Ranger Station Haven is part of Dreamspinner’s 2016 short holiday story collection. It stars two park rangers, Carter Williams and his husband, Owen. The book is told in first person present tense from Carter’s pov.

3.5 Stars



I don’t usually like first person narratives and especially not present tense. However, this book was well written, probably the best of the few books I’ve read in this collection. The plot was also interesting. I did have difficulty with the two MCs.

Carter is a grouch and I found it very difficult to find anything positive about him. Even towards the end of the story, I still found him unpleasant and he made the story less enjoyable to read. Carter hates Christmas and people. That’s why he likes being a ranger; he’s out in the woods, alone with Owen. What I didn’t like about Carter, was that he seemed to attempt to destroy any enjoyment Owen had for Christmas. What kind of person who supposedly loves their spouse, tries to make a holiday unhappy for their partner? I couldn’t understand why Owen would even bother to marry someone who disliked Christmas as much as Owen loved it. This brings me to Owen. The readers don’t learn much about him because the story is written from Carter’s pov, but what we see is that Owen is written a bit like a Marty Stu. Perfect. I don’t remember any flaws about him except Carter’s subjective opinion that Owen liked the holidays too much. Perfect characters aren’t enjoyable since they have no flaws, so I found Owen predictably boring. The one good thing about Carter revealed as the story goes on, was that he loved Owen very much.

As I mentioned, I enjoyed the plot. However, I thought the ending was rather abrupt and the older children didn’t get the help they needed surrounding the topic of why they ran away in the first place, just an offer to return to the ranger station in the future. Carter knew the reason they were running away but he didn’t offer to help the older children with the original situation. The ending fell flat for me because of Carter’s lack of help.

The writing is good in Ranger Station Haven, but the issues I found bothersome, stood out enough that I can only give this story, 3 Stars.


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I'm not normally one for established couple stories but I love a grumpy MC and this has one of the grumpiest, yet most endearing that I've read for awhile.
Adorable, funny, and achingly sweet in the best way. ( )