Happy Holidays to All!

2-in-1 Short Story Review: No Such Thing as Dashor & Blitzen's Fated Mate

Author: Juli D. Revezzo
Title: No Such Thing as Dasher
Genre: Short Stories, Paranormal Romance, Fantasy
Pages: ebook
Published:  November 13th 2017 
Where I Got It: My shelf (Amazon freebie)



For Avery, her holiday duties as a forest ranger oftentimes involve tracking revelers who have lost their way in her wilderness domain. After a camper clashes with a reindeer, however, Avery is shocked to discover the creature is defended not by Santa, but by the formidable, yet gentle, shapeshifting Lord of the Forest.

Can the magic of the forest bring together a ranger and a supernatural being, or is Avery destined to celebrate yet another Christmas alone?

An enchanting fairy tale to celebrate the magic of the season


I was intrigued by the title and summary. And it was free...why not. 

The story follows Avery who is a forest ranger. After they find the body of a camper who seemed to be killed by a reindeer. She follows the footprints and finds a shape-shifting Lord of the Forest instead. 

Avery was dumb. I wanted to shake her. Yes, let us go into the wilderness...alone...in the middle of winter to find a deer/reindeer who just rampaged and killed a man. Okaaaayyyy. 

This was short and honestly I think it was too short to have anything really make sense. The two fall in love after two conversations and then it ended. Did they end up together? Who knows. 

This did give me some chuckles and it was different, but it was just meh for me. I'm going to give this 1 star. I did make Blodeuedd read it. But I wouldn't really recommend it. 

Author: R.E. Butler
Title: Blitzen's Fated Mate
(Arctic Shifters #1)
Genre: Short Stories, Paranormal Romance, Fantasy
Pages: ebook
Published:  February 29th 2016
Where I Got It: My shelf (Amazon freebie)



On Christmas Eve, romance writer Charli watches as something plummets into the woods behind her home. When she investigates, she discovers an injured reindeer who quickly transforms into a man.

When arctic shifter Arian’s sleigh harness breaks during the Christmas Eve run, he knows he’s lucky to be alive after the fall. But he’s even luckier to have found his fated mate in the alluring human, Charli.

When Arian contacts his people to tell them the news, he’s surprised to discover they don’t believe that Charli is his mate and are coming to see him before dawn on Christmas Day. Arian refuses to consider a life without Charli and will do whatever is necessary to ensure they’ll be together fore


I am on a roll with these stories with the famous reindeer in the titles. 

The story follows Charli and Arian. Charli is a romance writer who sees something fall from the sky and when she discovers it is a reindeer who starts to transform into a man. Arian is a shifter and he has taken the role of a sleigh-puller for Santa, but his harness breaks and he falls from the sky. They two realize that they are fated mates but he has one night before he has to go back. 

This was very short and I wished it was longer. Just because I would've liked them to have more time to get to know each other more. But I get that they have one night and they are destined mates so it was insta-love for sure. It worked, but I did want more time for them to get to know each other before Arian and Charli have to make a big decision in the end. Poor things. 

But yes - this wasn't bad overall. A hair bit cheesy of course, but I enjoyed it. It was fun and a completely fresh and different then your typical paranormal romance. 

Overall, not a bad one. It is a shorty, but not a bad read. Cheesy and insta-love, but I enjoyed the fresh spin of shifter-folk. 3 stars. 

B's Monday Review: Christmas Inheritance (2017)

To be the CEO, an heiress is challenged by her dad to deliver a Christmas letter in person to his ex-partner in their hometown - traveling by bus, incognito and with only $100. Will she learn something from the people there?

Director: Ernie Barbarash

Writer: Dinah Eng

Stars: Eliza Taylor, Jake Lacy, Andie MacDowell

1h 44min | Comedy Romance

Thoughts:

Oh these movies, I mean it is colder than ever, and do they wear gloves, or hats, no. You people do not know what cold is!

But it was fun, cute and watchable.

Recommend or not?

Yes, give it a xmas go.

