Name: Becky's review of Dear Santa by Nancy Naigle
Item: Dear Santa
Rating: 3
Author: Becky

Nancy Naigle

From USA Today bestselling author Nancy Naigle, Dear Santa is a heartwarming Christmas story about finding your passion for life and love. Angela Carson wants nothing more than to be the third-generation to run her family’s holiday store, Heart of Christmas, successfully. They’ve weathered over sixty tourist seasons, major hurricanes, and urban sprawl, in their old decommissioned lighthouse. But the national chain that set up shop in their small North Carolina town of Pleasant Sands may be more than Heart of Christmas can survive. Encouraged by her niece to ask Santa for help through the Dear Santa app, Angela gives in and lets the words fly in a way that, if Santa were real, would no doubt land her on the naughty list. What’s the harm when it’s just a computer-generated response? Geoff Paisley has been at his mother’s side running the mega-chain Christmas Galore for the last ten years. When his mother falls ill, Geoff promises to answer the Dear Santa letters in her stead. Soon he realizes the woman he’s been corresponding with on Dear Santa is Angela. How could the woman that grates his every last nerve in person have intrigued him so deeply through those letters? When Geoff reveals that he’s her Dear Santa, will Angela be able to set aside their very public feud to embrace the magic of the holiday and possibly find true love?

A Novel

Dear Santa

Becky

This was essentially a Christmas retelling of You've Got Mail. From the rival businesses (and the bigger one putting the smaller more friendly and people-oriented one out of business) to the guy arriving at the girl's house when she's sick. Whilst I did enjoy such a Christmas themed retelling... I'm not totally certain it improved upon the original tale seen in that film. I suppose the only major difference is there were far fewer exchanges between the paid in the book. Few messages went back and forth and they had a whole heap of face to face interaction instead.

The book wasn't terrible. In fact, despite reading it in early November (when it most definitely is not Christmas yet and far too early for folks to be getting excited!) I did still find myself enjoying this but of festive fun. I felt all excited for the Christmas baked treats and decorating the tree and even the dreaded prospect of Christmas shopping (which I most definitely need to start). The book definitely had the festive season captured within its pages, something which not all festive reads easily achieve. 

I think it was just all the similarities between it and You've Got Mail which bothered me. I recently saw a blogger explain how they categorise retellings and for me this is one which was easy to spot due to the similarities and, for me, was a little too close to the original so when familiar events occurred it jarred me out of the story as my brain went back and compared it to a scene in the film. I adore You've Got Mail, a Christmas themed version set in a small town in South Carolina is not a bad thing and I did enjoy Angela and Geoff's tale of going from enemies (on Angela's side) to friends to something more. The gradual shift from the antagonistic to the friendly was lovely. And I was just as heartbroken as Angela as she slowly had to accept the end of her Christmas store because she loved that place but it was lovely seeing her move on to the next part of her life.

There were parts which bothered me outside of the retelling similarities too, like the fact that I felt like some side characters never got to have their chance to shine, and that I definitely felt like there were story elements were not explored enough (both of them had family stuff Iw ould have liked to explore more) but I will not grumble because a book which can give me a festive buzz in November is nothing to be sniffed at. I am a notorious grump about Christmas, I love it, but I do wish people would stick to December being it, I hate those folks counting down in July.

Jolie

What drew me to this book was that it was a holiday retelling of “You’ve Got Mail“. I loved that movie. I have lost count at how many times I have watched it. Put it this way, if it is on TV, forget what I am doing. I am watching it. As a blogger friend pointed out “There can’t be many book lovers that don’t love that movie“. So when Dear Santa showed up on my reviewing radar, I jumped at it. I am glad that I did. This was a cute romance.

Dear Santa is the story of Angela and Geoff. Angela runs a local holiday store, Heart of Christmas. Her business is struggling since Christmas Galore came to Pleasant Sands. She is sick over the possibility of her store closing. After starting a public feud with Geoff, the co-owner of Christmas Galore, she decides to vent on an app designed by them. An app that Geoff’s mother routinely checks. When Geoff’s mother ends up in the hospital, he takes over and answers a letter from Anita C. Miracle. He is taken by her emails and soon takes it off the app and into a regular email. Geoff soon realizes that Anita is Angela. He also realizes that he is falling for Angela. How can he break it to her that he is Guy? And will Anita return his feelings?

While I liked Angela, I did think that she was a pushover for the first few chapters of the book. She did end up growing a backbone but still. She cared deeply about that store and she didn’t want to let it go. It was her last connection to her grandmother. I thought that her marketing schemes to get people to go to the store was fantastic. I loved the idea of Snow Valley!! I liked how she stood up to Geoff. She was funny. I also like that she was honest with herself about her feelings about letting go of the store and Geoff.

I thought Geoff was a jerk for the first half of the book. He didn’t like being in Pleasant Sands and he made no effort to cover it off. He even gloated about putting Angela’s store out of business. I did start to like him after his mother was in the hospital. He started to see how his superstore affected local businesses in the area. He also started to see that his feud with Angela wasn’t going to do him any favors with the locals. I liked that right around that time, he started having feelings for her. And what he did to try to win her over…sigh. That gesture put him on my good side.

As always, the secondary characters made the book. Angela’s niece was adorable. I liked Geoff’s mother. But, I couldn’t stand Angela’s sister. OMG, I wanted to strangle her. She did nothing but put Angela down. I wanted to smack her. I did. There was nothing redeeming about her.

I liked the plotlines in Dear Santa. The two major plotlines were cute. There was no lag in either plotline. The author did a great job at bringing them together at the end of the book. She also did a great job at incorporating the secondary plotlines in with the major ones.

The first plotline was Angela’s closing of her store. That was heartbreaking because her grief came off the pages in waves. In the book, she said it was like losing her grandmother all over again. I wish that her sister understood. I also wish that Geoff could have taken what the family-run/smaller businesses were going through went such a store moved into the area. Not only was Angela losing her store but the local artists that she supported were losing a place to showcase what they made.

The second plotline was Angela and Geoff’s email relationship/their feud. I thought the feud was a little overdone. He could have been nicer to her at the snowball event. She didn’t have to go to the local news and basically call the stuff his store sells cheap. I did wonder when their hatred was going to turn to love. I liked how the email relationship evolved. I didn’t know how he didn’t figure out that it was Angela sooner. The hints she left in her messages weren’t exactly hard to decipher.

I liked how the author wrote the romance part of the book. It wasn’t Instalove (thank you!!). Angela and Geoff had to find a common ground and then work their relationship up to that. What I also enjoyed is that there was zero sex. ZERO sex in the book. Another thank you. I like hot, sweaty sex scenes as much as the next person but sometimes I need a break. And I got that with this book. I was able to focus on the story and enjoy it. Not to worry that Angela and Geoff would start tearing each other’s clothes off and do it under a Christmas tree.

The end of Dear Santa was great. I liked how the author wrapped up the storylines. She ended them in a way that satisfied me as a reader. I also loved the epilogue!!!

I gave Dear Santa a 4-star rating. This is a sweet romance. I came to care for the characters. The book was a fast read too. A great book to read to get you in the Christmas spirit.

I would give Dear Santa an Adult rating. There is no sex. There is mild violence. There is mild language. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I would reread Dear Santa. I would also recommend it to family and friends.

I would like to thank St. Martin’s Press, St. Martin’s Griffin, and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review Dear Santa.

All opinions expressed in this review of Dear Santa are mine.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

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Dear Santa by Nancy Naigle

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