Okay, so first of all: this was really stinking cute. It was full of Christmas fun, and I couldn’t help but feel festive when reading it.

I wouldn’t usually mind the flimsy plot, or the narrator so unreliable that it’s just frustrating, or the cheesy cliches, except that they were all. So. Much. #

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The main character, Cameron, is back from his first semester at college and he’s pretty sure he’s flunking. To save himself from having to confess to his father that he won’t be keeping his scholarship, he starts working for the local mall in their Santa Land, where there is a reality-style contest for the best elf, with a $5,000 prize. The whole thing was completely outrageous, and while on one level I loved it, it began to wear thin quite soon. The story became so much about the competition, which got more and more complicated as the story went on, that everything else sort of faded to the background.

What I would have loved to see is more of Cameron and his dad. While his dad featured quite heavily towards the end of the novel, for the bulk of the first half we barely see him while Cam keeps telling us how much his dad means to him, and how important it is that he makes things right. Their relationship felt quite abstract for a fair chunk of the book, but I would have loved to see a lot more of it.

It’s really hard to write a great contemporary YA novel, because what it’s about and what it’s about are two different things, but one has to be hidden inside the other. This one didn’t quite manage to combine the two, but came frustratingly close.

I received a free copy for an honest review.