REVIEW: Comet’s First Christmas (The North Pole Chronicles Book 1) by Delilah Night

JayneB- Reviews / Book ReviewsChristmas / Contemporary / holiday novella / lesbian romance / novella / Paranormal / paranormal romance / were-reindeer2 Comments

A bad Santa is turning believers faster than melting snow. Can the mystery be solved in time for Christmas?

Claudia
I’ve dreamed of this day for years, and now it’s reality. I’ve been called up for the Big Show. Official Pole phone and email, Naughty-or-Nice login, and upgraded I.D. with my new job title—Comet. In three weeks, I’ll be part of the team flying Santa around the world.

In an instant my life goes from peaceful, if boring, to a blizzard of last-minute flight preparations, route planning, and anxiety-triggering stress.

The moment I meet my P.A., Jillian, her beautiful smile and sparkling blue eyes are an oasis of calm. But I’ve barely got enough time to wonder if her plump lips taste as sugarplum sweet as they look. Disturbing news has popped up on Santa’s radar.

Someone is turning Santa’s most fervent believers into non-believers overnight. If we can’t find and stop this hacker, there won’t be enough reindeer cutout cookies and hot chocolate in the world to restore balance to Santa’s Naughty-or-Nice list in time for Christmas Eve.

Note to reader: What sweet Christmas romance would be complete without reindeer, The Nutcracker, ice skating at Rockefeller Center, and New York pizza?

Dear Ms. Night, 

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this novella, especially as it’s listed as a “book 1.” It ended up being a sweet, holiday novella with a mash up of traditional (American) Christmas plus modern high tech. And Klingon. 

So a lesbian, were-reindeer pulling sleigh for Santa? Pole owned property in major cities that serves as local headquarters for the elves around the world plus the reindeer assigned to that area? Santas being careful to respect that children might want to just stand beside him (no female, non binary, or genderqueer “Santas” yet but the real Santa is open to inclusiveness) rather than sit on his lap while telling him what they want? Why not? The Pole has gone twenty-first century complete with NoN (Naughty or Nice) lists on the official phones, meetings to discuss changes to routes for “The Big Night” and run throughs to make sure everyone who believes will be fitted in by morning. Plus Blitzen who studies Klingon. 

Introducing Claudia (her real name vs the Title she uses now that she’s been promoted to helping pull Santa’s sleigh) to the delights of Christmas in NYC is a great way to show off the Season there. She’s young, enthusiastic, excited to try all the human foods and customs she’s studied and read about – plus she likes cats. Major points for that. I did get tired of the initial flipping back and forth between real names and reindeer names – pick one and stick with it, please. 

The mystery of who is trying to ruin Christmas for so many “believers” is only partially solved. I guess that this will be continued and finished in a future story? The bait that the villain uses is clever and one that might be hard for most people to resist. There is a “kisses only” very insta-romance between Claudia and her PA elf. Part of me is glad that it was a lite romance as reading about a Santa reindeer having sex might have scarred me. I enjoyed Claudia’s childlike wonder at seeing a different view of Christmas away from the Pole and watching her confidence in herself grow. And this certainly is one of the most unusual Christmas holiday novellas I’ve ever read. B-

~Jayne

AmazonBNKoboBook DepositoryGoogle

Jayne

Another long time reader who read romance novels in her teens, then took a long break before started back again about 20 years ago. She enjoys historical romance/fiction best, likes contemporaries, action- adventure and mysteries, will read suspense if there's no TSTL characters and is currently reading very few paranormals.

→ Jayne