Reviewed by Larissa

TITLE:  Nyall

SERIES:  Christmas Sprites, Book One

AUTHOR:  Macy Blake

PUBLISHER:  Self-published

LENGTH:  120 pages

RELEASE DATE:  December 1, 2022

BLURB:

Good things come to those who bake.

At least that’s what the sign hanging in Mistledough, the bakery owned by the gorgeous and mysterious Nyall claims.

When reporter Aaron Newton is banished to Mistletoe Falls for the holidays and forced to provide fluffy and lighthearted stories without a hint of scandal, or else, he finds himself drawn to both the bakery and the sweet taste of the man who runs it.

Aaron may not have come to the small Christmas town for love, but a little holiday magic is in the air, and the season may bring Aaron everything he’s ever wanted… if he’s willing to get whisked away by the handsome baker whose family has a secret to rival Santa Claus himself.

If you love opposites attract, small towns with holiday traditions galore, and magical elves, er, sprites, who make the season bright, you’ll fall head-over-mixing bowl for this feel good Christmas romance.

Author’s Note: Although this series takes place in the Chosen Universe, it is completely stand-alone.

REVIEW:

Nyall is the first book in Macy Blake’s Christmas Sprites series, four interconnected Christmas short stories in Blake’s Chosen One Universe.  Each story focuses on one of the four elf/sprite cousins who live in Mistletoe Falls and are tasked with bringing joy and holiday cheer to its residents through the use of their magic.  

If you’ve read The Chosen One series to its conclusion (which isn’t necessary for these stories), you know that magic has started to return, and humans, paranormal shifters, and magical creatures are all beginning to find their fated mates again. In this sweet Christmas story, Nyall, the town’s baker, and Aaron, a reporter sent to the Falls to write some holiday news stories, quickly discover that they are undeniably, unavoidably, attracted to each other. Their connection is inexplicably strong from the moment they lay eyes on each other.

Nyall is surprisingly low on steam, at least in comparison to what Blake typically provides in her full-length titles, but it is full of small-town vibes, found family, quirky, colorful characters, and plenty of humor.  I liked how Nyall and Aaron worked together as a couple. The problem, at least for me, is that the story is incomplete. World-building takes up a decent amount of pages, but even so, Blake still presents many questions about the Sprites and their magic that she leaves unanswered.  

As is usually the case, Blake gives us a funny, sexy, sweet romance, but it feels very rushed, and its resolution doesn’t feel like a resolution at all. The conclusion of Nyall bridges right into the next book, Oberon, so it seems that these four stories may be more like four parts of one overarching story with a continuing storyline from book to book. So while Nyall doesn’t feel satisfying in and of itself, Blake has definitely piqued my interest with this interesting new world and characters.  I’ll be sticking with it to see what comes next.

RATING:

BUY LINKS: 

Amazon