By: Heather Dowell
*Originally posted on Heather’s blog.
It’s hard to enjoy Christmas with a broken heart.
Or at least that’s how Trevor Salvatore feels. Distracted by losing the girl of his dreams to another guy, Trevor realizes that he forgot to complete a mandatory service project he needs for graduation. He has until the new year to get the hours in, which is how he ends up volunteering at the Christmas Village in Ocean Grove.
Sabrina would rather be shopping. Or planning her annual Secret Santa. Or almost anything other than hanging out with the locals in Ocean Grove. Unfortunately, she’s in trouble. Big trouble, and the judge isn’t interested in excuses or favors. She has thirty days to complete sixty hours of community service to get her life back on track.
Can thirty days, sixty hours, endless candy canes, and gallons of hot chocolate teach these two that sometimes the best gift has been right in front of them the whole time?
Sabrina and the Secret Santa is a standalone novel from Love in Ocean Grove, series of books about swoony first time love and toe-curling kisses for readers of all ages.
Review
This was so stinking good. You’ve got this snobby, selfish girl who gets community service for driving with a permit who thinks she can pay her way out of it. Then you have a high school senior who forgot to do his service hours to graduate because he’s busy with wrestling and helping him mom raise an autistic teen.
I love when I read a story where I love to make fun of the rich person and their “problems” because I know they will go through a change. This was almost a reversal of the manic pixie dream girl, but the guy learns that it’s okay to take time for himself by the end of the book.
They have to help the community center with all of its holiday programs. Lots of festive customs and plenty of angst. It may be a short read, but it feels like a fully developed novel. This is the first I’ve read in the series and had no issue keeping up. However, it includes characters from earlier books, so I want to read those at some point.
If you want a holiday romance, that’ll make you shed a tear but mostly laugh and swoon, this will be great.
Functionally Fictional 
Leave a Reply