Yolande Kleinn, $0.99, ISBN 978-1-946316-19-6
Contemporary Romance, 2020
Yolande Kleinn’s Not Much of a Christmas Miracle takes place on one Christmas eve, so I suppose maybe Eric can be forgiven for being tad more melodramatic than he should be.
You see, he kissed his boss Vincent on Friday, and now Vincent is his ex-boss. That fellow has reassigned Eric and now Eric, breathless and disoriented and soaking wet while not even realizing that it’s Christmas eve because he’s such a drama queen that way, has traveled all the way by transit to arrive on Vincent’s door.
I guess he isn’t satisfied until he has a restraining order slapped onto him.
Then, I realize Eric actually got a promotion from Vincent. Oh, that kiss wasn’t that remarkable. Vincent says that Eric is highly commended by other people in management, and Eric is all “LIAR! LIAR! YOU JUST DIDN’T LIKE IT WHEN I KISS YOU!”
He’s fucked up on the job plenty of times, even in the years he’s worked for Vincent. His temper doesn’t always lead him to the wisest judgment calls, and it doesn’t take much to make him overreach. But he’s learned better strategies—largely from the man standing in front of him now—and Vincent has always supported him. He must have well and truly fucked up, to earn such permanent professional consequences this time.
Hmm, I think that melodramatic crybaby may be right in that Vincent just wants him to be far away from that man, because I can’t think of why Eric would be highly commended for anything unless the job requires him to have an overwrought tantrum every half an hour.
Look, I like the author’s style, but this story… at the end of the day, Vincent embarks on an affair with Eric because for some reason he finds Eric hot and fun. Intentionally or not, the author has Eric staying employed by the virtue of pushing his affection on the boss and fortunately is rewarded for his action instead of the usual HR drama that would result.
Hence, this is not a fun read. Eric is so overwrought and melodramatic to a ridiculous degree that I half-expect him to be some kind of parody of a character, but sadly, this doesn’t seem to be the case.
Instead, this is just a silly crybaby that does stupid things all the while but get rewarded for his nonsense because the boss finds him hot. This is definitely something the average person doesn’t try too hard to emulate at the workplace!
