A Peace Offering by R.L. Merrill

A Peace Offering by R.L. Merrill
Publisher: Dreamspinner Press
Genre: Contemporary, Holiday
Length: Short story (69 pages)
Other: M/M
Rating: 3.5 stars
Reviewed by Fern

Dover Billings has sold his handcrafted wares at the Dickens Fair in San Francisco for over twenty years. He’s not as outgoing as the other artisans at this yearly Victorian celebration and prefers to observe the festivities from the shadows. That is until a new corset maker moves into the booth next door and unsettles his carefully constructed life. Landry Malcolm is handsome, well dressed, and the life of the party… one Dover wants no part of. Too bad he’s attracted to his confident younger rival.

The address is Shop 2-2, Nan Hu Xin Cheng, Wenchang Road, purchase sildenafil online Hongshan District, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The result is longer and more successful erections. 2.Does viagra pills canada create the desire of sex in a male? Absolutely not. cialis has nothing to do with sex drive. purchased that canada viagra online Leaving the above, there is also something which is extremely harmful for an individual. Sexual health is a subject which is important. http://robertrobb.com/2020/03/ purchase generic levitra Landry desperately wishes to get through to the beautiful artist next door, but every move he makes seems to be the wrong one, until a drunken kiss breaks through Dover’s serious demeanor. Miscommunications plague any attempts to find common ground, though, leaving Landry wondering what—if anything—he can do to make things right. Will a custom-made peace offering open the door to friendship, cooperation… and maybe more?

Dover loved selling his wares at the Dickens Fair and had done so for many years, but when tailor and corset-maker Landry turns up with a ton of bawdy and over-the-top friends and patrons Dover can’t help but shy away from the exuberance of the handsome man. A few bumps in their initial meetings had both Dover and Landry unsure if they could be friends, let alone anything more like they each secretly hope for. Can the magic of Christmas help them both?

I enjoyed this short story and found myself pleased that Dover and Landry didn’t just immediately fall into insta-lust with each other. While the attraction was definitely simmering there under the surface Landry’s exuberance and Dover’s shyness and blunt, non-sugar-coating style of mannerism meant it took the two men a while to find an easy rhythm between them. I really enjoyed how this added conflict into the book without the usual mis-understandings or plot devices.

It took me a while to really believe in the potential for a lasting relationship between Dover and Landry. Despite the fact they’re both clearly attracted to each other their personalities are quite different and Dover seems to have deep and genuine reasons for not wanting to get too involved with someone as outgoing and over-the-top as Landry is. This kept me unsure of how the potential relationship between Dover and Landry could work both long-term and how well they were suited to each other since in many important respects they were very different people requiring different things from each other.

I was pleased, therefore, once the ice really broke between the men that even with their different needs and outlooks they could find plenty of common ground together and explore the potential of what could flourish between them both. With only a few chaste kisses between the men there isn’t an intensely erotic level of heat in this story but I found the will-they-won’t-they chemistry and tension more than made up for this.

Different and interesting, I really enjoyed this short story and was pleased to find it a lovely and heart-warming story of two men trusting and coming together to build something strong together.