Book Review: His Christmas Pride by Renee Dahlia (Rainbow Cove Christmas #6)
I feel like a cracked record with my reviews of this series.
Again, the book has little to do with Christmas. Actually, there’s probably the least mention of it out of all the books. Dahlia has author notes that she included the Sydney Mardi Gras as it’s just like Christmas for the LGBT community. Mmm… I’ll just whisper ‘false advertising’ and move on.
Again, there is no chemistry between the leads. They are physically attracted to each other. They tell this to each other all the time. They think it all the time. As for evidence? Not so much. There is a lot of evidence, however, of both characters being rude and annoying on occasion and I’m mystified as to what either saw in each other. (Oh, that powerful physical attraction though! *rolls eyes*)
Again, like the other authors of this series, Dahlia had good intentions by featuring modern themes and issues but, again, she didn’t execute her ideas well at all. I have heard before the shocking statistics of gay men being victims of domestic abuse but Dahlia didn’t manage to move me with her leading man’s, Mick, story.
Again, things felt forced. The plot doesn’t move along organically. Instead it’s idea after idea that Dahlia uses but never fully fleshes out before jumping onto the next. For example, Mick meets the other lead, Sam, while gaming online. They had even met previously [in book #4 which featured Sam and Sam’s brother’s romance] without realising. The fact that they are both living in the same town (and maybe even that they are both gay) should have been dragged out for a lot longer. If Dahlia had used this idea to better effect, it would have been a cute romcom feeling. Instead, it was all just boring mentions of online gaming and Dahlia’s insistence that online friends are as real as IRL friends and just get off the soapbox and write a romance plot…
*sigh*
Again, I’m probably being generous with my rating – 2 1/2 out of 5
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