Dear Santa by Nancy Naigle | Book Review | Blogmas

Title: Dear Santa
Author: Nancy Naigle
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin 
Published Date: October 16th, 2018
Genre: Christmas, Contemporary, Adult
Page Count:338
Format: Paperback

My Rating: ★ ★ ★.5

Goodreads Summary: 
Angela Carson wants nothing more than to be the third-generation to run her family’s holiday store, Heart of Christmas, successfully. They’ve weathered over sixty tourist seasons, major hurricanes, and urban sprawl, in their old decommissioned lighthouse. But the national chain that set up shop in their small North Carolina town of Pleasant Sands may be more than Heart of Christmas can survive.

Encouraged by her niece to ask Santa for help, Angela gives in and lets the words fly in a way that, if Santa were real, would no doubt land her on the naughty list. What’s the harm when it’s just a computer-generated response?

Geoff Paisley has been at his mother’s side running the mega-chain Christmas Galore for the last ten years. When his mother falls ill, Geoff promises to answer the town’s Dear Santa letters in her stead. Soon he realizes the woman he’s been corresponding with on Dear Santa is Angela. How could the woman that grates his every last nerve in person have intrigued him so deeply through those letters?

When Geoff reveals that he’s her Dear Santa, will Angela be able to set aside their very public feud to embrace the magic of the holiday and possibly find true love?

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 My Review:

Dear Santa is one of those books that feels like a Hallmark movie. For any other time of the year I would dislike this, but for some reason during Christmas, I'm all for it.

This book is full of family, holiday cheer, and some drama. 



Angela runs her family business, that has been around for several years and is inside of an old lighthouse. The business is called 'Heart of Christmas' and sells Christmas related items all year long. Angela is also a history buff especially when it comes to her hometown and helping other people know all the important and interesting details of it. 
Things start changing in Angela's life though when a new megastore ran by Geoff comes to town. This new store is called 'Christmas Galore' and reminds me a little bit of like a Walmart/Menards type store just more Christmas related. Christmas Galore also has a Santa app where they answer kids Christmas letters to Santa. This is a big part of the story as Angela seeks Santa's help as Heart of Christmas starts struggling.

With Angela and Geoff facing off though and having some hostile feelings in the beginning things get a little interesting whenever they end up interacting.  As times goes on and they really start to get to know each other things start changing and they start understanding why each other have done certain things. 

Overall I really enjoyed this story. It truly did remind me of a Hallmark movie at times. I liked the character growth we saw in both the main characters (Angela and Geoff) and in the side characters. I think it was a great showing of how things can get skewed at times with family business and how lines get crossed and other things get overlooked. I'm really looking forward to reading more by this author next year for Christmas!


I did kind of dislike how rushed the last 30 or so pages felt. Did anyone else feel like it was rushed?