White Christmas by Ros BaxterFirst in the New Earth trilogy
2 stars
The Apocalypse has destroyed the earth and humans have begun to travel to different planets to colonize and make homes for themselves. Tabi is a scientist looking for a way to survive the Hunter Gatherers on the planet of Tyver and ends up saving a man who has fallen during a battle. Tabi doesn't expect the man to be Asha, the boy who broke her heart one Christmas. White Christmas is the only Christmas read I've read this holiday season and it was very lackluster for me. I was hoping that this short story would pack a real interesting punch. The storyline is intriguing and sounds like something that would automatically become a favorite. There's space, vampires, romance, and Christmas, but none of these elements flowed well and the story seemed to be a mashup of ideas that held no solid rhyme or reason.
The word building for this novel is choppy and doesn't flow. Sentences like,
"It looked like a magic egg of Earth legend, silhouetted on the ice as the sky flashed and screamed from the firefight raging overhead."
have no flow and seem to be thrown into the story to seem concrete. There shouldn't be a simile or metaphor for any descriptive setting that occurs in the story; it made everything feel bogged down with unnecessary sentences.
Whimsical Writing Scale: 2
The main female character is Tabi who is also referred to as Tabysha. How anyone came up with the name Tabysha is beyond me. It sounds like the author thought of a normal way and then had to spice it up to seem more sci-fi. Not all sci-fi stories need interesting or different names, especially when said names are laughable. Tabi is a character that I don't like very much. She's bitter, which is understandable, but her snide comments don't give a sass element, but an ass element. She was upset when she rescued her ex and immediately wished she left him for dead and that is a trait I can't behind.
Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: 1.5
The main male character is Asha. Again with the -sha endings. Seriously these names give no helping hands for the characters. Asha is cliche and brings nothing to my female feels. He's dry and unimaginative as far as male leads go. Asha is also a douchecanoe that thinks that because Tabi has short hair it means she single because men don't like short hair. What a douche thing to say. There is nothing wrong with short hair and guys like Asha who think women should adhere to certain feminine standards make me want to rage.
Swoon Worthy Scale: 1.5
The Villain- The concept of the Hunter Gatherers is very interesting and creepy. These creatures thrive in the cold and suck their prey dry of marrow, blood, and cells. It's an interesting concept and a well-thought out idea. The problem was that these predators were used as a tool to have sex and that's a lame plot.
Villain Scale: 3
The chemistry in this novel is as dry as ice the outside on the planet of Tyver. These two have no chemistry. I'm told it's hot and steamy, but I don't feel the heat. These two didn't make me warm and left me feeling cold, which is fitting for this Christmas because it is too hot outside to want to be warm. The reason these two had sex was to save themselves from the Hunter Gatherers because for some reason human pheromones produced during sex repel them.
There was no point to this story. The concept was so cool, but the unnecessary sex as a plot device pissed me off more than the characters did. These characters are the reason this short story was a dud for me and it was a good thing it was short because otherwise I would've felt I wasted time.
Plotastic Scale: 2
Cover Thoughts: This your typical paranormal couple with a sci-fi backdrop.
How was your Christmas/ holidays? Let me know down below in the comments!
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