Joint Review: Once Upon a Duke by Erica Ridley

Hello all! Blodeuedd and I will be discussing "Once Upon a Duke" by Erica Ridley. Blodeuedd is in orange and I am in green.



Author: Erica Ridley
Title: Once Upon a Duke (12 Dukes of Christmas #1)
Genre: Historical Romance
Published:  October 9th 2018 
Pages: ebook

Due to the terms of an estranged relative's will, the Duke of Silkridge must revisit the cold, unforgiving mountains where he lost everything he once loved. As soon as he rights his family legacy, he'll return to London where he belongs. He definitely won't rekindle the forbidden spark crackling between him and the irresistible spitfire he'd left behind...

Noelle Pratchett is immune to charming rakehells like the arrogant duke. He stole her heart, stole her first kiss, and then stole away one night never to return. Now he's back—and so are all the old feelings. Noelle knows he won't stay. But how can she maintain her icy shields when every heated glance melts her to her core?

Our Christmas story :)

Yess. We needed to read something Christmas-y for the holiday season. 

Buuuuuut, omg it was very dull, and SO FREAKING over the top.

Ugh yess, I have to agree. I think it would’ve worked better as a short story. This just dragged on and on. Easy solution and they are being dumb and stubborn. :/

Perfect as a short story. A long, nope just nope. I hated all the townsfolk at the end. What was wrong with that village. I understood why he wanted to be far far away. His grandad was a dick. And all the side characters thrown in on like every page. We get it, they are getting their own books. But I do not want t mee them all now

I honestly don’t get WHY the grandad was such a dick to him. The reasoning didn’t really warrant him to be like that. I mean...I guess people get bitter over stupid stuff all the time, but this seemed really unrealistic. And yesss I wanted to shake that Virgina lady. Her philosophical quotes annoyed me. I would be like Benjamin and not want to live in that town. 

I hated that everyone loved his stupid grand father, all while the same person was a total dick to his ONLY grand son. Yes, it made no sense. And then to come there and have everyone throw it in your face what a wonderful wonderful sweet lovely magical person his granddad is. Uh, thanks, but he is a total dick to me.

Yea - I wouldn’t want to go there. And all the dang hoops that man made Benjamin do to get his locket? Wth? Not cool. And all those townsfolk were all “eh - oh well he must’ve had his reasons.” WHAT?! Drove me up the wall. 

Poor Benjamin, I felt so sorry for him, to be in that hellish town. I guess we were meant to love it and the people, but just no. Benjamin was not the scrooge of this story. This was clearly hell.

I did kinda like that aspect… I was ready for him to just hate Christmas because he is a scrooge, but he was actually in the right and had good reasons to hate the holiday and the town. 

A Scrooge that is right then :) I agree

Noelle’s freakout near the end made me roll my eyes. She didn’t even wait two minutes. She just ran off. Like girl. Maybe he was going to the bathroom???? Calm down lady!

Lol. Yes we clearly picked the wrong holiday read. This was a mess

Ugh I know. But it was a freebie...sooooooooooooo we had a 50/50 chance to have a winner or a meh. 

And it turned into a meh. I would not recommend it, and I would not read more. I do not need 11 more Dukes.

Nooo I don’t think I would either. It should’ve been a short story and less side character trying to take over the spotlight. Maybe I’d like something else by the author. Her writing wasn’t bad, but I had issues with the story itself. 

I have read her before and liked the books, but here, one hellish town, and too many annoying people showing up.

Yeaaaaa...not a good formula for this. Not the Christmas book I was hoping it would be. 

Better luck next time :/

New year coming up! I think we had a pretty good year with our discussions. Some super meh, some really good. Curious to see what we do for Jan!

We did great this Fall, thanks Bishop! I hope we have some winners next year too :)

Thanks Bishop! And thanks B for making me try the series ;) It was well worth it!!

YES :D

:D The end to the last discussion of 2019?

Until next year

Til next year! Happy Holidays ya’lls!

About the Authors

Carole and Blodeuedd have been blogging a long while now. The last few of years the epic duo have been discussing books, watching movies, and even wetting the pen and sharing their stories with the worldwide web. They both love cats, chocolate, and a good story.