30 Days of Christmas - Day 7 - Christmas Shopping for a Billionaire by Julia Kent

I realize I'm a day late getting this posted. My sleep schedule is completely out of wack and irregular and yesterday I crashed at about nine pm, right after getting my kids to bed, and I typically do my blogging and most of my reading while the kids are asleep. But I have every intention of making two posts today since it's not even nine am yet, and I'm getting this one put together, so I will be back on track.

Genre: Romance/Holiday

Published: October 1, 2014

Pages: 68

Ages: 18+

Synopsis

USA TODAY BESTSELLER! When Shannon is called to the mall to work as a sexy elf, her billionaire boyfriend, Declan, gets roped into playing Santa. The mall mommies start tweeting pictures, and soon everyone is crashing the mall to have a seat on Santa's lap.

**This rom com short story (67 pages) comes after Shopping for a Billionaire 4 in my Shopping series, but it can be read as a fun standalone as well!**

Review

Ultimately, I was disappointed by this novella. It received several glowing five star reviews on Amazon, and it's one of those books that just made me wonder how on earth that could be possible. It might be an issue of different tastes, but it also probably boils down to the fact that most of those reviewers were already fans of Julia Kent's Shopping for a Billionaire series (something I am not). So what did I find so disappointing about this book?

To start, there was basically no character development at all. I know that Declan is hot and Shannon is apparently very busty. I would give the author the benefit of the doubt on this one, since the book technically comes after the fourth book in her series, but she clearly stated that it could be read as a standalone. Characters need to be developed beyond their superficial appearance in a standalone. 

Then there's the drama. There is entirely too much drama for such a short story. Seriously, it's only supposed to span like three hours and it includes some Russian mobster with a gun, an incredibly bitchy tiger mom who complains about anything and everything, and everyone and their dog (literally) wanting to sit on "Hot Santa's" lap based on some person making a tweet by bitchy tiger mom go viral. And even though Santa is supposed to be doing his job, it seems like he is hardly ever sitting in his chair. 

Let's move onto the humor because this is supposed to be a romantic comedy. I found it sophomoric and crude. The crutch of the humor is the constant nip slips that Shannon experiences in her barely there elf costume (what kind of mall dresses their elves in sexy elf costumes anyway?) and none of the parents so much as bat an eye about it, even though it keeps happening. I would not be taking my children to see a Santa that had an elf dressed like Shannon was. 

There were a couple things I liked about this book though. It was short and free on Amazon, so I'm not out any money or much time for reading a book that I mostly didn't enjoy. Also, aside from the crude humor and excessive holiday euphemisms (I never thought I'd find a book that I thought had too many holiday euphemisms), the writing style was pretty decent. There weren't a lot of spelling or grammar errors, and it was reasonably engaging. I might look into the first book in Ms. Kent's Shopping for a Billionaire series at some point. 

Overall, I give this book 2.5 out of 5 stars because although the writing was clear and engaging, I didn't feel any connection with the characters, felt it was overly dramatic, and even the twelve year old boy inside of me was not amused by the crude humor. If you are a fan of the overly crude and overly dramatic, this just might be the book for you. - Katie 

Buy the Book

Amazon