Hearts Alight

by Elliot Cooper

Dave Cunningham hates the rampant consumerism that’s come to dominate his family’s Hanukkah celebrations. But a chance to bring a bit of a holiday happiness to his long-time crush, Amit Cohen, helps put him in a more festive mood.

In the quest to craft the perfect gift, Dave tries to urge a few personal details out of stoic Amit. Unintentionally, he learns the Cohen family’s Amit is a golem. But Amit has a problem that runs deeper than his magical origin, and a Hanukkah miracle might be the only thing that will keep the budding flame between him and Dave from going out.

Genres: Romance, Holiday, M M Romance, Paranormal, LGBT, Novella, Jewish

84 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 19, 2016

About the author

Elliot Cooper is all about happy endings and positive queer rep in genre fiction - specifically subgenres of romance and erotica. His stories range from sweet to scorching hot, light to dark, humorous to serious, and everything in between. He loves to experiment with genre mash-ups and old favorite tropes, turning some on their heads, meeting others head-on.

Reviews

[Len Evans Jr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the fourth story I have read thus far by this author. Each one of them has been distinctly unique and exceptionally well-written. He clearly has a true talent for story-telling. This holiday novella is heartwarming, sweet and has an appropriate magical twist. Their were more than a few tears of happiness and the story left me feeling warm and very happy. Miracles really do happen every day!

[Sheri · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a struggle for me...I never felt the connection; mine to the story or between Amit and Dave.
I almost gave up but tried to push on.
Should've called it quits at 60% when I just wanted it to be over.

[Sara]

4 Hearts

I went into this pretty naïve about what a golem was and admit to googling it. Once I did a bit of light research, getting the gist of a golem being probably made of clay and unfinished in the eyes of God, I was more than curious how this would all work out.

Dave, I get him. Though our religions are different, the way he feels about the present-palooza that is taking over Hanukah is how I feel with the commercialization of Christmas. Through all we think we have to do, have to buy and to keep up with the Joneses, it lessens the true meaning of the holiday. I mean, I do get trying to blend the modern traditions with the old but still… ugh.

Anyway.

But Dave, he is willing to put it aside to hang out with his friend Jake and get a chance to see his crush, Jake’s uncle Amit. Goodness, that first glimpse of Amit at the bar all stoic and silent just pulled at my heart. Seeing him through Dave’s eyes really gives you the chance to see Amit for the beautiful man that he is. He is also the man Dave is trying to make a gift for, the perfect gift and one that isn’t bought. When a jerk wad makes fun of Amit and Amit takes off, Dave goes after him and we get to learn a secret.

Your secret sort of challenged everything I thought I understood about the world. And just...everything. So I kept thinking about it and what it meant and what it could mean.

Knowing the small amount of information regarding golems, I found it so very endearing that Dave takes Amit to his father’s shop and shows him the dreidels he has made. The way he takes care of them and who he makes them for makes a lot of sense and when Amit tells his secret about being a golem and Dave touches him… the connection and chemistry was amazing to witness.

I like that Jake tells Dave Amit can “recharge” his batteries when touched by someone who cares. Obviously, Jake and Shoshanna care about him but the difference between familial love and that of a romantic love could be what keeps Amit Earth bound, even after he’s fulfilled his spiritual obligation.

The date playing D&D and Amit setting up his character was adorable. I loved his character’s name and all that he put in as traits. The uncertainty of the new relationship with Amit and Dave was bittersweet as Dave accepts Amit but there are the facts of his being non –human that could make things difficult.

The first night of Hanukah with Dave’s family was just adorable and the exchange of gifts between Amit and Dave were sigh worthy. This story, was so hopeful and heartfelt that I wasn’t ready for it to end. I just hope whatever Dave learns from Joe is magical enough to let this new relationship continue for a very long time.

[Bárbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Such a short but sweet story, with lovely characters and a little magic...

['Nathan Burgoine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a lovely little holiday novella on so many fronts, and I snuggled right into it. Dave was so easy to identify with: he’s a gaming nerd, so done with holiday consumerism, and frustrated at feeling the guilt of not being able to be “on par” with the gift-giving going on around him. He’s also just awkward enough to get in his own way, and overthinking himself out of confidence. In short, he’s adorable.

The dash of holiday magic here is in the Golem, yes, but also in the blending of family, friendship, compassion and the shared desire to give, but not in the consumerism way. That it also involved some Dungeons & Dragons, latkes and a little bit of golem magic just made it all the more up my alley. Also, the wide range of queer identities included here bears mentioning, including a bi main character, and a trans man supporting character.

