Reviewed by Larissa
TITLE: A Kiss for Santa
AUTHOR: Mia Monroe
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 132 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 10, 2022
BLURB:
This year, Santa gets a gift too.
One night every year, I deliver gifts to all the good people around the world. I have everything I could want—a beautiful private home, loving friends and family, and the most amazing job in existence. All my needs are more than met, and the other 364 days of the year are mine to spend how I wish.
The only thing I don’t have is a love of my own. I’ve been hopelessly in love with Luca Vincent for years, watching him from afar, but he has a full life and it would be selfish of me to woo him away. Which is a problem because I have to be married soon or lose my Christmas magic to my brother. Neither of us wants that to happen, leaving me with two choices—let the Council arrange a marriage or find my own husband fast.
With my looming deadline and Luca’s holiday cheer slipping away, I know the time to act is now. Somehow, I have to convince him to come back to my home with me. I’ll use every tool I have and plenty of holiday magic to make him mine. Maybe this Christmas, I’ll find a Kiss For Santa under the tree.
REVIEW:
A Kiss for Santa is a sweet, if superficial, Christmas romance penned by Mia Monroe. However, it’s hard to see Monroe’s fingerprints on this holiday tale, because it departs from the insightful, subtextual storylines she usually provides and doesn’t contain the sharp dialogue, textured characters, and spicy heat she typically delivers. In fact, while enjoyable, A Kiss for Santa is, well … bland.
The story follows a fairly straightforward story arc that incorporates elements of fantasy stories featuring Fae, gods, or angels. Like these immortals, Magnus, aka Santa, has an infinite lifespan, and lives in a magical world that exists within the human world, but is concealed in plain sight. Magnus is very busy doing his Santa thing – spreading joy and cheer around the world, and he takes his job very seriously. It’s left him little time for love, and even when he encounters Luca and falls for him, he pines for him secretly for decades. But now Magnus is on a timetable with an imminent deadline. Monroe invokes the “find a partner by [deadline] or we’ll find one for you/you’ll forfeit your wealth/position” trope, as Magnus is forced into finally revealing himself, his secrets and his love for Luca in an effort to convince Luca, without forcing him, to be his partner and come live with him in his world.
Their instalove romance plays out with a swift, non-controversial decision to stay together forever and the minimal bumps along the way feel artificial – like Monroe needed to throw some monkey-wrench into their plans but couldn’t come up with anything really plausible. The sabotage subplot is really the only bump in the road and it, ironically, serves to bring them closer. The rationale for it is thinly premised and predictable, with a caricaturish “bad guy” that is disposed of without much fanfare.
Monroe’s romances typically feature spicy, sassy attitudes, smoldering chemistry, and a good amount of heat, but that’s all strangely absent in this story. Even her characteristic clipped speech cadence is missing. Maybe Monroe was just trying something new and different with this story – an effort I applaud. However, creatively stretching involves some trial and error, an iterative process that typically doesn’t hit it’s mark the first time out. A Kiss for Santa is either a good first try at something new or a rare miss for Monroe within her wheelhouse.
For a sweet, low-angst, novella-length holiday romance without much in the way of heat or bite, A Kiss for Santa fits the bill. I did enjoy it but didn’t feel invested or excited about it. Perhaps my standards are set too high. In any event, whether or not you like A Kiss for Santa should not determine your view of Monroe as an author. This story feels like an aberration to me, so I encourage you to give her Tattoos & Temptation series a read (or better yet, a listen with the glorious vocal performances of Kale Williams on the audiobooks) to get a better feel for what Monroe can do.
RATING: 
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