Dear Santa

By: Nancy Naigle

Narrated by: Kristin Kalbli

Length: 9 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's Summary

From USA Today best-selling author Nancy Naigle, Dear Santa is a heartwarming Christmas story about finding your passion for life and love. 

Angela Carson wants nothing more than to be the third generation to run her family’s holiday store, Heart of Christmas, successfully. They’ve weathered more than 60 tourist seasons, major hurricanes, and urban sprawl from their old decommissioned lighthouse. But the national chain that set up shop in their small North Carolina town of Pleasant Sands may be more than Heart of Christmas can survive.  

Encouraged by her niece to ask Santa for help through the Dear Santa app, Angela gives in and lets the words fly in a way that, if Santa were real, would no doubt land her on the naughty list. What’s the harm when it’s just a computer-generated response?  

Geoff Paisley has been at his mother’s side running the mega-chain Christmas Galore for the last 10 years. When his mother falls ill, Geoff promises to answer the Dear Santa letters in her stead. Soon, he realizes the woman he’s been corresponding with on Dear Santa is Angela. How could the woman who grates his every last nerve in person have intrigued him so deeply through those letters?  

When Geoff reveals that he’s her Dear Santa, will Angela be able to set aside their very public feud to embrace the magic of the holiday and possibly find true love?

Also published as The Christmas Shop 

©2018 Nancy Naigle (P)2018 Macmillan Audio

Good story, but...

When I search for authors, I generally look for Christy or Carol Award winners or runners up. When I saw that this author was on the American Christian Fiction Writers honor roll, I thought, "Great. Just what I'm looking for." But it was not what was looking for. The author gave credit to Santa for Christmas miracles rather than God. There was no life of faith, praying, scripture, etc. It was a cute story, but disappointing.

The narrator did a great job and has a pleasing voice.

Not bad. *****Updated after 2nd listen**

*****. Update.*****
After listening to this a second time, I'd like to make a few changes to my review.
I like this book. Yes, the romance was a little hard to believe but okay, I got there. The story is sweet, the female lead is cute, the narration is great. This definitely goes on my "read every season" pile. Well worth a credit.
************************

This is so far my least favorite Naigle Christmas book. There's nothing really wrong with it, just not home run.
Kalbli once again does a great job narrating.
Other reviewers complained about similarities to the movie You've Got Mail. I wasn't that big a fan of that movie and didn't think the similarities detracted. I did however find the romance in this book a little hard to believe. And there wasn't that much romance to begin with.
I have a hard time finding Christmas romance books that aren't either too much about lust (I don't like romance books to seem too much based on wanting sex) or the tenth book in a series, so I'll probably keep this one and might even listen again next year.

Loved the Spin

I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Dear Santa. Loved Nancy's spin on a similar story. How coll would it be to own a lighthouse that was a store and now a place for tourists too. Small town living seems like the best.

Christmas version of ‘You Got Mail’...

...But the plot didn’t work for me. This is my 8th Christmas novel this December. Of those, Dear Santa has been my least favorite. To story line is a Christmas version the ‘90’s move ‘You’ve got Mail’... only not nearly as good (one of my favorite movies). There are redeeming qualities to the story and I liked the characters. However, many of the scenes were so similar to the movie it actually became a distraction and my mind couldn’t stop replying the movie in my head. I do not know if this was intentional by the author or not. The narration is good. What could have been a very enjoyable book was a let down in the end. If you’re not familiar with ‘You Got Mail’ then the might like this listen. However if you love the movie, save yourself some time and just rewatch the movie, you’re going to enjoy it more!

Very Fun Read

Since I pretty much have the movie this is loosely modeled on memorized, it was fun to see how she mixed it in. I love how this author is able to evoke the Christmas Spirit. A great read to lead into the holiday season. Loved it. It looks like I was the first listener to finish and review it. Yay!