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Someone Special
Gracen loves Christmas. It's his favorite time of the year. So much so that he works as a mall photographer for the season, taking pictures of children with Santa. There's something about seeing all those happy families that he finds satisfying, which may be slightly odd since he's so very alone, himself.
Working three jobs is never fun, but when Jesse takes a part time position as a greeter elf at Santa's Workshop in the mall, he meets Gracen and realizes that maybe job number three isn't that bad, after all. The handsome photographer appeals to him, even with all Jesse's family issues.
Two lonely men, one Santa's Workshop, elf costumes, curl-toed shoes and a camera. They aren't exactly a recipe for finding that someone special… except maybe they are.
Working three jobs is never fun, but when Jesse takes a part time position as a greeter elf at Santa's Workshop in the mall, he meets Gracen and realizes that maybe job number three isn't that bad, after all. The handsome photographer appeals to him, even with all Jesse's family issues.
Two lonely men, one Santa's Workshop, elf costumes, curl-toed shoes and a camera. They aren't exactly a recipe for finding that someone special… except maybe they are.
209 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 20, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 28, 2011
4.5 stars
Jeese has a hard life since he was late teen. He has to raise his sister and keeps mortgage, etc. The most difficult part is the possibility of inheriting a disease, like his mother and grandparent did. So, he always half sabotage any relation by convincing himself that he's not good enough and men would leave him once they know his story. So far, it has been self-prophecy, until he meet Gracien, a fellow elf in the mall he works.
This book deals with heavy stuff, but its approach is quite light that it doesn't seem depressive. In fact, in line with its Christmas theme, it's sweet and warm feeling. Instead of being drawn by problems and become angsty, the characters--especially Gracien--do something about them. Not 'Woe is me'... Toward the end, it's a bit too sugary (hence it lost half star), but I guess it's fine since the whole story is nice.
Good reading for Christmas time...
Jeese has a hard life since he was late teen. He has to raise his sister and keeps mortgage, etc. The most difficult part is the possibility of inheriting a disease, like his mother and grandparent did. So, he always half sabotage any relation by convincing himself that he's not good enough and men would leave him once they know his story. So far, it has been self-prophecy, until he meet Gracien, a fellow elf in the mall he works.
This book deals with heavy stuff, but its approach is quite light that it doesn't seem depressive. In fact, in line with its Christmas theme, it's sweet and warm feeling. Instead of being drawn by problems and become angsty, the characters--especially Gracien--do something about them. Not 'Woe is me'... Toward the end, it's a bit too sugary (hence it lost half star), but I guess it's fine since the whole story is nice.
Good reading for Christmas time...
July 18, 2014
Gracen is a fairly famous photography artist who also owns a photography business. He takes the job as a mall photographer not because he needs the money, but because he loves the atmosphere.
Since the loss of their parents, Jesse has singlehandedly supported himself and his sister and paid off taxes and mortgages for a big house during the last six years by regularly working two jobs. The third job, the one at the mall, is a necessity for Jesse, even though it puts him on four hours of sleep a day.
Jesse and Gracen discover a mutual attraction, go out together and start what Jesse thinks of as a fling, but soon becomes more for both of them. At first both men fight the attraction to various degrees, Gracen because he fears to have his heart broken, Jesse because his family history contains a deep dark secret that might plunge him and a possible lover into disaster. While Gracen soon starts positively pursuing the possibility for “more”, Jesse has a much harder time to give up fighting – it takes a physical and mental breakdown through which Gracen practically carries him, and the uncovering of another big secret in Jesse’s family until Jesse finally can believe that Gracen is serious about him and might actually, really be his “someone special”.
It was the premise of the whole Santa-Elf thing that first drew me to this story; I found it original and the romance promising. And it was, actually, a nice enough story. At the core, this is a simple boy-meets-boy, spiced with Jesse’s dark secret and the hint at a mystery this secret’s solution poses, and with the sweet HEA that was to be expected from a holiday story. (By the way, I found the ending toothachingly saccharine, but as always, this might be just me.)
Both Gracen and Jesse are positive, good guys, reasonable, responsible and considerate who think a lot and talk things through rather than doing the incommunicado that so often leads to avoidable misunderstandings. The rest of the acting cast is very manageable; there’s Gracen’s friend and agent Alonzo (in my opinion, actually the best character in the story), Jesse’s sister Jasmine (who’s supposed to be about twenty, I think, but most of the time acts like a fourteen-year-old), and Alonzo’s PI friend Veronica, who was one tough lady.
