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Mrs. Saint Nick*
Learning More About Herself and Christmas
What an utterly charming holiday novella! I’ll admit, I had a hard time getting into it because the language seemed a little strange and simple at the beginning, but once I got used to it and got into the characters, it was fine. Holly is an efficiency expert who is hired by Santa to make things better for operations at the North Pole. She’s a very straightforward young woman who is dedicated to her job, but she has a troubled past with Christmas because of her parents. Santa has her work directly with his son Nick, who goes by Saint Nick. Holly sees him as a deadbeat, privileged son who doesn’t pull his weight. As they work together, though, things gradually change between them, but Holly nearly puts Christmas in jeopardy. In trying to right things, Holly learns more, and in a more profound way, about what Christmas truly means.
Parts of this book had me smiling because I found it fun to look at Santa’s doings as a business. Think naughty and nice reports, loading schedules, and other things like that. Nick and Holly were surprisingly well-drawn characters, and who could not love Santa? The story had more depth than I thought it was going to have. There are definitely some strange issues with grammar, punctuation, and usage. Comma splices were rife through the entire novella. Other commas were left out completely, like the required one between independent clauses joined by “and.” I do find these kinds of things distracting, especially when they are just so prevalent in a book. However, I did thoroughly enjoy this book and its look at the true meaning of Christmas and gift giving.
