A sweet little holiday novella to round out the series, this effectively casts Atlas as Ebenezer Scrooge in the witchy version of 'A Christmas Carol'. But instead of persuading him to change his miserly ways, the three Spirits of Solstice will curse him to a life of solitude if he fails to let go of the darkness inside his heart...

In some respects this retelling is a little 'on the nose'; with the world she's built, the author could have given it more of her own twist while keeping things reminiscent of the Dickens classic. However, what we have does work well, and it's a nice little twist to have the happy-go-lucky character be the target of the ghosties' ire. Likewise, the introduction of Marley as the 'spirit wrangler' was a cute idea. 

Once you get into the story, it's exactly what you'd expect and so that element does make it an easy read. But, like the second book, there are moments where I questioned whether I'd skipped something, which dulled the flow. It's like I can see the author has this fully built world inside her mind and a great story to tell, but the tiny little details get lost in translation. As before though, if you can let your imagination fill in the gaps, it works really well.

Just like A Christmas Carol, the visions proffered by the ghosts are not all light and fluffy. But, they give you a wonderful insight into Atlas' character, which is exactly what I was after. He now means so much more as person to me because I understand his backstory better, as well as what he's feeling and perceiving about himself. Yes, I would have liked a similar deep dive with Bash, but actually Atlas's character arc really needed this to bring him up to a top tier MMC. 

I'd call this one fluff with substance. And the little glimpses of the future make for great fanfic fodder! Even if it does just stay in my head.