2.75 out of 5 stars
Kindle Edition. 2nd edition. 54 pages. Published December 1st 2018 by Dreamspinner Press
Blurb:
The
holidays are a time for second chances.
Warren Blessing lost his wife (two years ago), and his kids decide he’s been
alone too long. They send him on a holiday singles cruise so he can meet
someone new.
On the flight from Chicago to Miami, he sits next to an attractive man, but
when the flight’s over, he doesn’t think he’ll see him again.
Fletcher Hammond is a professional mystery shopper for vacation destinations
and travel. After a split from his unfaithful fiancé, he’s embarking on a
singles cruise. He meets a lovely gentleman on the flight, whose conversation
and cocktails help Fletcher through his fear of takeoffs, but he doesn’t expect
to see him again.
As if by fate, a meeting in the ship’s dining room renews their mutual
attraction. But can they build a relationship with distance and baggage working
against them? Or will they part ways when they return to port?
A Story from the Warmest Wishes: Dreamspinner Press 2018 Advent Calendar
Likes:
- Interesting premise.
- Bit of will they/won’t they at the end.
- Fletcher is fine with Warren wanting to take things slow.
Dislikes:
- Didn’t hook me.
- Never got invested.
- The men were boring.
- Skimmed the last quarter of the book.
- Too much meaningless sex.
- Telling instead of showing made their days felt like a list.
- Warren’s ‘only straight for his dead wife’ thing.
Despite the fact that this book didn’t do it for me at all, I will say that the romance is there. Unfortunately, I don’t enjoy romance stories where I don’t care about the characters, and I never cared about Warren or Fletcher.
I was initially interested in this story. The blurb is good and the premise is solid. I can’t pinpoint the spot where things went wrong, but I found myself putting the story down again and again without reading much. That’s my signal that I’m not really interested.
Warren and Fletcher are fine, but not standout characters. It feels mean to say that they’re boring, but they are. They have very little dimension, and despite the length of the book we don’t find out much about them. Warren has two adult children and a dead wife. No idea what he does for a living, his interests, or hobbies. Fletcher is a professional mystery shopper who hates the takeoff and landing part of flying. No idea about his background, personal tastes, or how he got the job in the first place.
The actual part of the story where the men are first getting together is interesting. There’s the usual hesitation about starting something new, and Warren wants to go slow. The fact that Fletcher respects his wishes was really nice.
Then all the gratuitous sex started. I’m usually all for the smutty bits, but not this time. There were maybe two sex scenes that advanced the plot. The rest all felt like filler.
In fact, the last quarter of the book felt like filler. The men did so much as they tried to take in everything on the ship that none of it was shown, it was told. It felt like reading a list of the things the guys did all day.
The ending was fine, with a bit of tension about how they’d get the romance to work when Fletcher travels so much. It was a bit of a high note, because the story was back to focusing on the romance instead of the cruise or the sex.
My final complaint is about Warren’s attitudes towards his late wife. It’s hinted strongly throughout the story that his ‘only straight for her’ excuse was nothing but a cover for wanting children. “Warren explained that except for Sarah, he was certain he was gay. Fletcher wasn’t sure which of the two he was trying to convince.” It was skeevy at best.
Overall, this story just wasn’t for me. I haven’t seen the kinds of harsh criticism for it that I felt, but the majority of its ratings were three stars. I think that, when compared to some of the really good stories in this anthology, this one just falls flat.
Find the Warmest Wishes anthology review here and the full list of stories here.
Love is Love Reviews 