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Before jumping to a book club book, I had a little bit of time and one more prompt for the 2nd board of Fall in Love that wasn't already allocated. The prompt I read The Boss Who Stole Christmas for was man in a suit on the cover. This is the first in Jana Aston's Reindeer Falls series; all holiday novellas.
Holly Winter is a Christmas person. She celebrates starting Thanksgiving and her town is a top tourist destination for Christmas festivities. One of her dreams growing up was to work for the local toy company, which she accomplished. However, the owner retired not too long ago and his seemingly surly nephew Nick Saint-Croix took over. When Nick wants to make additions to Holly's Teddy Bear Cafe project, he sets up a last minute business trip to the headquarters in Nuremberg, Germany. Will they stay enemies when forced to be together in the magical holiday vibes of Nuremberg?
I was really looking forward to this. Even though office romance isn't my favorite, the premise sounded fun and it reminded me of several Hallmark Christmas movies. It just didn't hit like I was wanting or expecting. First off, this was set in 1st person. Which while not my favorite, can be done well. What really threw me off though was the first couple chapters. It was in first person, so it felt like Holly was telling me, the reader, all about the city and work and her life. It just felt odd and kind of info dumpy. For something this short, I just didn't need all of the information right away.
Another thing that really bother me was how it tried to play up that Nick was "the Grinch." I expected more of a retelling of the story and Nick was never a Grinch at all. It was more Holly getting caught up in her own assumptions. I don't know, I just was let down how sweet Nick was and that he was drawn to her from the minute they met. Even if he did make fun of her reindeer cupcakes. Nick honestly really saved it for me. For how quick this was too, I almost wish that there wasn't as much contention between them. Just one too many conflicts for my taste, especially since we're at about 80 pages. Also, small nitpick, but he never "steals" Christmas. There is a forced business trip, but it's at the beginning of December and only about a week. Most everything just seemed to fall short for me.
I did enjoy the setting and side characters. Like I said, I really loved Nick. I almost wish we got his POV too. I feel like this might've been a higher rating if it wasn't in 1st POV with the info dump in the beginning. I'll probably pick up the next couple books in the series. The first three deal with the Winter sisters and the next three just recently came out. I also have Jana's full length novels on my tbr and I'd be interested to try one those since there'll be more time for character development.
Have you read The Boss Who Stole Christmas?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
STATISTICS: The Boss Who Stole Christmas, Jana Aston, 3-stars, 0 days, eBook, 79 pages, published in 2019
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