Reviewed by Nikyta
Title: Colina de Lavanada
Author: August Li
Series: Warmest Wishes – 2018 Advent Calendar
Heroes: Edward & Shu
Genre: M/M Historical America/Paranormal
Length: 50 pages
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Release Date: December 1, 2018
Available at: Dreamspinner Press & Amazon
Add it to your shelf: Goodreads
Blurb: Lord protector of whores, thieves, sorcerers, and deviants.
Owning a parcel of land the railroad needs to cross means Edward gets to run the border town around the station as he sees fit. What starts as a place to indulge his varied appetites becomes a haven to society’s castoffs, and if Edward encourages legends about its founder to flourish, well, he’s not so much a liar as a man who wants to protect all the cultures living in peace. Being mayor means folks might ignore his vices, but they also expect him to fix what goes wrong.
When a crushing heat wave and drought threaten not only the town’s diverse holiday celebrations but its very existence, Edward must turn to the one man he’d rather french kiss a timber rattler than face—the icily elegant Cantonese mage Edward walked out on but never stopped loving.
Review:
Edward Royston Nightingale Pennelegion-Oldershaw, lord protector of whores, thieves, sorcerers, and deviants, or Edward for short is having issues with draught and illness that comes over Colina De Levanda, the town where’s he’s the appointed Mayor. The source of the illness seems to be an elixir named Doctor Hieronymus Hyperion’s Heart-stopping Theriac of Healing, and he needs to do something about it — even if it means asking help from the mage he walked out on once.
I was interested with this because the promise of second-chance romance, when I read the blurb. But somehow this story feels less of the kind of holiday-stories I prefer to read. I mean, it feels more of the veins of historical paranormal/fantasy, and it’s not very “Christmas-sy” if you get my point. On any other time of the year, I might enjoy it more. Alas, the way that Edward and Shu trying to deal with the mysterious illness and everything surround it, doesn’t fulfil my holiday-heart desire.
So, I guess it’s just a case of not meeting expectation — other readers might not have the same problem 🙂
Overall Impression: It was good
*I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for a fair and honest review.*
The Blogger Girls 