For someone who is pretty meh about the winter holidays, I sure do love to read holiday romances. They have to be a certain kind of holiday romance though. No the magic of the season made me love life again stories. In these three Christmas shorts, Christmas festivities bring the characters together, but the holiday isn’t the reason they fall in love.
Olivia Dade’s All by My Elf is a classic Dade novella. It’s got sweetness, spice, a realistic portrayal of adjunct faculty life, double entendres, and puns. Nina has taken an embarrassing, but lucrative, job for the winter break, and dragged along two of her colleagues, her best friend, Claudia, and her crush, William. The three of them are dressed as elves, driving around in a repainted wiener-mobile, and selling mincemeat treats for a newly opened mincemeat treat company in Virginia. Just in case you don’t know what a wiener-mobile looks like – feast your eyes:
Why yes, if that vehicle were painted in a human flesh tone, it would look like a reproductive organ.
So, on top of the humiliation of very well educated adults in their 30s needing to take this job that pays more than the important job of education, they keep getting guys in cars yelling, “mine is bigger.” And worse, for Nina, it seems like her best friend and crush are about to start hooking up. I’ve read Olivia Dade before, so I know that William is 100% gone for Nina already. Once Nina and William are alone, pulled over because of winter weather, misunderstandings are cleared, feelings are revealed, and spicy things happen. It’s a delightful short read or listen.
Alexis Daria’s Only Santas in the Building mixes some grief into the romance. Evie bought a Christmas tree, but it’s bare, except for the ornaments she has been finding on her doorknob. She has ornaments, but they are in storage and wrapped up in her grief for the loss of her grandmother. Evie is the newest tenant in the building, and since moving in, she’s developed a crush on her upstairs neighbor, Theo. Theo has been very helpful, helping the movers maneuver her furniture up to her third floor walk up, helping her carry up her Christmas tree, and changing a lightbulb she can’t quite reach. Another neighbor holds a yearly Christmas party, and this year’s theme is “Only Santas in the Building.” Evie decides to dress up as a sexy Santa to gauge Theo’s interest (high).
Alexandria Bellefleur’s Merriment and Mayhem Everleigh accidentally sets her gingerbread cookies on fire and while trying to turn the smoke detector off ends up falling into the arms of a ridiculously good looking fireman, Griffin. Everleigh has inherited her grandmother’s house and is in this small coastal town for a couple of weeks to get her grandmother’s affairs settled and the house ready for sale. When Griffin asks her out, she declines. So, it’s a little embarrassing when she ends up being rescued by him again. Merriment and Mayhem is a nice short read that gives you the warmth of good people being good people and a dose of lust and affection.
All three novellas are charming and full of people taking care of each other.
There are two other novellas in the series by Ali Hazelwood and Tessa Bailey.
I received this as an advance reader copy from Montlake and NetGalley. My opinions are my own, freely and honestly given.