Reviewed by Sarina

TITLE: Reindeer Games

AUTHOR: Kenzie Cade

PUBLISHER: Less Than Three Press

LENGTH: 22,000 words

BLURB:

Dashing von Stride has one thing on his mind: winning the window display contest for the Miracle on Main Christmas Contest. His plans are set and ready—and then he walks into his toy store, Reindeer Games, to find a sleigh that shouldn’t be there. The mystery sleigh sparks a new plan, however, and now all Dash needs is the perfect Santa to model his display after.

This year, the pranks with his reindeer have gotten out of hand. Instead of preparing for the Big Day, Niklaus Kringle is hunting for his missing sleigh. Locating it should have been easy, but games easily won are seldom worth playing…

REVIEW:

For years, Dashing von Stride has had one goal: to win the window display contest for his toy store so he can finally shut rival store owner, Robin, the hell up. Not that he’d ever rub his nose in the loss. No, of course not. Thinking he finally has the perfect theme picked out, Dash’s plans are instead derailed by the mysterious appearance of a sleigh in the middle of his store. Confused but struck with an even better idea than before, Dash decides he’ll just roll with it and worry about how it got there later. Niklaus Kringle enjoys a good prank as much as the next guy but when his reindeer take his sleigh and hide it somewhere amongst the humans, he’s a little bit peeved; there are only a handful of days until Christmas and he needs to get back home to prepare. Locating his sleigh takes a back seat, however, when he walks into a toy store and finds himself captivated by the owner…

This story…was adorable! It was sweet enough I thought I might develop cavities but not too overwhelming so that I had no problems going back for more. This story was kind of a look at the next generation; Niklaus is Santa’s eldest son and the reindeer on his team are descended from the originals everyone is familiar with. I enjoyed Nik’s character and especially liked how he would never fit the stereotypical Santa. Dash, however, was the surprise for me. He’s really sweet and was so much more than he appeared at first glance; even better was that, even though he strives to be nice to everyone, when a verbal smack down is called for, he delivers without hesitation. The connection between the two main characters was easy to see and believable and I thought they fit well together. I enjoyed the story from start to finish and while short, it felt complete in a way that some other short stories don’t quite manage. If I had one wish, it would be that I could’ve read about Dash meeting Santa or finding out more about his family but I’m really happy with the story as it is. I know I’ll be reading this one again before Christmas for sure.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Less Than Three Press

Amazon

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