Still, I couldn’t really enjoy this book as the writing style didn’t really appeal to me right from the beginning, and by the end, outrightly grated on my nerves. Everything, everything is explained, rehashed and mulled over in both character’s inner musings. Long, chatty passages of narrative meticulously follow the character’s trains of thoughts, even along winding paths and sidetracks. Here’s an example of Gracen’s thoughts (this is about a very minor character, an employee of Gracen’s, who’d treated Jesse with disrespect earlier in the book)
“… Joel was gay, yes, but that wasn’t a good enough reason for being an elitist asshole. Besides which, Joel had no reason or right to act that way. The guy had grown up in a trailer park outside Tallahassee. Gracen had known that when he’d hired Joel. He hadn’t known that the bastard was… well, a piece of shit, apparently, because calling him a bastard wouldn’t be technically true. As far as Gracen knew, Joel’s parents had been married when Joel was conceived. He didn’t care if they hadn’t been, though. The point was, having come from humble beginnings, Joel should be more tolerant of people, not less so….”
And this is Jesse:
“…. He had only the fuzziest, vaguest recollection of getting to Gracen’s and didn’t know whether he’d undressed himself or if Gracen had done it for him, but he didn’t much give a damn. He’d missed work because of something as stupid as being tired! Okay, maybe more than just tired, but what kind of man couldn’t manage to push that aside when he had bills to pay?
A weak one, Jesse told himself, his mental voice angry and disgusted. A weak, pathetic piece of shit who deserved to lose his house and be on the fucking street.
If it were just him, he could deal with it. Jesse was sure of that much. It wasn’t just him, though. There was Jazz to think about, too, and she deserved so much better than that. Just the thought of his sister’s life and future being derailed was enough to make Jesse cry, and he wasn’t a crier, damn it….”
To me, these verbose inner monologues were increasingly annoying. The purpose of this writing technique was probably letting readers participate in all the inner workings of the characters, but on me, it had the opposite effect. I felt separated from the characters to a point where I couldn’t relate to any of them, I felt told what I was supposed to think about them, and in the end, I simply stopped caring about them, and consequently stopped caring about the whole story.Consequently, when the solution to Jesse’s family mystery approached (which could actually be guessed from at least twenty pages away, in my opinion), I couldn’t have cared less, and once I reached the ending I felt glutted on sticky sweetness like after eating an entire box of Christmas candys in one go.
As always, this opinion is only mine; others might love this book just for the things that bothered me so. I, though, can’t really recommend it.
Review originally written for www.reviewsforjessewave.com
Since the loss of their parents, Jesse has singlehandedly supported himself and his sister and paid off taxes and mortgages for a big house during the last six years by regularly working two jobs. The third job, the one at the mall, is a necessity for Jesse, even though it puts him on four hours of sleep a day.
Jesse and Gracen discover a mutual attraction, go out together and start what Jesse thinks of as a fling, but soon becomes more for both of them. At first both men fight the attraction to various degrees, Gracen because he fears to have his heart broken, Jesse because his family history contains a deep dark secret that might plunge him and a possible lover into disaster. While Gracen soon starts positively pursuing the possibility for “more”, Jesse has a much harder time to give up fighting – it takes a physical and mental breakdown through which Gracen practically carries him, and the uncovering of another big secret in Jesse’s family until Jesse finally can believe that Gracen is serious about him and might actually, really be his “someone special”.
It was the premise of the whole Santa-Elf thing that first drew me to this story; I found it original and the romance promising. And it was, actually, a nice enough story. At the core, this is a simple boy-meets-boy, spiced with Jesse’s dark secret and the hint at a mystery this secret’s solution poses, and with the sweet HEA that was to be expected from a holiday story. (By the way, I found the ending toothachingly saccharine, but as always, this might be just me.)
Both Gracen and Jesse are positive, good guys, reasonable, responsible and considerate who think a lot and talk things through rather than doing the incommunicado that so often leads to avoidable misunderstandings. The rest of the acting cast is very manageable; there’s Gracen’s friend and agent Alonzo (in my opinion, actually the best character in the story), Jesse’s sister Jasmine (who’s supposed to be about twenty, I think, but most of the time acts like a fourteen-year-old), and Alonzo’s PI friend Veronica, who was one tough lady.
