I feel that the story was lacking something from it take make it better. I feel like it could have been so much more than it was. It failed to pull me in.

Teddy wakes up kidnapped after being rescued by woodsman Gable, more mysteries and danger present themselves, will love be enough to keep Teddy safe.

This was an interesting story but it was a bit all over the place for me, it was hard to keep up with and understand everything that was going on at times.

Too much story for the length. This plot had novel length written all over it.

It needed more world building, a more dramatic climatic right scene, a finale that was more considered.

Parts of it were convoluted and confusing.

I liked Gable and the relationship, although I wish it had more room to develop.

An intriguing concept that needed more time. I'd be interested in reading a longer version of this story.

A short paranormal book in which Teddy is hunted by Daemons and chased into the forest where he meets Gable, a wolf shifter. After Gable saves Teddy, they find love in each other and through the destruction of the Mother Tree, find their love helps the cultivation of new life through the seeds of the Mother Tree.

Thanks to NetGalley and NineStar Press, LLC for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley

cw: brief mention of non-sexual abuse

Wow ok I have a lot of issues with this book so let's get some bullet points

1) This book tries to do WAY too much for a short story. Plunges into some paranormal world with daemons and wards and magic. Also there's a werewolf. Also a magic tree. Also an abusive brother. None of this is fully explored or explained or, often, justified - there's flat out not time. It's as if someone published the

2) The prose was very over written for me. "His eyes were the greenest green, the color of emerald gemstones", it says. The whole book is like that, fairly flowery, and again - this is a short story. There's not enough time to settle into a heavy prose style because the rest of it is crowded with magic trees and shifters.

3) This is billed as "A Ninestar Press 2018 Holiday Story". The cover is of a heart ornament on a frosty white christmas tree. I was expecting a cozy Christmas story of the type they make Hallmark movies out of. Calling this a holiday story is A STRETCH. There are two mentions of Christmas trees (one of which is ugly) and mentions of a foreclosed on Christmas tree farm that never comes into play. I wish I knew why the publishers had accepted this as a holiday story because the connection is tenuous at best, and cynically I wonder if it was written that way at all or if Christmas was inserted later to match a call for submissions.

If I had paid 2.99 for this (high, in my opinion, for a 70 page nominally holiday short), I would have been severely disappointed verging on angry. As it was, I'm mostly just confused how this book happened and won't recommend picking it up.

For me, The Love of a Woodsman seemed somewhat disjointed. The story bounced around quite a bit, and had scenes that left me wondering what just happened? I did like the characters, but the writing failed to capture my enthusiasm due to the lack of flow. So, just an OK from this reader.

Interesting concept, I give this novella that. “The Love of A Woodsman” could’ve been so much more. Instead, it felt to me like a shortened version - or rather, a snippet - of a longer tale. Not to mention the ending that got me go “What the actual crap?? That’s it??” And I thought there’d be (somewhat) lengthy duel, fight to the death sort of thing between good and devil. But NOOO, one swing - done - then boo!! - oh no - ...[cue disintegrating Infinity War scene T___T].

A bummer, really - with the opening scene started on a run that actually caught me. But then the flow of the story soon got messy and the lack of world building just got me grappling. Not a cracking introduction to a new-to-me author, I have to say. Perhaps, be it a longer elaborate tweak, the story might fare a bit better for me.


Advanced copy of this book is kindly given by the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The story seemed to bounce around more than necessary. For example, the dream sequence giving background would have been better just being in the beginning. The plot was convoluted and difficult to follow at times. At the same time certain parts were overly simplistic to the point of cartoonishness like the villain. There was no motive given for anything, just evil is evil because it is evil. I also felt like the relationship was too fast, even for as short as the story was. It couldn't seem to decide what level of description to give with sex either. There was a combo of YA level fade to black with more adult levels of description and I wasn't sure where it wanted to stand. The writing was decent enough to save this from being a one star book, though.

This was okay for me. I felt like Teddy and Gable confessed their “love” far too soon for my tastes, even in a short story. I think they should have just started with the sexual relationship and worked their way up slowly (not exchanging “I love yous” in a short story where they just met). I also felt that the plot was a bit convoluted, and Teddy’s brother didn’t add much to the story. The whole “innocent blood” thing ended up not happening and yet the bad guys still succeed somewhat? And did they end up dying? Wasn’t clear on that. Anyway, it was a short read, nice enough.