Hearts Alight is completely charming.

[Ami · Rating 3 out of 5]

reading the 2nd edition, though the author states that there are no differences with the first edition

Hmmm.... while Amit being a golem is a unique twist, but at the same time, I just can't see the significance of it. It can easily be a contemporary romance, with a young man and his best friend's uncle. In fact, I might like it better *shrugs*. This is just a so-so read for me.

[M'rella · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so excited about this book!

Jewish characters, Hanukkah, unusual MC, trans* character.... and it all fell flat :(

There were too many unnecessary details, no chemistry between the MCs, no magic in the holiday, “trans” was mentioned once, in passing, just to have it there.

1.5 stars, rounding up for the cover, because I really really like it.

[charlotte, · Rating 2 out of 5]

how does a novella drag so much

Rep: Jewish mcs, bi mc, gay li, trans side character

[Victoria (Eve's Alexandria) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not for me, this one. I liked the premise - sweet nerd falls for his best friend’s uncle, who turns out to be a golem, over Hannukah - but the execution wasn’t great and the chemistry was faint.

[Jenn (not Lily) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent story! I wish I hadn't read the precis -- I feel like it would've been better if I hadn't known Amit's secret before I started reading. Still, really enjoyable and very well-written. I need to read more by this author soon!

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this magical Hanukkah romance, The only reason it's not getting four stars is because it just ends unsatisfyingly.
A shy nervous mc whose long time crush turns out to be a mythical golem (a man made of clay brought to life). Filled with art, D&D games,and a few sweet kisses.

[Leigh Kramer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was such a lovely Hanukkah romance! I loved everything about Dave and Amit and how their relationship unfolded. The aspect of Amit being a Golem was fascinating and heartbreaking and I really liked how Dave responded. Neither Dave or Amit are working in “high end” careers and it was really interesting to see how they felt about their jobs and their respective futures. It was a nice touch to have characters have jobs that are jobs and to feel relatively okay with that. Dave is really into Dungeons & Dragons, which I’ve never played, so it was fun to see his passion for it and how he got Amit involved in playing. I also loved how queer-friendly the whole book was, with Dave being bi and his best friend Jake being trans.

CW: grief, references to homophobia

[Gillian Kevern · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great story from Elliot Cooper. There was so much I loved about Hearts Alight. The mythology surrounding golems was completely new to me and I loved Dave, Amit, and their extended friends and family. I adored Dave's friendship with Jake, and the hesitant beginnings of his romance with Amit. His musings about the modernisation of Hannukah in particular with regards to its commercialisation developed over the course of the story, and added a layer that I really appreciated.

I feel a little hesitant listing this story as paranormal, given how little time is spent developing those elements of the story. I wanted more exploration of the magic, of what that means for Amit and Dave, just--more. The potential conflict wrapped up very quickly, with very little consequences. It was a nice, no drama read, perfect for someone wanting an enjoyable seasonal read, but I would have preferred a little more. This felt like the start of something, rather than a complete story to me.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a really cute paranormal holiday romance novella, with an MM age-gap couple.

It was very sweet with a bit of pining. I've not read many Hanukkah romances so this was a noce change for me.

[Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, fascinating, tender. A lovely story with lots to ponder.

[Andrea Brokaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rating: A giant pile of newly won Hanukkah gelt.

Highlight of note: It's a Hanukkah romance starring a golem. A golem!

Will you read more by this author? I plan to.

Other note: This is an adult romance but does NOT have explicit sex in it.

It's really hard to find full-length Hanukkah romances. That's why I wound up reading this even though its short length would usually rule it out for me. Adding other subplots or switching between points-of-view to show both love interests' sides of the story could have easily grew this into a full novel, but it does work as a novella.

For the first while, I had doubts about enjoying this book. The main character, Dave, is very much against the consumerism he sees in American Hanukkah celebrations, and bemoans this to the point that he's actively annoying. If it hadn't been for the early introduction of his mom, who made my heart warm by very clearly not caring one wit about what gender of person her bisexual son dates but just wants him to find someone who makes him happy, I probably would have abandoned it. I might not have had I remembered the bit about the love interest being a golem, but long enough had passed between me downloading the book and starting it that I had forgotten. It's not actually spelled out in the book (as opposed to the cover text) until about a third of the way through things.

