Thank you to Xpresso Book Tours and Netgalley for getting to check out this title.

I confess to mixed feelings about this book. I honestly didn't know what to expect going into to it. I wasn't even entirely sure how to classify it...is this a furry romance? My wife assures me it is based on the description. I don't know, maybe it is. Doesn't matter a huge amount. I also didn't know, though I figured it out promptly, that this was more of a novella than full novel, also not a big deal, but still.

First, the good. The first half to 2/3's of the book absolutely grabbed me, moreso than I was expecting it to going in knowing one of the main characters was a reindeer. Zen/Percy and Scarlett were equally awesome as characters, and I enjoyed getting into their heads. The characters, and by association the author, clearly has a deep love of all things geek, and the convention and cosplay stuff feels so authentic. Also, the LGBTQ+ rep was great...it feels like every reindeer in the North Pole is queer, and honestly, I'm here for it.

On the downside the back half/third of the book, basically from the time they enter the Quiet Zone, felt like such a sprint, everything seemed rushed. Whereas not much earlier in the book the author goes into details of where they stop for coffee, where they stop for coffee, why kind they get, what the foam art's like, taking pics for the 'gram of it, later they describe the trip back to Philly, Zen going to the Pole, talking with Wendy, returning to Scarlett and driving to Boston in almost the same amount of paragraphs. From the time they get to the location of the wedding, everything becomes so rushed in fact that a lot of things lose their impact...Percy's revelation of her true nature to Scarlett, their first time together, the conflict about Scarlett's choice, it was all too quick to give me the emotion I wanted from them. On top of this, because of the compressed nature, the antagonists end up coming off cartoonishly villainous, and I ended up with more questions that never got answered. I wish the Delilah had either stretched out the runtime of the book significantly to give these instances the depth they deserved, or not cut out the confrontation with the antagonists entirely for a later book and give them a greater sense of menace.

Overall, I enjoyed this more than I expected it to, I just wish the third act had been given the time it deserved. 3.5 stars rounded up.