If you'd asked me last week...
I would have said 'Daddy kink' was not my thing, but I have always maintained that a well written story is always my thing and this one was definitely well written.
When Nick Spini gets convinced by his friend John to play Santa for a weekend the last thing he anticipates is how attracted to Santa's helper he'll be. It's been years since an accident took the life of his partner and during that time it's been just him, his beagle and his tree farm. No emotional attachments and only the occasional hook-up was all he wanted.
When Hunter Adams accepted the job of Santa's helper at the local mall to try and earn a bit of money before the holidays the last thing he expected was that he'd end up wanting to sit on Santa's lap. But one look at the hotest Santa he's laid eyes on in the history of ever and that's exactly what Hunter wants.
So far this year I've read a few holiday stories and I have to say this one is definitely at the top of my list of stories I'm like to re-read or better yet...hear on audio. Nick and Hunter were totally combustible together and their interaction was fun. There was humor and tenderness with an attempt at the occasional scrooge moment by Santa but when Santa's helper is a cute perky, sexy little twenty-something even the grumpiest of Santa's can be thawed.
It's not until Nick hires Hunter to help him out at his tree farm that things really begin to heat up in more ways than one between the two. Despite Hunter's determination to not be late for work when a snowstorm arrives early and with a lot more ferocity than anticipated not only does it make Hunter late for work but it sees his car sliding off the road into a snow bank leaving him no other choice but to try and walk to Nick's tree farm even though the man told him not to bother coming to work just before he hung up on Hunter. It's a rather questionable start for their relationship...but stranger things have happened...right?
This one was more than delightful and not only did I enjoy the MCs and trust me...I so enjoyed the MC's. But there was also Hunter's mom, who seriously folks this lady was awesome and very realistic. She was a single mom and she loved her kids and she was honest with them. She wanted her son to be happy but she didn't wear blinders and as I think any parent would she had concerns for her son being involved with someone so much older than him...it wasn't a yes or no situation in her mind it was more like 'you make my baby happy, but if you hurt him. I will end you.' I was totally on board with this and as a mother myself, I understood where she was coming from. Plus there was Ella the beagle who really did seem to be one adorable dog and Nick's delightfully meddlesome friend John who just wanted to make sure his friend moved on from tragedies of the past and there were the sexy times between Nick and Hunter...and I do mean sexy times...seriously next time I walk past Santa's village at the local mall I'm pretty sure I'm going to spontaneously combust or blush furiously at the very least.
Ok one last moment of delight for me and if you know me and you've read this book than you know what's coming...this book is set in...come on you know where I'm going with this...it's in ONTARIO!!!! That's right cold and snow are a must at Christmas time!!! To be precise it's a small town just north of Toronto and I will clarify that to the best of my knowledge and my subsequent google search it's a fictitious town but I'm pretty sure if one was to take a drive north of Toronto they could find at least a couple of small towns that fit the description of 'Pinevale' so I'm good with this it's Ontario.
It's Christmas, there's snow, a hot Santa and a sexy and adorable elf plus a cute as can be beagle...really, what's not to love?
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An ARC of 'Santa Daddy' was graciously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.