So, yeah... Dave can be annoying when you get him talking about commercialization of holidays. But he's a pretty adorable geek otherwise. He works in a paint-your-own-pottery place and plays online D&D several evenings a week. I did find his relationship with beer unconvincing. Supposedly he's into craft beer, but he more than once drinks a porter out of the bottle. Yuck! When bartender Amit gave him a bottled porter and he started swigging it, I went, "Dude! A worthy love interest, or a half-decent bartender, would have given you a glass!" But apparently Amit was experiencing really severe issues regarding the spell that keeps him alive at the time, so maybe he was just too distracted to protect his crush from making Very Bad Choices. (Note: this is not just me being a snob. What you drink a beer from strongly affects how it tastes and nothing dark is good when funneled through a narrow neck. The narrow neck removes subtleties and sinks the malt profile, drowning them under bitterness.

Amit is really likable, aside from the whole didn't-give-his-customer-a-glass-for-his-beer thing. He's a golem, and worries about people who know that seeing him as a thing rather than a person, but he is very clearly a person. He was created by someone whose brother had just died as a sort of replacement, which is a bit messed up and I would have liked to get to know his creator more. The spell is starting to fade and part of the story is figuring out how to combat that. It actually gets solved pretty fast and it might would have been nice to spend more time working on the mystery of it. I think I would have liked to see what Amit is like when Dave isn't around. To me, the main advantage in writing in third person is that you can follow more than one character, so I sometimes get a little sad when writers fail to do that, particularly as exploring the way a golem sees the world would be really interesting to me.

It would also have been nice to get to know some of the supporting cast a little better. I already mentioned that I'd love to know more about Amit's creator/brother, but I was also rather interested in the other family members.

I did love this story. My only wish is that there had been more of it. There could have been more time spent developing the romantic tension, more time fleshing out characters, and more time working on the mystery of what was going wrong with Amit and how it could be fixed.

If you want to see the notes I took while reading, they're on my blog at https://andyreadsthings.blogspot.com/...

[Courtney Rose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hearts Alight tells the story of Dave, an anti-consumerist, slightly anti-social bisexual Jewish man who tries to befriend his crush who is also his best friends' uncle. While I liked this book fine enough, and I am happy it exists in the world for those who would relate to it more, I had some issues with the romance aspect of it.

When Dave finds out Amit, his crush, is a golem after he nearly collapses at a bar, I expected some sort of supernatural or paranormal element to start infiltrating the story. We don't really get that aside from a few mentions of learning magic. I liked that Dave and Amit were a "normal" couple and didn't let the golem aspect of it matter to their lives, but at the same time it just seemed that everyone involved accepted that magic existed and this was real without batting an eyelash.

I also was a bit confused as to why the golem bit even existed in the story? Perhaps it was related to something Hebrew that went over my head, but honestly you could have the same story without the fact that Amit was a golem and it would read in the same way. There are a lot of things in the book that are brought up but dismissed with no resolution, like the fact that Amit is immortal. The author seems to spend more time describing a game of D&D than it does on any of the real supernatural elements. The fact that Amit was dying until Dave came into his life romantically happens about halfway through the book, and the story feels like it loses something at that point. There's nothing to build up to really after that point. 

I love that this book has a M/M romance as well as Jewish characters, which is often hard to find and even harder to order in a physical format (as many are ebook only). It also had a holiday theme which was great. I initially found this while searching for romances that involved holidays other than Christmas, so I'm glad our library now has this as an option. I also loved the LGBT elements of this, especially the fact that a prominent character in this is a trans man and it is treated without pomp and circumstance. Jake was just a best friend who tried to help Dave in his life and his gender didn't define him as a character. 

Overall this is a cute, short romance that would be great for any holiday romance display. Someone not knowledgeable about Hanukkah or Judaism may struggle to understand some of the things referenced, but learning is fun and this is a good way to get an intro. 
Blog / Twitter

[Lauren loves llamas · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I liked a lot about this charming Hanukkah novella, for some reason it just didn’t grab me. Dave is an introverted nerd who works at his dad’s pottery studio, while Amit is the reserved bartender at his brother-in-law’s family bar – and also a golem. There’s some pretty cute things – from Dave’s crush being able to “power” Amit to Dave introducing Amit to D&D to Amit hating dreidel song (think about it). But while I thought they were adorable, I didn’t really feel the connection between them. The pacing between them felt odd, with their relationship going in fits and spurts, though I found Dave’s second date worries about how the end of the date goodbye is going to go – a hug? a kiss? – endearing. I also feel a bit weird listing this as paranormal, because while Amit is a golem, I think there’s more time spent on them playing D&D than “actual” magic.

