#rebecca barton

[libertyreads]

Book Review #78 of 2022--

Christmas at La Villa Rosa by Rebecca Barton. Rating: 1 stars.

Read on June 20th.

I’m going to keep my review for this one short because I did NOT have a good time while reading it. This feels like someone who isn’t from Italy decided to write a Literary Fiction take on a holiday romance....and they did a bad job. There was no holiday to this holiday romance. I would argue that there’s no romance in the holiday romance. A grumpy (older, but ambiguously so?) man brings down his walls (for no real reason I can discern) in order to have sex with a younger woman. His actions make no sense and he gets angered for no reason. There’s nothing about this guy that says romance. And there were no actual romantic moments. They’re both grumpy about having to work together on a project and then a few chapters later they’re having sex. Despite nothing really happening in those few chapters. It all felt gross to me and I didn’t enjoy it.

Overall, I give the novella 1 star. I would give the romance 1 star. And I would give the Christmasiness 0 poinsettias. Most disappointing novella in the Kindle Anthology.

[whereevenismyliferightnow]

parenting

Oh no, this is too cute.

Bruce let his head lean against the door frame, not able to help his smile or the warm feeling in his chest as he watched his lover. Clint lightly pacing in the nursery, singing softly to the bundle in his arms in an attempt to get the baby to sleep.

It was terrifying, especially since the two of them didn't have many in depth conversations about becoming parents before they met the girl that would soon became theirs; but with most major things that happened in their lives they just went with it. Neither regretted the decision.

Rebecca, they decided to name her, babbled and reached towards Clint. Bruce's heart nearly melted when Clint paused in his singing to lean down and kiss her tiny hand before he was tucking it back into her blanket. It took a couple of minutes, but the combination of the singing and the gentle movements soothed Rebecca to sleep, making Clint sigh in relief as he gently set her into her crib and turned on the baby monitor.

He turned back to Bruce and smiled, small and tired. He had dark circles under his eyes, prickly hair littered over his jaw and upper lip, and he looked in need of a shower. To Bruce, he had never looked more beautiful.

“I've never been more attracted to you than right now.” Bruce whispered when Clint came closer, stealing a quick kiss before he allowed Clint to wrap his arms around him and rest his forehead against his shoulder. The lack of sleep was expected, but didn't make it any easier to deal with.

“Yeah?” Clint said with interest, though the effect was broken by a long yawn.

“Yeah.” Bruce reached up to cup the back of his neck, smiling as Clint relaxed against him. “C'mon, we might be able to get a couple of hours in.”

Clint whined against him, swatting him on the arm when Bruce laughed, but dutifully followed his led, gently closing the door behind them.

[wesfrazer]

Rebecca Barton. Birmingham, AL 2012.

[clintonmckay]

From the series “awesome prints people have given me this semester that I want to show you guys” this is an aquatint by Rebecca Barton. I'd been admiring them on Tumblr for months for obvious reasons and I really wanted one, Rebecca was awesome enough to give me one when I met her at SGC during her open portfolio. Awesome awesome, just like all of her work. Very cool girl.