Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE: Sexted by Santa

SERIES:  Thrust Into Love Holiday Romance

AUTHOR: DJ Jamison

PUBLISHER: Self-published

RELEASE DATE: November 18, 2021

LENGTH: 365 pages

BLURB: 

Christian Kringle: College professor, reluctant Santa, and…fake dating my neighbor?

I’m a grinch and proud of it–but this year, there’s no avoiding the Christmas cheer.

First, I get roped into playing Santa. Shudder. Then, while trying to dodge a setup with my boss’s brother, I somehow promise to attend a holiday party with my boyfriend–who doesn’t exist.

Next thing I know, my (soon-to-be former) best friend has set up a profile on a hookup app to find me a date. With the username of….wait for it…SantaWantsYourChimney.

Go ahead and laugh. He sure did, the traitor.

Before I can delete the profile, I match with an easygoing guy with amazing photos. His teasing about Santa kink makes me laugh, and blush, and feel things I haven’t since my divorce. For the first time in years, I look forward to dating.

Until we meet, and he turns out to be my neighbor. My very young, very off-limits neighbor who I’ve clashed with for years. Only now I know just how sexy, charming, and sweetly devoted to his daughter he is.

I should walk away, but I still need that fake boyfriend. The only problem? Jaxson’s so convincing I can’t tell where the pretense ends and real feelings begin.

Falling for him is easy. Loving his daughter? Effortless. Trusting that I can keep them is the hard part.

It’ll take the magic of love, family, and yes–even Christmas–to teach this old grinch new tricks.

Sexted By Santa is a standalone holiday romance set in the Thrust Into Love universe.

REVIEW: 

Sexted by Santa is a holiday romance set in DJ Jamison’s Thrust into Love universe (Book 1, Swiped by My Dad’s Best Friend, Book 2, Matched by My Rival, and Book 3, Tapped by My Roommate), although the connection is tenuous at best.  This enemies-to-lovers, age-gap romance between Professor Christian Kringle and his single dad next-door neighbor, Jaxson, actually bears little resemblance to the previous series books at all.  While Sexted by Santa’s premise is ostensibly the same – love developing from an initial connection forged over the Thrust hookup app – that aspect of Christian and Jaxson’s relationship is like a blip on the radar in the larger context of the story.  And what a beautiful story it is.

Sexted by Santa takes elements of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and begins to spin it into a modern-day morality tale.  Christian inhabits his Ebenezer Scrooge-like persona well, with all the bah-humbugging you’d expect.  He hates Christmas, especially after his ex-husband asked him for a divorce on Christmas Day.  Christian’s bitter, and it invades every aspect of his lonely life. He’s even dismissive and rude to Jaxson’s adorable daughter Tori. Tori’s struggle with Type 1 diabetes parallels ACC’s Tiny Tim, Bob Cratchit’s ill son.  Even the Santa “setup” has ACC relevance: Christian’s Aunt Henry enlists him for three Santa appearances at nursing homes and hospitals, each of them an opportunity for Christian to open his heart and get a new vantage point on life.  This is conceptually similar to the spirits of Christmas past, present, and future that convince Scrooge to change.

Somewhere along the way, though, this story changed into something different and better. The trajectory of Ms. Jamison’s story of Christian and Jaxson falling in love and forming a family seems to take on a life of its own about a third of the way in, shifting its dynamic dramatically, almost like it picked up steam that then drove it onto a different course.  I wondered if it was intentional, but Ms. Jamison helpfully answered that question in the negative, acknowledging that the story did in fact turn out differently from what she planned:

“I set out to write a cute little romance between a Christmas grinch and a devoted single father – but this book turned out to be about so much more than that.  It’s about falling in love, but it’s also about the true meaning of family and the power of believing in love rather than regret.”  – DJ Jamison

I think this is what you’d call a “happy accident” because I love the story Ms. Jamison told, even if it wasn’t what she initially planned.  

Christian and Jaxson’s romance has purity and honesty rarely seen.  It’s two mature adults communicating, working through their differences, and trusting in love and family together.  We see real-life challenges in Tori’s health and Jaxson’s everyday stress over balancing the competing demands of his life as a single-parent.  Ms. Jamison sets Jaxson’s dedication to Tori against his anxiety concerning her condition and the toll it takes on his health and well-being.  The resulting story arc is charming, thoroughly engaging, and completely relatable.  Any parent would understand the staggering weight of Jaxson’s responsibility and the overwhelming love of a parent for a child.  It gave this story a depth that the other stories in this universe lack.  Which is not to say I didn’t enjoy the other Thrust Into Love stories. Rather, it’s a testament to the message Ms. Jamison communicates here.

Ms. Jamison does an excellent job at giving both Christian and Jaxson dimension and complexity within a heartwarming, reassuring, and hopeful storyline. While the subject is serious, she doesn’t let the story drag or become too heavy.  It’s plenty sweet, at times silly, with some sexy times thrown in as well. But more importantly, it carries weight and meaning that belie the expectations set based on the title and the content of previous stories.  She balances all the elements deftly, creating a well-rounded, absorbing romance.

I always enjoy Ms. Jamison’s work, but Sexted by Santa surprised me in the best way.  I highly recommend this holiday story brimming with home, happiness, found family, and overwhelming, encompassing love. 

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon