The Christmas Shop
A Novel
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- £4.49
Publisher Description
From USA Today bestselling author Nancy Naigle, The Christmas Shop is a heartwarming Christmas story about finding your passion for life and love.
A holiday retelling of You've Got Mail that will make you fall in love with the Christmas Season!
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 over sixty tourist seasons, major hurricanes, and urban sprawl, in 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 ten 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 that 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?
* Originally published as Dear Santa
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Naigle (the Boot Creek series) disappoints with this snail-paced homage to You've Got Mail. Angela Carson's long-standing family Christmas store is in trouble, and the profits dwindle even more when Geoff Paisley opens a branch of his own Christmas store chain nearby. Convinced by her seven-year-old niece to use an app to write Jolly Old St. Nick, Angela pours out all her woes and worries, expecting to get an automated reply. Geoff's life is running his family business, which also owns the Jolly Old St. Nick app. When his mom becomes ill, he agrees to answer the letters for her and is surprised to learn that his favorite pen pal is his feisty competitor, whom he's admired at a distance. After a very public argument, Geoff extends an olive branch, leading to a chance at love. The small beach town of Pleasant Sands as a setting for successful Christmas stores is hard to believe in, as is the software that picks certain letters to be answered personally. The plot lacks the finesse of the movie, and Angela's secret identity is so thinly veiled it's laughable. The story focuses on the protagonists' individual lives more than their budding relationship, and the mundane dialogue only adds to the disappointment. Readers should look elsewhere for both romance and holiday cheer.)