“He could envision Amit’s reaction to the gift: a surprised lift of his heavy brows, then a slow, earnest smile. Inner happiness, though, even if there was no outward indication, was what Dave hoped to give. More than a little piece of kitschy-cute art. More than a social obligation. Something that would bring a spark of warmth whenever Amit looked at it. And wasn’t that the spirit of Hanukkah? The miracle of kindling a lasting light―hope and peace―from next to nothing?”

It was also very low-angst, which I did enjoy, but almost to the point where I wasn’t sure where the story was going. There was a big deal made of Dave’s dislike of the consumerism and one-upping gift culture around the holidays, and while Amit offered one Hanukkah-centered rebuttal that seemed to sway Dave, it didn’t seem like it sunk in for him. Although, the low angst-ness also extended to its LGBT characters – Dave is bi and a supporting character is trans, and it’s all viewed as no big deal, which is always lovely to read.

Overall, this was quick and charming, but didn’t quite hit the spot for me. If you’re looking for a m/m Hanukkah romance, however, you should still give it a try.

[Susan Scribner · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. Interesting concept but the execution was underdeveloped and the romance was uninspiring. Dave finds out that the guy he's crushing on, Amit, is a golem - in Jewish folklore, a man created from clay - but other than that fact, we don't learn anything interesting about his existence, and everyone is so blase about his identity that it loses any of its magic. So many questions are unanswered, or asked and quickly dismissed (like the unsolvable dilemma that Amit is immortal and Dave is not). The author seems more interested in describing the Dungeons & Dragons game that Dave loves than in exploring the half-hearted fantasy he has created.

I'd love to be able to add this to the small canon of recommended romances with Jewish characters (and the even smaller canon of M/M Jewish romances) but it's just not strong enough.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute Hanukkah romance~

This is a really cute, sweet story with some really beautiful images. I relate to many feelings David has about how his relationships usually don’t last and him being the common denominator between failed relationships, as well as feelings about commercialism and consumerism now a part of Hanukkah traditions. Growing up, I did love getting presents, but as I’ve gotten older the family time and, of course, the food is way more important to me.

I do feel some of the pacing with David and Amit is a little abrupt at times, and other times it’s sweetly paced. I do kinda wish the golem had been explored a little more, but the bits of information and myth we did get definitely added some depth to the story and Amit.

[Elisabeth Lane · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short, sweet and unexpected holiday romance

I love this author so when I saw this book pop up on social media I grabbed it without even checking the plot. Turns out it's a bit paranormal, which I absolutely adore. I loved the depictions of family Hanukkah celebrations, social anxiety, talking back to toxic masculinity and consumerist culture and characters playing Dungeons & Dragons. All set within the context of a long-time crush-from-afar, pining sort of romance with a happy ending. This is basically the perfect holiday romance.

[K.B. Rainwater · Rating 3 out of 5]

A sweet Hannukah romance

Not exactly my cup of tea; there wasn't as much action as I prefer. Not that that's a bad thing. If you like quiet reads, this is a great one. I enjoyed this take on the golem mythos, and the D&D scenes reminded me of my own sessions.
Would recommend this book to anyone looking for a quiet holiday romance with a paranormal twist.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very sweet M-M holiday (Hanukkah) romance, plus a little magic thrown in (golem!) and a geeky D&D-loving protagonist with a sweet supportive family? Yes, please. This one's been on my to-read list for a while, and this break was the perfect time for it. I didn't realize it was a novella; it only took me about an hour!

[Maria Lima · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved, loved, loved this.

Purchased because someone rec'd it and I thought it sounded interesting (mostly due to the fact that it's not the bog-standard while Xtian boy holiday romance). Fell in absolute LOVE with the characters.

I would totally read more stories with these folks.

[Em · Rating 4 out of 5]

Real cute! Maybe more of a 3.5 if I hadn't read so many disappointing holiday stories already this year that made this one such a welcome change. Hit just the right tone for me. Full review: https://dukedukegoose.wordpress.com/2...

[Hilary Catron · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is very well-written, engaging characters, pretty well set up, but I am not into RPG, not into D&D, and the book leans heavily on that in the beginning, at least. For anyone who is that sort of gamer, you’re in for a good read. I’ll look for more by this author.

[TT]

Though the book is nicely written the whole Gollum thing is a bit jarring and doesn't fit into the story. I would have liked it so much better if it had just been a regular Romance with no Supernatural whatever.

[Brandilyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

Too much detail on insignificant events and not enough on the character or relationship building.

[tysephine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cuuuuuuuuute

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Really loved the premise of this one and it had a very sweet romance and friendships.