I loved the setting of this book. It really reminded me of the new movie Noelle, and it was incredibly fun. For me, this aspect made the entire book.

The romance though, was very rushed and under-developed. We didn't get a good sense of the main characters' personalities and why they were attracted to each other, and it was a really strong case of instalove.

Something else that made this decidedly less fun was the blatant fatphobia, where "fat" is used as a synonym for "ugly", and "you're not fat" is said as a compliment.

Rep: gay MC, gay MC, non-binary side character

CWs: fatphobia (unchallenged)

This was a really cute holiday romance! Turk is next in line to be the actual Santa Claus! But his parents aren't convinced that he's ready to take over because he hasn't found a partner to spend his life with. When another Christmas passes without Turk being allowed to take over, he takes a holiday!

Turk meets Christmasologist and Ph.D. candidate Symeon Golightly at the hotel desk he's staffing. He's bored and lonely and immediately interested in listening to Turk's tales. The two men get to know each other and are definitely interested in one another! ... but soon Turk is called home because Santa is sick. Some of Sym's research helps them to figure out what they might need to do to save Christmas!

This is a well-written story that is over-the-top cute :)