The Christmas Throwaway

A Sweet Turn of Events...

This is a sweet story about a boy tossed out and down on his luck and his journey to self-discovery and his determination to change the course he is on. Zach meets Ben, Ben begins to feel that tingle within but withholds until Zach is ready for unconditional love. This is their journey to happiness and it is a sweet, horrific, loving, detestable, accepting story that everyone can gain something from. RJ Scott's style and Sean Crisden's narration was a delight...a must read/listen

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

Beautiful story.

A bit slow but beautiful written. Love the plot storyline. Waiting to become a movie.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Holliday Healing

Not going to post spoilers Although It made me so angry in parts. Read it first on Kindle but listening to it is even better I came up with what I would've said in parts. To bad there isn't a way to overlap slightly what their thoughts as they're saying something more cleaned up. I wish that I could help kids like Zack in real life. but I'm just as damaged as a abuser myself. I can give advice. Help that way Just wish there were more people in the world like Ben and his family who took both Zack and his Sister in. In the right way. Too often there are ones who are or were worse than their home to begin with. RJ want more from Zack and Ben Like in your Montana and Texas Series' A truly wonder Story bordering on C Dickens'!!!!

Great narration, didn't enjoy the story as much

Weeks before Zach's 18th birthday he was thrown out in the cold with only the clothes on his back and some loose change to his name. Now, just days before Christmas he's seeking solace on a bench in a graveyard. Ben Hamilton, a rookie cop finds a cold shaking young man sleeping on a bench. Instead of bringing him in and reporting him, Ben brings Zach home to his family. A family filled with Christmas spirit and warmth in every sense of the word. And Just what lonely and abused Zach needed.

This might just be me, but I found Ben annoying. He was just too perfect and perky for my tastes and thought he could and would change everything that was wrong in the world. But when Zach didn't do or immediately follow everything he said he turned kind of mean and judgmental. It also felt like Ben forced the Christmas spirit on Zach - enjoy it or else. I understand why he forced family and celebration on him, but it was just too much and too soon and it rubbed me wrong. I'm not a fan of manipulations.

Then there was the relationship between Zach and Ben. It just felt off. There wasn't any connection, it was shallow. There was no attraction, no build-up, no UST - nothing. Yet Scott still tried to make us believe in a relationship between the guys. Sure it wasn’t insta-love by any standard, but should in theory be a slow-burn romance – but for me the romance was never present.

I truly believe that the book would have been better it had been solely focused on Zach’s struggles for a new beginning, a new life and leave the relationship part out of it. That would have been a great story, starting over, new friends and family. But sadly that’s not what we got, but I’m still going to pretend.

So for the last week or so I've picked up three Christmas stories, and each and every one of them has been narrated by Sean Crisden. Maybe it’s coincidence or maybe Crisden really likes narrating Christmas stories, either way I feel like I’m running out of ways to describe his great performances in a new way. I love the feelings he brings, make you feel, and while this might not have been the greatest of stories, there was absolutely nothing wrong with the narration.

A copy of this book was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review for Love Bytes.

Great story

This was a really great story. I just wish there was a little more Romance in it

i love it

the book was one of my favorites it is short but so worth it you will not be disappointed

A new favorite

I loved it. I stayed up way too late because I had to know what happened. thank goodness for Christmas miracles.

DNF

ok story
but I could not get in to it.
the narrator oh dough very experince was not the one for this story.
I could not stanthe cheerful cadence
thrue this whole audio when the story was more serious than cheerful.
nope. this time this was not Matched well.

Super Sweet Holiday story - expert narration!

Zach’s father beats him and tries to “convert” him when he finds out he’s gay. He goes so far as to home school him to keep “evil influences” from him. On the eve of Zach’s 18th birthday, when his father intends to force him to enlist in the military, Zach runs away. He doesn’t have much money, doesn’t get very far, but he does end up in the right place at the right time.
Ben is a young, new cop, doing his job, rousting a vagrant on a park bench on Christmas Eve. Zach is scared and cold and unlikely to make it overnight without help, but Ben’s town is small and doesn’t offer much in terms of runaway support. So he offers Zach a place at his mom’s house for the night.
Well, one thing leads to another and Zach’s story gets told. Everyone falls in love with Zach and eventually all of Ben’s friends and family are enlisted to help Zach out and to encourage Zach to stay and begin a new life.
Zach doesn’t know what to do. His sister is still in his father’s clutches. Zach doesn’t feel right accepting all this charity, but now that he’s 18 he does has some choice in the matter of his life plan and he doesn’t want to go home.
Zach accepts the help, eventually retrieves his sister, and starts life over with the help of Ben and his family.
Ben, who is 6 years older than Zach, keeps his hands to himself for as long as he possibly can. But between his own attraction and Zach’s, by the time Zach is 19 the two have succumbed and begin a relationship that exceeds friendship.
**
This is a very packed short story. It doesn’t feel inadequate or rushed. Sure, it would have been nice to struggle along with Zach as he grows. Maybe the tension between he and Ben could have been stretched a bit more. But, overall, it fits nicely into its 73 pages.
Zach has a horrible life and by comparison Ben is living in a dream world. The hurdles the couple face are fairly small and the bulk of this story is really about Zach finding his own way out of a bad past into a bright future.
I loved that the author does give us a final scene between Zach and Ben that is quite satisfying!
I really enjoyed this little holiday book and give it 4.5 of 5 stars

Audio:
Sean Crisden is a favorite narrator of mine, and he does a nice job with this as well. There are no over-the-top voices but everyone is nicely differentiated. Sean’s voice allows you to sink into the story, know who is who without reading along, and his “emoting” is always appropriate.
I give the narration 4.5 of 5 stars as well.

Overall:

4 stars – I really liked it

This Is A Real Life For Some People

Imagine you are a teen and kicked out to live or die on your own. Sad, but it happens, especially if the child is gay. I had a very soft spot for Zach in this story who had to endure pain from an abusive father then kicked out. Zach is one of the lucky ones: he was found by a kindhearted policeman while asleep on a bench in a church lot and taken in by a loving family for Christmas. The narrator does a very good job with this story. He doesn't overly dramatize nor play down the emotions. His voice, deep and comforting, is very soothing so we know things will turn out positively but I still cried and got very emotional to everything in this storyline. Well, done!