Author: Kim Fielding
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Pages/Word Count: 31 Pages
Rating: 4 Stars
Blurb: Five years ago, Neno Kovač fled California, graduate school, and his lover, Toby Cowan, to return to his native Croatia. Since then, he’s led a quiet life as a librarian—until one November afternoon when Toby, who has never stopped loving Neno, shows up in Zagreb. When he left the United States, Neno wasn’t ready to give up his home and family to take a chance on a long-distance relationship. But Saint Martin’s Day has arrived, the day pressed grapes turn to wine and autumn turns to winter. Perhaps it will be a day when other changes are possible as well.
A story from the Dreamspinner Press 2014 Advent Calendar package Celebrate!
Review: There are some authors who make short storytelling look effortless, in spite of the fact I know it’s not easy to do it well, but Kim Fielding is an author with the skill to do it and do it right. This is the first time I’ve read this author’s work, and based on Saint Martin’s Day, it shouldn’t be the last.
One of the things the author does right in this sweet holiday romance is to give Neno and Toby a history. It’s not fully fleshed out, given there are just thirty-one pages in this story, but does give the reader just enough to draw a clear picture of what they once meant to each other, and what they still mean to each other even after five years apart. Neno and Toby aren’t starting from scratch, they’re rebuilding, and Toby’s just hoping for a do-over with Neno. It’s the longing for each other that Fielding translates to the story, and it’s Toby’s awfully romantic gesture that had me rooting for him from the start.
I wasn’t at all familiar with the holiday Saint Martin’s Day, and I still don’t know a lot about it but love the way the author weaved its end of one season and the beginning of the next symbolism into Neno and Toby’s relationship. It’s about change and renewal, which is the perfect backdrop for their second chance at love.
A warm and welcome addition to this season’s collection of holiday romances, one that embraces the romance and hope of the season, Saint Martin’s Day is a lovely way to spend time watching Neno and Toby begin their happily ever after.
You can buy Saint Martin’s Day here:
