5 out of 5 Candy Canes and Jack O’ Lanterns

Holy Christmas, Batman! I really enjoyed this one, and I read it to begin December, so it was PRIME Christmas storytelling-with a twist! Nicolas (Coal) and his brother, Kristopher, are the sons of Santa (or who we know as Santa, his name is never really given in the book). Coal, the oldest, is a bit of a troublemaker and we start the book with a major disaster that he created in an attempt to “help”, that came after the big break up between he and one of the Princesses of Easter. He’s known as a bit of a prankster, so it’s not seen as being helpful, just as him being himself and a screwup. Kris comes to find him in a bar and they get a phone call from dad, and just before Coal decides to go home, he ends up in the alley way and there is a hot guy back there – and things happen. But the guy disappears. Once Coal returns to his holiday, Christmas, there is a big PR stunt to get his image back by marrying him off to his best friend Iris (the other daughter of Easter)-who coincidentally is his brother’s crush. However, Halloween gets wind of this and objects, by sending their son, Hex Hallow, to Christmas to vie for Iris’s hand in marriage. The problem? Hex is the Alley Guy. Hijinks and conspiracies ensue.

I really enjoyed the idea that the Holidays are different realms with leaders, but that the people there are…people? Like Coal, Kris, Iris and Hex all go to universities in the real world (Yale, Cambridge, UNAM) and have actually studies and such. But they also have these realms of their respective holidays that has their own hierarchy, no dissimilar to royalty. I think the combination was super fun. I also loved that there was no Bi-erasure – Coal is bi. He likes women, he likes men, full stop-and it’s not seen as “other”, it just…is. Hex was so unexpected. After the alley scene, I totally expected him to be this badass, tough dude but he is a COMPLETE MARSHMALLOW OMG SOMEONE WRAP HIM UP! He was so sweet and so duty minded, but he was so afraid to show how he really felt about Coal at first. Iris is such a BAMF, she is so awesome. I need a story about her, honestly. She was such an amazing friend, but you could tell she absolutely needed someone in her corner. It would be cool to see what the fallout of the failed engagement between her sister and Coal affected Easter. Santa?? He can eat a bag of dicks. He was so awful. To an extent, I could see why he was doing what he did, but OMG he was such a terrible father to the boys in their later years. He definitely only used them for leverage instead of as his sons who were going to inherit Christmas. It was crazy.

I really did enjoy this. I actually met the author at a signing event for a different book entirely (not even in this series) and didn’t even realize it was her…and I owned this book already and hadn’t read it. I didn’t realize just how much I had missed out on! She is AMAZING and funny and so creative!!! I can’t wait to dive into more of her work!