Fantasies: New Year’s Eve

Title: Fantasies: New Year’s Eve
Author: Cassandra Gold
Publisher: Red Rose Publishing
Genre: Contemporary M/M, holiday
Length: Novella (15K words)
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

A guest review by Leslie

THE BLURB

Is it the heat of the moment or is there more to it? Eric Wright, assistant manager of the exclusive Fantasies resort, has always hated the holidays. After catching his lover cheating and transferring to Hawaii, he’s determined not to fall in love again. Then a famous crime writer comes to stay at the resort and shows an interest in Eric. Will he find love at last, or just another heartbreak?

THE REVIEW

I downloaded this as a free holiday promotion and since it has a holiday theme, and this is December, I decided to give it a go. This is a very quick read that is mildly entertaining while reading but totally forgettable once finished. In fact, I feel like I need to write this review quickly since I am already forgetting salient details…like…like…

When the story opens we meet Eric Wright who is the assistant manager of the swanky Fantasies resort in Colorado. He has gotten himself involved with a guest and thinks it’s love, until he finds out that his lover has a wife who just happens to be in labor. Ooops!

Fast forward six months. Eric is now at Fantasies in Hawaii and has vowed to keep his personal and professional lives separate—in other words, no more inconvenient liaisons with the clientele. You know where this is going, right? Hot-shot New York author checks in under an assumed name—I guess he is as famous as Stephen King or J.K. Rowling and needs to mask his identity—and immediately sets his eye on Eric. What’s an assistant hotel manager to do?

The story takes place during the last days of December and climaxes—naturally—at the big New Year’s Eve bash. (I don’t think I am giving anything away by saying this…just look at the title of the book.) The story is entirely predictable and includes sunsets, moonlight walks on the beach, champagne, misunderstandings, tears, more champagne, and tuxedos. Throw in a few hot kisses and a little bit of sex and there you have it.

I think my tolerance for “meh” stories like this is inversely proportional to the length of the book. If it had been a novel, I would have been throwing it across the room. But as a short novella that only consumed sixty minutes of my life to read, I am willing to be more accepting and thus rate it as a 3.5. It was quick, it was sweet, it fits in with the theme of the season and it didn’t make my head ache. If reading about sexy men falling in love under the stars is what you are in the mood for, you might want to give this a glance. It is certainly appropriate for the time of the year and could lighten your holiday mood. And if you don’t like it, no matter—you won’t remember it long enough to let it irritate you.