Dear Santa

A perfectly fine and fluffy Christmas romance about getting everything you wanted and then realizing you asked for too much. Lindy Carmichael is happy for two weeks in her hometown with her parents over Christmas but that is about all she's grateful for. She's had an awful 6 months in Seattle and all she wants is a break. Her mom instantly knows something is wrong and Lindy spills her guts. To cheer her up, her mother brings out a box of Lindy's old letters to Santa. Santa was really good about granting her wishes too. Just for fun Lindy decides to write to Santa. She wants a new romance, a new best friend, and to get her project selected at work. It's all for fun, but then she reconnects with her old childhood best friend. And then she stumbles across a bully from her youth and dang he's aged well. Soon her time is flying by and she's grateful for everything. But what will happen if Santa grants her third wish? Cheesy, predictable and cute. Would make a great Hallmark movie. 

Twelve Days of Christmas

Ugh - this was just over the top. It was predictable from chapter one, unbelievable, and just not great. I couldn't care less about either of the characters and it took willpower for me to finish it to the end. Julia is a happy cheerful person - she greets everyone hello, remembers her bar barista's name, and volunteers all over Seattle. While "auditioning" for a job she has to create a blog and if she has more readers and hits then the other candidates she'll get her dream job. The only problem is she doesn't know what to write about. Her friend tells her that she should kill her neighbor... with kindness. Her apartment neighbor, Caine, is a short tempered brute and Julia decides that her blog will center on 12 days of kindness. What she doesn't imagine is that they'll fall in love. It's not believable - it happens very fast - and I don't care how sad his childhood was - he's a jerk. What will happen if he finds out she's been blogging about all this - oh no?! Predictable and unbelievable. The book did not fill me with kindness - it filled me with impatience. 

Merry and Bright

How is this not a Hallmark movie? Seriously. If Hallmark's Countdown to Christmas and You've Got Mail had a love child - Merry and Bright would be it's offspring. Merry is all work and no play she's got a few weeks left at her temp job and the overtime is killing her. She really needs the extra income so she can finish her last year of college and help out her family. She lives at home with her mother who has MS, her father, and her 18 year old brother with down syndrome - and due to all the extra hours she's been putting in at work - she hasn't even gotten to enjoy their company very much. As an early birthday gift her mother and brother Patrick buy her a subscription to an online dating service and fill out her page for her - instead of putting a picture of her up on it - they put a picture of their family dog. Their hope is that Merry will find someone who is attracted to her personality - rather than looks. To her surprise a man with a picture of his dog as his profile picture responds to her page and the two hit off. Soon the two are staying up late every night chatting. Will they ever meet and if so will they like what they see? 100% predictable and 100% sweet, charming fun. It's pure holiday fluff.