Sunday's Child by Grace Draven

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With one prompt left for FaRoFeb, I needed to find a FaRoFeb author. I also wanted to cover a prompt for the 2nd board of Winter's Kiss, but it was harder to find one that would also cover a holiday or winter prompt. When I found Sunday's Child, a holiday novella by Grace Draven, I was so happy! You don't see fantasy romance holiday novellas too often if at all. I did end up using this for the holiday romance prompt for Winter's Kiss.

Andor is trouble for sleeping with his king and uncle's mistress. When he receives a thousand year exile he gets paired with Saint Nicholas on Midgard (a.k.a. Earth). One night when assisting with Christmas duties (as Santa Claus) they come across Claire, a young girl that is a Sunday Child. She has the excess magic to see through Andor's "Santa's Elf" glamour to his real elf self. For Sunday Children the magic slowly fades if not exercised, usually along with their belief in magic and Santa. When Andor runs into Claire years later as an adult, he's immediately drawn to her. As they start a tentative relationship, Claire is worried about starting something new. Her last relationship didn't end too well and is left as a single mother to an autistic son. As they get closer and Andor befriends her son, his exile has come to an end a decade too early.

I really enjoyed this, but it is Grace Draven. However, this one was a little more confusing. I'm still not a hundred percent sure what's going on, but I feel like Andor is a mix of Norse mythology and Fae. Then we threw in Christian mythos with the original Saint Nicholas and then how he became Santa. It just was a little much and I think it could've been less confusing since almost all of the story took place with Nicholas. I really liked how Andor and Claire connected and it felt like a quick coworkers to friends to lovers. I also loved the way that Andor was able to connect to Claire's son and how he was able to be both understanding.

I also could've used more of the fantastical elements outside of Andor just being non-human. I was a little disappointed that it became Andor giving up his specialness instead of sharing it with Claire and her son. I also could've used more focus on them together. We do get a romance between them that's really sweet with a little bit of steam, but I feel like the beginning and ending more focused on Andor specifically. It wasn't a typical HEA type ending and I did want Claire to join Andor and her son when he made fireflies for him for Christmas. I just wish that Claire was included.

I still loved it overall, but it just didn't feel as complete as some of the other novellas I've read from Grace. I will certainly continue to read her and I can mark another book off of my backlist list for her! If you are looking for the rare holiday fantasy romance novella, certainly pick this up.

Have you read Sunday's Child?

Bookishly Yours,

Stasi🍎

STATISTICS: Sunday's Child, Grace Draven, 4-stars, 0 days, eBook, 127 pages, published in 2017, indie published