If you like the odd, the adventurous, the sci-fi  world of magical beings, then this book is for you.

I read the first book, Claus: Legend of the Fat Man (see my review HERE) and was blown away. I laughed and played with the elves and reindeer.

Jack: The Tale of Frost is darker and goes off in a much different direction.

Sooooo, grab your hot toddy and blankie, stoke up the fire and put up your feet, and let’s enter the magical world that is Jack.

Sura takes a job at Frost Plantation.

She will meet Mr. Frost, who’s love of Christmas is obsessive, after all he invented Christmas, didn’t he?

Sura will find the love of her life and the home she has longed for.

She will also meet Jack, who is the opposite of Mr. Frost. Jack hates Christmas.

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A Christmas story so unusual, it makes the Grinch seem like child’s play.

The world building and character descriptions will have your mind working overtime trying to envision them. Tony Bertauski’s imagination knows no bounds as he takes me on a magical, sci-fi adventure after the downfall of the North Pole.

There is a love story, but to me that was just the icing on the cake. Jack is the cake.

Elves in South Carolina? Impossible? If you saw a round blue guy, what would you think?

I love a “guy” that I love to hate and Jack fits that bill to a T.

I wanted to laugh and cry with Jack, when I could get over the fact that he was a total asswipe. I felt bad for him and then I wanted to slap him up side the head. Jack didn’t have visions of sugar plums, but there were reindeer and a jolly fat man dancing in his head. The sun was so hot, but his memories were of white, fluffy snow and ice cold temperatures. He was not a pleasant “person” to be around. All that being said, I have to say that I liked Jack. The things he went through as he came “alive” made me root for him, encouraging him to hang in there, things will get better, won’t they?

I was confused for a while, trying to figure out what in the hell happened after all the badness at the North Pole, but as it came together I was even more surprised. This book is darker than Claus, but every bit as entertaining to read.

I love a surprise at the end, and Tony left me screaming for more!

4 STARS – Would Highly Recommend To Others

When Tony says, “I’d rather sail a boat than climb a mountain”, I smiled, nodded my head and said to myself, “I’m with you Tony.”

I received this book from the author in return for an honest and unbiased review.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

My grandpa never graduated high school. He retired from a steel mill in the mid-70s. He was uneducated, but he was a voracious reader. I remember going through his bookshelves of paperback sci-fi novels, smelling musty old paper, pulling Piers Anthony and Isaac Asimov off shelf and promising to bring them back. I was fascinated by robots that could think and act like people. What happened when they died?

I’ve written textbooks on landscape design, but that was straightforward, informational writing; the kind of stuff that helps most people get to sleep. I’ve also been writing a gardening column with a humorous slant. That takes a little more finesse, but still informational for the most part.

I’m a cynical reader. I demand the writer sweep me into his/her story and carry me to the end. I’d rather sail a boat than climb a mountain. That’s the sort of stuff I wanted to write, not the assigned reading we used to get in high school. I wanted to create stories that kept you up late.

Fiction, GOOD fiction, is hard to write. Having a story unfold inside your head is an experience different than reading. You connect with characters in a deeper, more meaningful way. You feel them, empathize with them, cheer for them and even mourn. The challenge is to get the reader to experience the same thing, even if it’s only a fraction of what the writer feels. Not so easy.

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To get your copy of Tony Bertauski’s Christmas saga, click on the cover below.

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