Book Reviews

Book Blurb

Candlelight, mistletoe, gaily wrapped packages beneath a trimmed tree, and someone to share it with. That's all Barry Richards wants for Christmas. Desperate for a traditional holiday, he creates a profile on "GetaDate.com," in hopes of finding the perfect man in a matter of weeks. One date after another goes sour, while all around him friends are falling in love, and Barry starts to lose faith.

The first snow falls and the world fills with seasonal cheer, all except for Barry, for whom time is running out. Facing the prospect of a lonely holiday, he tries just once more to make The Match Before Christmas.

 

First edition published by Torquere Press, December 2010.

Book Review

“There’s someone out there for everyone – even if you need a pickaxe, a compass, and night goggles to find them.” ~ Harris (LA Story)

 

Barry Richards’s, of ‘The Match Before Christmas’ by Eden Winters, fondest wish is to have someone to spend Christmas with. He decides that it is not going to happen on its own and creates a profile on a dating site called GetaDate.com. The more he writes, the worse he believes his chances are, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

 

After setting up the account, Barry impatiently waits for a reply. After a while, he gives up and goes to bed. When he gets up the next morning, lo and behold, Barry has received three replies on the site. While perusing them, he begins to see that the matching criteria feature of the site doesn’t seem to be doing a good job. It has matched him with men too young, too old, and even with one member who is a lesbian! Even with any stretch of the imagination, the last match wouldn’t work for him, but he decides that he could always use a friend, messages her, and even ends up finding someone special for her!

 

For one reason or another, the first three dates are spectacular failures but the fourth is the strangest of all. Barry goes to meet someone named Vincent. Instead, he meets Otis, the computer tech who fixes his company’s computers! Vincent is nothing like Otis described on his GetaDate.com profile but since he is there, he and Barry go bowling like he had planned to do if he met Vincent. However, Barry makes it abundantly clear that it is NOT a date. During that time, he and Otis talk about why Otis embellished his profile so much. It turns out that Otis is even lonelier than Barry is and his self-esteem is through the floor. Barry decides to help Otis out. He takes him back to his apartment and helps him rewrite his profile, but against Otis’s protestations, makes him tell the truth which includes having him post his picture shirtless and making him list himself as a “bear”.

 

Meanwhile, Barry goes on his fifth date which also turns out to be a bust. He is seriously beginning to think that maybe being alone isn’t so bad after all. Although he is happy for him, when Otis calls to tell Barry that he’s met the man of his dreams, Barry’s hopes plunge even deeper. He wonders why he can find someone for everyone but himself. With only two weeks before Christmas, he is beginning to think that he will be spending another Christmas alone.

 

This is a hilarious story, full of wit and humor with a touch of romance and hot sex! I absolutely loved Barry. Even though he was having difficulty finding someone of his own, he helped his friends find someone to be with. He wasn’t resentful at all, just happy that he was able to help them and for them. Otis was sweet too and once Barry straightened him out and helped him see that if someone doesn’t want you for who you are then they are not worthy of you to begin with. Thanks, Eden! I loved it!

 

 

 

 

DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been purchased by the reviewer.

 

Additional Information

Format	ebook
Length	Short Story, 14400 words
Heat Level
Publication Date	03-June-2013
Price	$2.99 ebook
Buy Link	https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-thematchbeforechristmas-1216843-149.html