Still, I couldn’t really enjoy this book as the writing style didn’t really appeal to me right from the beginning, and by the end, outrightly grated on my nerves. Everything, everything is explained, rehashed and mulled over in both character’s inner musings. Long, chatty passages of narrative meticulously follow the character’s trains of thoughts, even along winding paths and sidetracks. Here’s an example of Gracen’s thoughts (this is about a very minor character, an employee of Gracen’s, who’d treated Jesse with disrespect earlier in the book)
“… Joel was gay, yes, but that wasn’t a good enough reason for being an elitist asshole. Besides which, Joel had no reason or right to act that way. The guy had grown up in a trailer park outside Tallahassee. Gracen had known that when he’d hired Joel. He hadn’t known that the bastard was… well, a piece of shit, apparently, because calling him a bastard wouldn’t be technically true. As far as Gracen knew, Joel’s parents had been married when Joel was conceived. He didn’t care if they hadn’t been, though. The point was, having come from humble beginnings, Joel should be more tolerant of people, not less so….”
And this is Jesse:
“…. He had only the fuzziest, vaguest recollection of getting to Gracen’s and didn’t know whether he’d undressed himself or if Gracen had done it for him, but he didn’t much give a damn. He’d missed work because of something as stupid as being tired! Okay, maybe more than just tired, but what kind of man couldn’t manage to push that aside when he had bills to pay?
A weak one, Jesse told himself, his mental voice angry and disgusted. A weak, pathetic piece of shit who deserved to lose his house and be on the fucking street.
If it were just him, he could deal with it. Jesse was sure of that much. It wasn’t just him, though. There was Jazz to think about, too, and she deserved so much better than that. Just the thought of his sister’s life and future being derailed was enough to make Jesse cry, and he wasn’t a crier, damn it….”
To me, these verbose inner monologues were increasingly annoying. The purpose of this writing technique was probably letting readers participate in all the inner workings of the characters, but on me, it had the opposite effect. I felt separated from the characters to a point where I couldn’t relate to any of them, I felt told what I was supposed to think about them, and in the end, I simply stopped caring about them, and consequently stopped caring about the whole story.Consequently, when the solution to Jesse’s family mystery approached (which could actually be guessed from at least twenty pages away, in my opinion), I couldn’t have cared less, and once I reached the ending I felt glutted on sticky sweetness like after eating an entire box of Christmas candys in one go.
As always, this opinion is only mine; others might love this book just for the things that bothered me so. I, though, can’t really recommend it.
Review originally written for www.reviewsforjessewave.com
December 9, 2011
T. C. Blue is a relatively new author for me and, with this book, has become a must-read author. I am such a sucker for holiday stories and here is one I will reread each Christmas season.
Here is the blurb from Torquere Press:
"Gracen loves Christmas. It's his favorite time of the year. So much so that he works as a mall photographer for the season, taking pictures of children with Santa. There's something about seeing all those happy families that he finds satisfying, which may be slightly odd since he's so very alone, himself.
Working three jobs is never fun, but when Jesse takes a part time position as a greeter elf at Santa's Workshop in the mall, he meets Gracen and realizes that maybe job number three isn't that bad, after all. The handsome photographer appeals to him, even with all Jesse's family issues.
Two lonely men, one Santa's Workshop, elf costumes, curl-toed shoes and a camera. They aren't exactly a recipe for finding that someone special… except maybe they are."
Gracen is a wonderful character, one of many in this story. He is a successful artist who, once a year, dons another persona so he can be a store Santa workshop photographer. For a entire month, he indulges in the outfit and the happiness of the families and children he photographs. Enter Jesse, who becomes Santa's elf as one of his 3 jobs. Overworked and complicated, everything about him calls to Gracen. There is a mystery at the center of Jesse and his sister, Jazz that makes Jesse want to keep all at a distance. But this is a story of hope and persistance and the joy of the Christmas spirit. Not sappy, no miracles just a journey of 2 people towards a relationship and a family. I loved this and so will you. I give this 4.5 stars.
So put on your elf shoes, grab a copy and settle in for a lovely read.
Here is the blurb from Torquere Press:
"Gracen loves Christmas. It's his favorite time of the year. So much so that he works as a mall photographer for the season, taking pictures of children with Santa. There's something about seeing all those happy families that he finds satisfying, which may be slightly odd since he's so very alone, himself.
Working three jobs is never fun, but when Jesse takes a part time position as a greeter elf at Santa's Workshop in the mall, he meets Gracen and realizes that maybe job number three isn't that bad, after all. The handsome photographer appeals to him, even with all Jesse's family issues.
