Review: The Reluctant Santa

Reviewed by Shelly
 

Yeah, Christmas is here and how do we know this? Other than the absolute craziness of our busy lives, the Christmas themed stories are out in full force. Well folks, I’ve got a good one here for you.

Colin McDermott is a self described Grinch who’s allergic to Christmas and everything surrounding it. By day, he’s a workaholic salesman for a software company, and by night, he’s an unsuspecting Santa. In order to win a coveted contest and the associated promotion Colin unknowingly goes to pitch his spiel to the small hospital where his ex-girlfriend from college works. Brooke Warren, Colin’s ex, is the assistant administrator at Crystal Mountain General Hospital. She has a five-year-old daughter and absolutely no friends outside of work. These two ex-lovers are accidentally (or is it?) reunited after six years. I was completely and totally hooked by the end of chapter one.

Suckered into playing Santa ‘for the children’ by Amelia Carter, event planner extraordinaire and all around donation guru, Colin grudgingly puts on the suit and goes to work. Poor emotionally stunted my-mother-didn’t-love-me Colin is so focused on making his first million he’s willing to do just about anything to get ‘er done, including putting on the dreadful Santa gear. While he’s playing it up to the kids, Colin meets a very special little girl. I really liked Colin, although he’s conflicted after meeting Brooke and her daughter again, all he wants to do is the right thing. How can you not like a guy like that?!?

Brooke was a great character, even though she had some issues – mainly stemming from her single-minded focus of raising her kids-- that I really kinda sorta felt sorry for her. This made her come off as one dimensional without interest or aspirations outside of raising her daughter. Don’t think I’m being mean hearted here.. her retired father was there to help her as much or as little as she wanted, so it wasn’t like she couldn’t take a night off and hang out with people her own age. Even with all that, I still enjoyed her. She and Colin really sparked on the pages. You could feel love/ hate/ anger/ love/ hate/ anger/ love as these two fell in love. Very well done.

The only complaint I have about this story is that the long-term situation that brings these two back into each others lives is repeated way too much.

The sex is pretty tame, the word ‘center’ is as naughty as it gets. If you’re for a nice quick treat for the holiday, I would definitely recommend that you pick this one up and give it a try.

Happy Reading folks!

Rating: B

*Book provided by author for review 

Click to purchase: Amazon

The Reluctant Santa

by Sylvia McDaniel

Release Date: October 19, 2012

Publisher: Virtual Bookseller