Beginning ~ with a letter to Santa

Dear Santa,

It's me, Chrissy, again.  I'm still being good.  I'm going to have a Christmas tree in my room.  You can put my presents there so I don't have to wait until Daddy wakes up Christmas morning.  He sleeps way too late.  Be careful on the stairs.

Chrissy

The Christmas Shop ~ by Nancy Naigle, 2018, fiction (North Carolina)

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?

Dear Santa is billed as a "heartwarming Christmas story about finding your passion for life and love."  The book I'm reading now is a heavy one about plague — yes, like the one we're living through.  I'm not sorry I'm reading it, but this one is Christmassy, light-hearted, a beach read (literally, since the main character's Christmas store is in an old lighthouse), and fits this jolly season a bit better than a book about a plague in Peru.  So I bought it for my Kindle a few minutes ago.  The two books are so different that I think even if I alternate reading them, I wouldn't confuse the characters in the least.

Gilion at Rose City Reader hosts Book Beginnings on Fridays.  Click the blue link for more book beginnings.