May Your Heart Be Light: A Christmas Faerie Tale, by Sandy Lender. ArcheBooks Publishing. 225 pages. Paperback $7.95. Kindle e-book $5.95.
Suppose a 200 year old vampire needs to raise some funds. Might he turn his Colorado mansion, his Rose Chateau, into a hotel and go into business? Caleb Odan does just that, assisted by his driver, Roger, and his bartender, Niles. They create an extended vacation package that brings a couple of dozen people to enjoy about four weeks of Christmas season leisure. Most are looking for a quiet, relaxing time – even the four young women who are graduate school classmates finishing up business degrees.
Sandy Lender
Well, they are looking for fun, too. But not the excitement that comes from a nearby jailbreak with the prisoner on the loose.
Other vacationers include a young couple with two rambunctious young boys, an elderly couple, and an odd fellow named Graham Smith.
Caleb is an awkward host, just learning the ropes about interacting with his guests. He hasn’t had much social practice in the last 100 years or so. This 200 year old vampire, who has had to live an isolated life for the last century, just can’t keep up with the changing times. Roger, who has been in his service for twenty years, is his bridge to contemporary styles, values, and both material and popular culture. Caleb is a good student, but there’s just too much ground to cover.
At once macabre and humorous, “May Your Heart Be Light” gains some of its light touch from the banter between Roger and Caleb as Roger “translates” Caleb’s new experiences. To Caleb, a handsome fellow who dresses the brooding baron part, it’s the 21st century American humans who are the oddballs. But he needs to fit in with them as well as he can. It’s business.
There’s something extra-special about one of these young women. Jenna DeVision is gorgeous, modest, and gets lost easily in Caleb’s cavernous home. She is especially attracted to Caleb’s library, a place jammed with the lore of the non-dead and swirling with threatening spirits.
Caleb is infatuated with her, but hesitant to hurt her. He keeps his vampirish desires under wraps as much as he can, but he does use his special powers to enter Jenna’s mind and plant visions that attract and confuse her. . . .
To read the entire review, as it appears in the February 10, 2016 Fort Myers Florida Weekly and the February 11 Naples, Bonita Springs, Punta Gorda/Port Charlotte, and Palm Beach Gardens/Jupiter editions, click here: Florida Weekly – May Your Heart Be Light
Phil Jason Reviews Books 
It’s a joy to see your positive comments, Phil. I’ve always valued your opinion. I look forward to seeing you Saturday at the book festival and hope it’s a great success for the organizers.
It should be a wonderful time at that Port Charlotte event. See you there.