Review: A Very Genre Christmas by Kim Fielding
Very little is merry in a private dick’s world.
Private detective Nick Bozic works the mean streets of 1950s Portland, Oregon, shadowing unfaithful spouses and nabbing thieving employees. He may be lonely, but at least he’s not crooked. Despite the festive season, Christmas simply means less dough in his pocket.
With the holiday only a few days away, a regular client drops a new case on him: yet another being has come through the Rift and needs help finding his way home. Maybe Evindal the elf will help Nick find something too—a bit of cheer and magic amid the usual brew of corruption and betrayal.
Review:
Dear Kim Fielding,
I picked up this book from Kindle Unlimited because it showed up as being reviewed by couple of my book buddies and the idea of the RIFT sounded VERY intriguing. And it was intriguing! I always enjoy the twist on “fictional and real worlds colliding” and this one was very fun. It was fun even though the author flat out tells us that nobody knows how the Rift took place and what are the details. The fictional characters just appear in the very specific place of the city of Oregon (the bookstore of course, what else did you think it would be? :))). And Nick, our narrator has to find the way to get them home. And the city pays his bills for these assignments. The author somehow made the fantastical element work for me within the realistic historical time period.
Nick was lovely too, a gruff private detective, who always tries to do the right thing. Nick had a tough childhood, survived World War II and even though he does not always have a lot of clients, he tries to work his cases right and not become corrupted and not be on anyone’s payroll.
The blurb tells you that his love interest comes through the Rift and he is an Elf. I can confirm it, he is in fact an Elf :-). I don’t even mind that they pretty much had love at the first sight (or almost at the first sight) hit them. The story is after all a novella and if the author choses to quickly cover the beginning of the relationship in the novella, I can understand with the limited page space. What I did mind though is that Evindal never became real for me.
Just to be clear, him being an Elf is not what I am referring to when I say he never became real. He was just so very perfect and it is hard to explain because he was indeed an Elf, but I guess I need the fantastical being to still act how a human would act (because I am a human being and my species are the only ones I can related to). Evindal was all understanding and sweet to the point of sugary and helpful and life saving and man, just too much sugar for my teeth. I am not one of those readers who hate holiday stories. I love magic and New Year was, is and always will be my most beloved holiday, but I need a balance of sugar and this story had way too much for me.
“Because yes, he was beautiful; but more importantly, he was sweet and joyful and good. Too damn good for this world, and definitely too damn good for me.” This is how Nick views Evindal and one can argue, of course, that the point of view of how one looks at his beloved may be a little skewed, but unfortunately I thought that this is how Evindal was meant to be portrayed. B-
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Getting similar vibes from Lily Morton’s “On a Midnight Clear.” MC falls in love with a statue who has come to life and basically exists to make the MC happy.
Kim Fielding is a favorite author of mine, and I look forward to reading this. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Sirius!
@SusanS: OOO thats very well phrased. I have not read Lily Mormon’s book and I could not articulate that before I read what you wrote, but similar feeling, definitely.@Kareni: Thank you!