You don’t need to read Ranald in order, each of her books can be treated as a stand-alone, but honestly, it makes sense to. You read the first book and it sets up the next character you are going to follow or at least you get glimpses of them. Ranald kind of ran out of room out of the original friend group she was following, so in the last book she jumped to Abbie and Matt. We heard about Abbie’s best friends in that one and in this one we follow up with single mom Rowan. I know the title is cutesy, and all, but honestly I loved the plot of this one and thought the whole boyfriend part of it was not really most of the book. There’s a guy that Rowan is interested in, but it takes forever with her just kind of coming to terms with herself and her job. The ending was just okay, nothing Earth shattering or anything.
“Santa, Please Bring Me a Boyfriend” follows single mom Rowan. Rowan before the pandemic was a make-up artist, but is now selling (or trying to) sell homes. She thinks a few commissions will set her and her daughter up nicely. Rowan though is feeling a bit blue on the run up to the holidays. Her daughter is going to be spending time with her ex and his family. And she knows she shouldn’t, but she had been “stoking those fires with him” for years even though they were were separated. She doesn’t feel like celebrating Christmas and then her friend take it upon themselves to sent her a very expensive Advent calendar with her getting gifts every day up to Christmas (her friends purposely remove all of the items except day 1 because they know her too well and know she would just open them all up). Doing so has Rowan meeting handsome delivery guy, Alex, who seems to be in London for mysterious reasons. Both of them start to look forward to the daily drop offs and before she knows it, Rowan starts daydreaming about Alex.
I liked Rowan, but thought that parts of her story were really on her. Being upset about the mess of her relationship with her ex is really on her. I also didn’t get what she was getting out of it honestly. I wanted to see what made him so special, but there’s no there there. And I have to say, I didn’t buy her burgeoning feelings for Alex or his for her. Maybe because Ranald wrote Rowan in first person, and we have Alex in third person. Also Ranald tries to pretend something “dark” is going on with Alex, but it’s pretty obvious what was happening and all of that. I just felt bored by the obstacles.
You are probably wondering why I gave this 4 stars though. Honestly, the friends. I loved how they loved Rowan. I loved the whole idea behind a gift a day (FYI, I bought myself three Advent calendars that I am so looking forward to opening once a day) and the book just made me smile thinking about Christmas. There is also Rowans’ relationship with her daughter that I thought was great as well. And in the end she finally, finally calls out her ex and the BS that has been going on there between them on a lot of issues that I was glad to see.
Oh and we do get some hot romance scenes that I was actually surprised to see as written. Ranald has not done the fade to black or anything in her other scenes, but this one and I think the last one too were more explicit than her usual writing. Not complaining.
The ending was good, just not Earth shattering I thought. Can’t wait for the next one.