Review: Christmas Commitment by Shayla Mist – From the Boughs of Evergreen Anthology

Title: Christmas Commitment

Anthology: Boughs of Evergreen

Author: Shayla Mist

Publisher: Beaten Track Publishing

Pages/Word Count: 26 Pages

Rating: 5 Stars

Blurb: Dick hates Christmas. This year more than ever because he’s been dumped by his boyfriend. There’s only one way to prove to Zack he’s serious about their future together: coming out to his family. Dick might be willing to do that, but what if it’s already too late?

Review: What a cute story. I’ve never read anything by this author before, but I am definitely putting her on my “to be read” list after reading this.

The theme of this story is familiar, similar to something we’ve all read before. While it could have fallen flat as a result, the opposite happens. Christmas Commitment is an emotionally driven tale of a man named D, who is at a crossroad in his life, with some very important decisions to make. Because we had only his POV, we were privy to the emotional roller coaster ride going on inside his head. At times is wasn’t pretty, but it was raw, real and true to life. What I liked about it was that we weren’t bombarded with information we really didn’t need. Being as this is a short story, there just wasn’t time for all of that. We get the basics, we feel the emotions, we get what we need to know, period.

I loved where the author chose to start the story. Instead of the beginning or the middle of a relationship, we have what looks like the ending. We see D’s “whatever” attitude quickly change to utter despair as he realizes what he’s lost. I enjoyed watching D put himself out there and conquer deep seated fears to get his man back. A great journey!

I thoroughly enjoyed this one.

You can buy Christmas Commitment here: