Title: Bah Humbug, Benson
Author Name: Jambrea Jo Jones
Publication Date & Length: December 25, 2014 – 50pgs
Pint-size Santa to the rescue. He dares you not to get into the holiday spirit.
Benson hates Christmas. It brings back too many memories he wants to forget. Most years he hibernated his way through the season, but not this year, this year things are going to change. Is Benson ready for them? Ian loves everything about winter and spending time with his son. They spend their time making traditions and soaking up the holiday season. It’s just the two of them against the world, until they meet Benson.
We meet Benson, who hates Christmas because of his terrible upbringing and how his father became a beast during that time of the year. I never was able to connect to Benson because at every turn he was complaining and whining about something. His story for me lacked beef. It was very flat. His dad only got really angry and beat up his mom around Christmas? Or that’s how it came off. He would normally be mean, but it was only bad because of the stress that came with Christmas. What stress? They didn’t get a tree. They didn’t get presents. The didn’t do the big, expensive, time consuming meal. So I ask again, what added stress was causing his father to flip out?
Then we have Ian. He is a single dad of a ten year old, who acts like a fifteen year old or older. I actually came to kind of like Ian. He was dealing with the loss of his wife while still trying to raise his son. What I didn’t care for was the fact that it was never really address that Ian went from being married to a woman to dating a man and the fact that a ten year old would most certainly have some questions about that.
Over all I didn’t think the writing style was bad. I think the dialogue needed some finesse to make it smoother and keep the readers attention. The plot line was a bit flat as there is no twists or turns or anything that kept the pages really turning. While I know it is a novella, there was much to be desired for me since I don’t do the instalove type relationships and that’s exactly what it was even if the son did a little prodding.
Renee
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