everyone treats Oliver.
Oliver has been out to his family for years. He’s been on testosterone for five years and has had top surgery. Yet many family members misgender him as “she” or call him by his old name. The stress it puts on Oliver is obvious.
Lucas is fairly passive in the story, but he shines when it comes to his unwavering support for Oliver. It feels like they’ve been dating for longer than a year, especially with how committed they are. It’s really sweet, and I’d love to see more of these two. And that’s the best compliment I can give a story.
My one real complaint is that the blurb doesn’t do the story justice. This is only the second gay romance story I’ve read that has a trans character in the romance, and neither included the word ‘trans’ in the blurb. I’m not sure why. Maybe they didn’t feel the need to. But especially with the story, since Oliver’s identity is such a pivotal part of the story, I think it should have been included.
Find the Warmest Wishes anthology review here and the full list of stories here.
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