A Solstice Journey by Felicitas Ivey

Title: A Solstice Journey

Series: 2013 – Heartwarming Advent Calendar

Author: Felicitas Ivey

Genre: Urban Fantasy / Holiday

ISBN: 978-1-62798-599-4

Length: Novelette (59 pages)

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (December 1^st, 2013)

Heat Level: Low

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥2.5 Hearts

Reviewer: Thommie

Blurb: Upon leaving his company’s Christmas party, Gunnar Dagviðurson decides to walk to the train and enjoy the snowfall, only to get caught in a winter storm that magically transports him to a mysterious foreign realm. That’s how Celyn finds him, stumbling blindly through the snow, and Celyn takes Gunnar home to a castle of faery. Gunnar wants to find his way home for Christmas, but suddenly he’s faced with a choice: does he go back to his adopted family in the human world or stay with the magical family he’s found?

A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2013 Advent Calendar package “Heartwarming.”

Product Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=4501

Review: As enticing as the main idea for this story was I found it somewhat detached.

Here we have Gunnar, being different from all the races known to mankind, raised by a loving family that adopted him when he was little. He grows up to be really content though and chasing a career as an accountant. After the company Christmas party though Gunnar walks his way home only to be lost in a strange snowstorm and find himself in an altogether different realm where elves and dark elves exist and he is supposed to be one of the former.

Okay, so honestly, if I found myself lost in a strange place from one moment to the other and weird people come get me calling me elf, I’d have panicked. No matter how, no matter what, I would not have Gunnar’s reaction. He seemed to take it all in stride and the only time he panicked was when he saw the Yule Cat, and even that was detached from emotions, never making it down to me (the reader).
I don’t know what to make of this story really. Fantasy-wise it was fun, a world I’d love to know and read about. The core of the story though was so bland. The romance itself was lukewarm at best. I mean come on, you have an Elf and a Dark Elf, the very combination entices you to put things on fire let everything burn to ashes, yet it was not. As if it was a matter of course that Gunnar and Celyn would get together and be good for each other. Even the part where they were supposed to be together and the passion, the lust, the wanting, the falling for, everything were skipped making me think what was the point of even writing the story in first place. Was it only the journey from one real to the other? But then again the journey was that much of a shocker what with all the hints we got from the beginning of the story, so it came as a matter of course too.

I don’t know, this story had the potential to be awesome but wasn’t, it had the potential to be steamy hot and sensual as hell but it wasn’t, it had the potential to be dramatic and affect you with suspense but that was seriously lacking, so in the end for me it was just another read will lots of potential.