Reunions are one of my favorite ways to bring lovers together, and with how much I love Christmas stories, I’m sure you can guess that it doesn’t get much better for me than a Christmas reunion. ‘Matthew’s Present’ is particularly cute, with Matthew not liking the holiday very much at first, his five-year-old niece “getting in on the action” to fix this, and a result that had me smiling for quite a while.

If you like your Christmas stories deceptively simple and super cute, you’ll probably adore this one!


NOTE: This book was provided by Dreamspinner Press for the purpose of a review.
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Matthew Blick is pressured into taking his five-year-old niece, Hannah, to see Santa at the mall so she can tell him what she wants for Christmas. Matthew has been relatively grinchy since finding his boyfriend in bed with another man years ago, and although he no longer has feelings for his ex, the holiday season just reminds him of the betrayal. It turns out that Hannah wants her Uncle Matthew to find a man to make him happy for the holidays, and Santa knows just the man for the job.

This story was pretty short, and I just don't feel like the characters were fleshed out all that well. I never really understood why Matthew was so upset about the holiday season if, as he claimed, the feelings he had once had for his ex are really water under the bridge. Yes, I still get stupidly sentimental about my first serious girlfriend around the holidays (and other times of the year, or when certain songs come on the radio), but I will be the first person to admit that I still love her, even though we haven't seen each other in years and years.

There was also a very insta-love feel to this story. It turns out that "Santa" is actually the first guy that Matthew kissed back in high school. They didn't attend the same school, and Matthew didn't really recognize the guy upon meeting or even the guy's name. Just too much too fast for me, and it didn't feel believable because of it. ( )