Dear Santa by Nancy Naigle – a Review

Amazon / B&N / Kobo / iTunes / Google Play / BAM / Book Depository

Description:
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.

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 town’s 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?

Encouraged by her niece to ask Santa for help, 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?

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?

Review:

Dear Santa by Nancy Naigle is a sweet Christmas romance.  Angela Carson, our heroine, has lived all her life in Pleasant Sands, North Carolina; and she runs the local Christmas shop, Heart of Christmas; which she inherited from her mother.  Angela loves her shop, and mingling with the townsfolk who have always shopped at her store for unique high scale items, but lately she has been struggling, since the new Christmas Galore, a mega super chain, opened their doors.  It is hard to compete with a big store that has all kinds of items at cheaper prices.  Angela knows she needs to face reality, and think about closing the store after Christmas.

Geoff Paisley, our hero, is the owner (with his mother) of Christmas Galore, and they are all thrilled how well the store is doing.  When Geoff stops at the local coffee shop, he notices a pretty woman, who smiles at him.  It will take him a few days to find her, and realizes she is the owner of the store who is slowly going out of business because of their store. 

When they come face to face, each knowing who the other is, the conversation turns into a shouting match, with each walking away.  Angela’s sister tries to convince her to close the store and move on; and her niece makes her write to the Dear Santa app.  Angela writes a quick note to Santa that she is sad, her business is failing; of course she does not know that Dear Santa app is run by Christmas Galore, and Geoff’s mother.  When Geoff mother has a heart attack and ends up in the hospital, he will learn the truth of her past growing up in Pleasant Sands, and where his father died.  She begs Geoff to take over the Dear Santa letters, which he reluctantly accepts.  Geoff is a “suit”, a workaholic, rigid, all business and little compassion, but when he begins to answer the letters, he finds himself softening up.  He will be the one to open Anita Miracle’s (Angela’s pseudonym) letter, and start a friendship.

What follows is a sweet wonderful heartwarming story with wonderful characters, and an enemies to friends to lover romance.   The romance between Geoff and Angela is very slow burn, but it was fun to watch them argue and avoid each other, but at the same time fight off their attraction. Eventually Geoff will realize who Anita Miracle is, and starts his friendship with Angela with an apology.  It was great to see how Geoff changed, and I did love them together, though it took a long time. Lol

Dear Santa was very well written by Naigle, and a wonderful Christmas story about family, life and love.  This is a perfect holiday book you should be reading.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher