Little Match Girl by Dianne Hartsock

An easy read story based very loosely on the story of the little match girl. Dani is being abused by his father and now homeless is selling candles to escape his situation. He then mets Christian from the coffee shop.

Ok read though not what I was expecting books content a bit lacking. 2.5/5

Sorry, but not a book for me. Just couldn't get into the story. It wasn't quite the story I was expecting by the title and just gave up on it

I didn’t connect to this book at all or the main character. Maybe I wasn’t In the right reading mood. But for now I am dnfing this book.

A nice hurt/comfort holiday tale, loosely based on The Little Match Girl but freshened up with a non-binary main character and some interesting family drama. I honestly wish the author had taken the extra hundred pages they needed to really flesh this story into what it should have been. It's an excellent premise, but we're missing scenes and details which would have been terrific here.

Nicely written over all, there are a few continuity errors which could be easily sorted. I'll definitely look for this author again.

This was almost a DNF for me, but it was only 83 pages. I finished it, and it was not for me. Hard pass.

Not bad but not my cup of tea as it was too cheesy for my taste.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

OK, first let me unpack this sort novel. There is a 17 year old man, Dani, who has never gone to school, who is being abused by his father, whose mother died last year, and who makes his living selling candles on the street. He is called the Little Match Girl because he is considered to be effeminate, and like the little match girl of the stories, sits out in the cold. Oh, and he wants to go to college some how, rather than continue to live with his drunken father who abuses him.

Christian has seen him in his coffee shop and thinks he is cute, and wants to give him head, although this is said much more graphically than that. [note, this is the first adult gay romance I have read in a long time, and I'm not used to quite so much talk about the male member, all the time. Bring out the smelling salts.] Christian is well to do, and only works because he wants to earn spending money. His apartment and college is paid for by his parents. He lacks for nothing, other than Dani, who he moons over.

They do end up in bed, no surprise.

It is a quick read. Dani is very, very damaged, and doesn't think like a 17 year old, so I had trouble getting into his thoughts. Christian is just lustful, and we don't get much more than that out of him.

So, all and all, a quick love story, with a lot of sex, which I skipped over, because I found that part boring.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

Oof. Nope. DNF after 1 chapter. First of all, the phrase (I’m paraphrasing) ‘If he didn’t know for certain he was a man, he would think Dani was a girl, despite the rough clothes. There was something sweet about him.’ includes at least 2 gender stereotypes. The writing was incredibly cheesy. The impoverished customer thinks the barista wants him to pay for his meal with sex, and the barista cups his face “with care” and says “when we have sex it will be because you want me to.” WTF! I can’t.

The book while has a great idea, the book lacks in detail. It's like watching an old vhs tape on fast forward. If you enjoy a quick read at the doctors office for those hour long wait times this is it. If you look for something you can really get into and feel involved with the characters this isn't it.

"Little Match Girl" is a very sweet and very short novella about Dani, a poor homeless candle-seller and Christian, a barista in a local shop, and how their lives change once they decide to give their relationship a try. I liked it quite a bit and I liked both of the MCs too, especially Dani: my heart broke for him so much.
The ending was heartwarming and hopeful, the perfect novella for this time of year, even though I wished it had been longer (I would have loved to read a bit more about Christian's life and past and I would have loved it if his personality were a slightly more shaped).
I totally recommend it if you're looking for a quick, soft read about second chances and hope.

This was a short and sweet read. This book wasn't really my cup of tea. But it isn't bad.
I read it in ine sitting.
This is a solid 3 star read.

Oh man. This book is much too short to have tried to everything that it did. I just didn't enjoy it all all: you don't learn the characters at all so I definitely couldn't enjoy the "relationship", one of them faces trauma after trauma and it feels so gratuitous. There's a moment in the middle where strangers show our unfortunate character kindness, which is nice, but that's about the only heartwarming part.

On the one hand, I really liked the plot about a guy who leaves an abusive home and finds love and comfort and truth. Also, the Romance was mostly really cute and believable. And the author's style was very engaging, I couldn't stop reading until I finished.
On the other hand, I was uncomfortable and bothered by some word choices which I found offensive, like referring often to one of the main characters as "effeminate", "feminine", or describing him as a "girl" or a "fairy" and talking about how it was better than a feminine woman because he was "less clingy". I'm sorry, what? How is this OK? If someone has an explanation, I really want to know. Because it feels weird to me. I value that it tries to show some fluidity in gender expression and all that, because it's necessary and quite cool, but the way in which it was done seemed unfortunate and shallow.
Anyway, it has the right Holiday spirit and cuteness and sexyness, with some very heavy topics and some action even to spice it up.

This book! It made me cry buckets of tears! My only issue is that it's too short! Why?????

Yes, I got too involved, I know.

This is just the perfect romance read I was craving for and yes, for such books there's nothing like not a particular time to pick it up but you know it makes a perfect choice for all the LGBTQIAP romance lovers out there which involves the warmth and kindness if absolute strangers (the world needs more of this!).

Dani. One of the main characters. He has lost all his confidence growing up in an abusive household (warnings for physical and sexual abuse; death and grief).

Christian. The other main character. I am telling you we all deserve a Christian in our lives.

The writing got me right from the very first page. The story is good! The ending so damn satisfying.

But I still want proper justice for all the harm done to the characters.

I am still wishing for a second part. I do feel the book ended too soon.

Worth it!

Thank you, author and the publisher for the advance reading copy.

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
A very quick, somehow magical holiday read. There are a lot of dark themes and I recommend reading the author's note beforehand. There really isn't much to say because the book is really very short (I was done in about an hour) but I really appreciate the level of fluidity on gender(expression) and sexuality.