CA: dubcon, under-negotiated kink, humiliation play

Max Masters Scrooge is a jerk. He cares about money and himself, often at the expense of those around him, even--or especially--his boyfriends and romantic partners. Shortly after an intense and lovely steamy encounter with a new client in the showers at the gym where he works, Max is visited by the Bogeyman, who has Christmas Eve off from scaring children and has agreed to use his night off to scare Max right. This involves learning lessons (through kink) at the hands of three men he wronged in the past, and when Max is successfully terrified, shamed, and guided into trying to be a better person, the Bogeyman gives him the gift of returning him to reality before he screwed things up with his shower encounter. And then a romance brews.

I enjoyed that Colgin didn't try to stick too firmly to a retelling of A Christmas Carol and instead just used the basic supernatural redemption plus three encounters idea. The book feels maybe a little weirdly divided into two--the "ghosts bit" and the "romance bit"--and Max and Daniel fall in love just a little too fast, but I quibble. It was a fun read. ( )