Title: The Ghosts of Mistletoe Lock

Series: Dreamspinner Advent Calendar 2012 ~ Evergreen

Author: Amy Rae Durreson

Genre: Holiday, Ghosts/Spirits,

Length: Novella

Publisher: Dreamspinner Press (December 1^st, 2012)

Reviewer: Thommie

Heat Level: Explicit

Heart Rating: ♥♥♥♥4Hearts

Blurb: After lonely divorcé Isaac leaves his job as a banker to work as a conservationist on a country river, he gives up on finding the love he always wanted. Then he meets flirty jeweler Ryan and assumes Ryan’s out of his league, but Ryan’s just as lonely as Isaac. Ryan also has the housemates from hell, and when he storms out of the riotous Christmas party they forgot to warn him about, he soon finds himself lost in the snow.

Ryan passes out in front of the lock cottage where Isaac lives, and once Isaac brings him in from the cold, they finally have a chance to get to know each other. But when their insecurities get in the way, it’s up to the ghost of Mistletoe Lock to ensure they give love a chance.

Product Link: http://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=3417&cPath=62_702

Review: Wow, the tune of “All I want for Christmas is You” kept me company through this read. How very strange.  This book is the first I’ve read that was so easy in the eye.  So easy to read and follow. so sensual bordering to romantic without being sappy. The melancholic sense turned so smoothly into a wonderful feeling of Christmas joy. Quite a story, I tell you that. It’s weird that it starts with a ghost’s point of view. No, scratch that, it’s brilliant. I couldn’t make up my mind, at the beginning, if it was indeed a Christmas story. But, soon enough I felt compelled to admit that if there ever was one, this is it. So vagueness aside, this is the story of two men, who each have their own pain and loneliness in their hearts.

Isaac is thirty-two years old, recently divorced and his dreams for a family shattered. Although he’s not terribly sad to have lost his wife, he’s tired of not being able to find someone to really share his life with. He settled with a woman and married her for the sake of having children, but his soul always hungered for that perfect dream where his love would be a man; a man like him, who would want a cozy life, a family and love.

Ryan is twenty-six; he spent his childhood from a foster house to another. Family he never had and of course that’s the one thing he literally craves. However, all his relationships backed away once he mentioned this one little thing. He knows he’s needy, how could he not be? Is it so wrong for him to want love and peace?

Through weird circumstances Ryan ends up soaked to the bone and passing out at Isaac’s front door in the middle of the night during a snowstorm. Isaac takes Ryan in, helps him get warm and the spark between them turns to flames. Being the strangers that they are though they stumble through words and instead of barging forth they almost separate in anger. And I say almost because here is the point where Emily (the ghost) makes her appearance once more and locks the two stubborn men in the house. The two of them will have to find a way to work things out in order to be let free and that is exactly what they’ll end doing.

Ok, I know. I can in no way match the feeling that you’ll encounter in the book. I just can’t tell you how this story will feel once you start reading it. The chemistry between the men is great, and I repeat myself it is so brilliantly written, so smooth, I loved it. Their lovemaking is the sweetest thing I’ve read, so very sensual and hot. It comes natural in the context and I wouldn’t have wanted this otherwise. And oh my God, I loved Emily, too. Although, she’s quite a sad story, it blends so well that I think of her as a main character as well. She’s the binding link, more like an angel.

I definitely recommend this book for your Holiday reading and I suggest you have Christmas songs playing low and a glass of wine close for the perfect night.