Two lonely men, one Santa's Workshop, elf costumes, curl-toed shoes and a camera. They aren't exactly a recipe for finding that someone special… except maybe they are."
Gracen is a wonderful character, one of many in this story. He is a successful artist who, once a year, dons another persona so he can be a store Santa workshop photographer. For a entire month, he indulges in the outfit and the happiness of the families and children he photographs. Enter Jesse, who becomes Santa's elf as one of his 3 jobs. Overworked and complicated, everything about him calls to Gracen. There is a mystery at the center of Jesse and his sister, Jazz that makes Jesse want to keep all at a distance. But this is a story of hope and persistance and the joy of the Christmas spirit. Not sappy, no miracles just a journey of 2 people towards a relationship and a family. I loved this and so will you. I give this 4.5 stars.
So put on your elf shoes, grab a copy and settle in for a lovely read.
May 28, 2015
Ah! I’m not used anymore to non-stereotypes as protagonists.
Sure, we’ve seen most or even all the elements of this story before, but the mix and the exact way they’re presented make for a very special whole. There’s sweetness, fun and angst, and it all ends in sweet mushy happiness.
Okay, so perhaps it did get a little over the top sappy there in the last chapter or two, but I am not complaining because this drawn-out payoff felt well deserved (on their end but also on mine). Sometimes it’s just so lovely to wallow in the happy. Even if I kept expecting the end each time I turned the page and yet it took ages to actually happen. XD Bah, that should be the worst of my troubles.
Sure, we’ve seen most or even all the elements of this story before, but the mix and the exact way they’re presented make for a very special whole. There’s sweetness, fun and angst, and it all ends in sweet mushy happiness.
Okay, so perhaps it did get a little over the top sappy there in the last chapter or two, but I am not complaining because this drawn-out payoff felt well deserved (on their end but also on mine). Sometimes it’s just so lovely to wallow in the happy. Even if I kept expecting the end each time I turned the page and yet it took ages to actually happen. XD Bah, that should be the worst of my troubles.
November 30, 2011
I usually love TC Blue's books,but this one wasn't the authors best.
I would have liked this book better without Jesse's major "issue" , it annoyed me the way he lived his life because of the " possibility". And I couldn't quite figure why Jazz acted like a 15 year old.
It was a nice Christmas story, but it has the potential to be much better in my opinion.
I would have liked this book better without Jesse's major "issue" , it annoyed me the way he lived his life because of the " possibility". And I couldn't quite figure why Jazz acted like a 15 year old.
It was a nice Christmas story, but it has the potential to be much better in my opinion.
December 8, 2011
A perfect story to rev up my Christmas spirit. I loved all the characters, but for some reason Alonzo really clicked for me. Not the first time I fall in love with a secondary character in a story (cough, Riley, cough).
I never really thought about the day to day work of a renowned photographer. Really enjoyed reading about Gracen's work and his interactions with Alonzo. Funny.
I never really thought about the day to day work of a renowned photographer. Really enjoyed reading about Gracen's work and his interactions with Alonzo. Funny.
March 26, 2018
Wordy Wordy Wordy
A pleasant enough love story between a "have" & a "have not". Good story line buried under tons on unnecessary words. Enough angst for a dozen teenagers, and not one teenager in sight. I frequently complain when a book ends abruptly. This one dragged out the ending forever! You need thigh high waders to plow through this one. A good concept poorly developed.
A pleasant enough love story between a "have" & a "have not". Good story line buried under tons on unnecessary words. Enough angst for a dozen teenagers, and not one teenager in sight. I frequently complain when a book ends abruptly. This one dragged out the ending forever! You need thigh high waders to plow through this one. A good concept poorly developed.
November 30, 2011
Good holiday m/m romance about a photographer working as a Santaland elf who gets involved with a somewhat prickly, time-crunched guy also working as an elf. This started out much stronger than it finished - the last 1/4 of the book got painfully sugary and repetitive.
November 29, 2011
Solid 4 stars. Was a feel-good-read for me.
Did Not Finish
May 28, 2012DNF
Couldn`t stand the narrative.Everything was told through internal thoughts - incredibly chatty thoughts.Made it impossible to hold my attention...
Couldn`t stand the narrative.Everything was told through internal thoughts - incredibly chatty thoughts.Made it impossible to hold my attention...
December 6, 2011
3.5 stars
December 9, 2011
just okay story.
December 24, 2011
Sweet story, I liked the premise, but it was a bit wordy. Could have used a bit of paring.
December 18, 2023
Such a sweet story! Really enjoyed it!
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews