**This blog contains adult language and description of...ahem...adult activities.**
Warning: Spoilers Ahead!!! This is a recap blog which means I read the book and tell you everything that happens so you don't have to read it yourself. Do NOT continue to read unless you want to have the story completely and utterly spoiled.
Book Description: On Christmas Eve, romance writer Charli watches as something plummets into the woods behind her home. When she investigates she discovers an injured reindeer who quickly transforms into a man. When arctic shifter Arian's sleigh harness breaks during the Christmas Eve run, he knows he's lucky to be alive after the fall. But he's even luckier to have found his fated mate in the alluring human Charli. When Arian contacts his people with the news, he's surprised to discover they don't think Charli is his mate and are coming to see him before dawn on Christmas Day. Arian refuses to consider a life without Charli and will do whatever's necessary to ensure they'll be together forever.
This book was published in 2016 and is the first in a series about the reindeer from the Christmas song. I've never read any of them so I have no idea if this will be the only one I read or if I'll sneak in a few more before Christmas. I'm supposed to be reading Sweet Valley right now but I figured I'd slide this one in there to help me recover from that abysmal Cusick I was just subjected to. I hope it wasn't a bad choice. The names are already pissing me off. I hate Charlie without the 'e' and I can't figure out how to pronounce Arian. My brain wants to say it like “Aryan” but I don't like that. At all. I guess I'll go with “Ah-Ryan” because that feels less icky.
Maybe I'll call him Ari. That makes me feel better. We're going with that.
We begin with Ari polishing his harness and, no, that's not a euphemism for once. He's excited because the Blitzen position just opened on the sleigh crew and he gets to work the Christmas Eve run. Males outnumber females in North Pole City so the females get to be choosy about who they pick. In order to stand a chance, a male has to have a good job and working on the sleigh crew is a good job. If Ari does well tonight, he might be offered the Blitzen position permanently and then he'll be more likely to find a wife. There are only a few jobs acceptable to the reindeer shifters – sleigh crew or security – so competition is high.
The guy in the Dasher position is Rhys which I am going to pronounce 'Reece' in my head but you do whatever you want. He and Ari are pretty much the same age but Rhys has been on the crew for awhile and he advises Ari to go for a jog before he harnesses up to get rid of some of the nerves. Ari has a few hours before he shifts (I guess he has four different forms – polar bear, snowy owl, arctic fox and reindeer) so he decides to take the advice. He goes outside and takes off all his clothes and shifts into his favorite form which is the fox. He likes how fast the fox is. He runs around thinking how unfair it is that shifters have to have a good job and go through a special ceremony before they mate. Humans have it so much easier.
To be fair, a lot of humans also look for a mate with a good job. It's not a hard requirement but it's something that some people consider.
We're in the barn now and the time has come for the reindeer to get hooked up. The shifters come in and start to turn into reindeer form under Rhys' watchful eye. He wishes each of them good luck and then stops to reassure Ari one last time. The elves bustle about, getting the reindeer into their harnesses and then attaching them to the sleigh. SC comes in with Mrs C right behind him. She's fussing at him not to eat so many cookies this year and he's telling her that he has to eat them so the kids know he was there. He tells her he'll have a “special cookie” for her when he gets home and she calls him a “horndog” and I will never look at the two of them the same way ever again.
They start the toy run and Ari's having the time of his life until he feels the buckle of the main harness break. He falls through the air, hitting way too many trees before crashing into the ground.
We land in Charli's head. It's 11:30 at night and she can't sleep. She thinks about doing some work but she had major writer's block and can't find any inspiration. Moving into an isolated cabin in the woods in order to get peace and quiet to write really hadn't worked out for her. All it did was emphasize how lonely she was. She's standing at the window, staring out at nothing, when she sees what she thinks is a falling star streaking through the sky and landing out in the woods. She quickly grabs her boots and goes to check it out.
After walking through the snow and freezing her tits off, Charli comes across the body of a reindeer wearing an elaborate harness. There's blood in the snow under his mouth and she can't see him moving or breathing. Seeing a dead reindeer on Christmas Eve is just too much for Charli in her vulnerable state and she drops to her knees, tears filling her eyes. She puts her hand on the reindeer's chest and feels a “connection flash through her”. The author doesn't bother to explain it beyond that, so I don't know how it felt or if she knew what it was. The reindeer's body begins to contort under her hand and then it starts to glow. Charli feels like she's experiencing “love at first sight on steroids” with this animal that she thinks is dead.
Okaaaaaay.
Ari shifts back into a human while Charli's hand is still on his chest. She doesn't seem alarmed about this as she checks out his six pack. It's like she sees this every day. He looks up at her and says “Likli fanna” and then passes out again. Meanwhile, Charli is checking out his.....ahem....candy cane if you know what I mean. She decides that she should probably try to get him inside before he dies in the snow so she takes her coat off and rolls him onto it. She grabs the sleeves and starts to pull him across the snow.
This is the most well constructed coat on the fucking planet, y'all. I guarantee you that Ari is massive – the guys in these books are always 6'5” and built like actual houses – and yanking on something that someone that big is laying on should just rip the sleeves right off. It must be sewn together with unicorn hair or something. But somehow Charli gets him into her cabin and in front of the fire.
Charli gets him all covered up with blankets and removes the harness. She's trying to figure out if he's actually one of Santa's reindeer when she notices a new ornament sparkling on her tree. It's a snowflake and it definitely wasn't there before she went to retrieve Ari. She checks him out again and decides he's mega hot before curling up beside him on the floor and falling asleep.
I cannot believe she's being so casual about all of this. I would be freaking out if I just saw a reindeer transform into a human. Hell, I'd probably call my therapist. Charli's just like 'cool' and goes on with her life.
Ari wakes up mid-shift. His polar bear is roaring to the surface with the need to protect its mate. Claws and teeth appear and then he hears a woman gasp. He asks her where the danger is because his beasts can sense her fear.
I think she's just afraid of the claws and fangs you're sporting, dude.
Charli tells him that he's not in any danger. She rescued him a few hours before and they're the only two around. He taps into all the senses of his beasts and realizes she's right. His claws and teeth retract and he introduces himself and asks her name. Apparently it's Charlotte but everyone calls her Charli. I wish I could call her Charlotte. He asks her what happened and she says he fell from the sky.
Ari explains that he's part of the sleigh team and his harness broke while they were flying overhead. He leans forward to kiss her – considering her fair game because he's already decided she's his mate – but she puts up a hand to stop him. He kisses her hand instead. Charli finally has a minor crises thinking she's either crazy or dead but he reassures her that she's fine. He's real and no one is dead.
I'm not sure I'd take his word for it. He could just be a really convincing hallucination.
Ari asks to use the computer so he can let the security team know what the hell happened to him and Charli starts to cry. She just met him but she doesn't want him to leave. He reassures her again that he's not leaving. He just needs to let everyone know he's safe because they're probably worried about him. He makes it to the website and sends a message that he's safe and with his fated mate. He asks to be removed from duty and says he's seeking a permanent move to his current location.
Charli is mystified. She's a paranormal romance writer who focuses on shifter books. She tells Ari the lore she follows for her books and he's amazed that its all pretty close to reality. He imposes on her how important it is for her to keep shifters a secret because humans tend to want to examine and destroy what they don't understand. Charli's just happy that he's not leaving because she's already in love with this man that she's talked to for five minutes and thought was a hallucination for three of those minutes.
The computer beeps and Ari sees that his request has been denied. The security team will be there to pick him up in four hours. Ari knows that if he's outside of North Pole City at dawn on Christmas day, he'll be stuck there until the next Christmas Eve because creatures like him can only leave in the 24 hours from dawn on the 24th to dawn on the 25th. He curses himself for checking in before dawn because if he hadn't, he'd get to stay.
Ari offers to make her some food because his instinct is to feed his mate but Charli decides she's hungry for his....ahem....peppermint stick if you know what I mean....instead.
Ari carries her back to the fire and lays her down on the blankets. He spends some time licking her...ahem.... Christmas bell, if you know what I mean...and then gets down to the business at hand. When they get to the end, he bites her neck right where it joins to the shoulder and I'm confused because I totally thought that was a cat thing and none of his beats are cats. Do bears and foxes do that too?
Why am I asking these questions as if this is a real thing?
Sigh. But I have to know.
So apparently, while the male bear is courting the female they'll often chew on each other's heads or necks before copulation takes place and sometimes they'll give each other a nip afterwards but it doesn't seem like something they do during the act itself. I couldn't find anything that said that foxes bite each other during mating either. They do knot, though. So I'm going to guess this behavior is something Butler just used so Ari can mark her as his mate without telling her that's what he's going to do.
Afterwards they go to the kitchen so Ari can fulfill his dreams of feeding his mate. He makes eggs. They talk. It's not super interesting. We learn the following things: it doesn't hurt to shift, Ari's mom is an elf and his dad died in a barn fire when Ari was 8. Oh, and elves are normal human size and not tiny.
After hours of talking and.....ahem....making sugar cookies if you know what I mean....Charli falls asleep in Ari's arms. While she sleeps, Ari makes plans for the future. He's good with his hands and enjoys building so he figures he can add onto the cabin and make it big enough for all the babies he wants to have with Charli. The babies he doesn't even know if she wants. He figures they won't be shifters because, as far as he knows, you can only get baby shifters when a shifter mates with an elf. He thinks he can build a barn and maybe get some kind of livestock to raise. His bear would keep predators away so they wouldn't have to worry about that.
At some point, the security team comes for him. He ties a blanket around his waist and slips out to meet them without waking up Charli. He figures once he explains that she's his fated mate and he's already marked her, they'll just leave him be. Rhys, Declan, Jack and Sullivan are there and they don't look happy. Ari tells them again that he's found his mate and Rhys makes some kind of comment about Ari just being horny and Charli just being a “willing piece of tail”. Ari doesn't react well to this and all four of his beasts try to surface at once. Declan tranqs him just as Charli comes outside to see what's going on.
Charli sees the gun and runs back inside to get a cast iron skillet from the kitchen. She brings it back out as Ari collapses onto the ground and threatens the security team with it. They seem amused more than anything. They tell her to put the pan down because SC is on his way and he'll settle everything. They offer to help Ari inside but Charli doesn't trust Declan and doesn't want him near Ari. She eventually lets the other three drag Ari inside because he's naked and laying in the snow.
The three other guards put Ari on the couch and ask Charli to make him some coffee to help bring him around faster. They introduce themselves and tell Charli that they're Ari's friends and they only wanted to check on him. Charli isn't stupid and reminds them that they actually came to take Ari away. They can't deny that but say that things have changed now because Ari and Charli are clearly mated.
Charli makes the coffee and gets dressed. She still doesn't want the team anywhere near Ari and her protectiveness seems to impress them. She asks them for an antidote to the tranquilizer but they tell her they've never needed one before. SC will probably be able to sort Ari out when he arrives. She just has to trust that, but trusting any of them is hard for her.
We land in Rhys' head. He's truly amazed that Ari found his fated mate. Until today, he thought fated mates were just a legend and not real. He's a little jealous that Ari found one so 'easily'. I'm not sure I would count falling through the sky and crashing through a bunch of trees easy but whatevs.
SC arrives and instantly reverses Ari's tranquilizer. Rhys is a little nervous because he knows that Ari is still hella pissed at the security team.
We're back in Charli's head and she's having some kind of mental crises over the fact that Santa is in her house. He's way more muscular and handsome than she was expecting and not at all like the fat, jolly guy of stories. SC puts his hand on Ari's head and chants something and then the effects of the tranquilizer are broken. Ari immediately gets up and punches Declan in the nose. Seems reasonable really. Ari goes back to Charli and stands in front of her to protect her. SC says another spell and clothes appear on Ari – jeans, flannel shirt and boots.
SC tells Ari that he has 20 minutes to decide if he's going to stay in the cabin with Charli or if they're going to come to North Pole City to live. Charli is reluctant to leave her sister who has no other family so Ari volunteers to stay in the cabin instead. SC tells them that they can change their mind next year during the 24 hour free period. They just have to contact someone on the security team and let them know.
Rhys contacts Ari's mom on the computer so Ari can explain things to her. She's sad but happy for her son. SC makes some cryptic comment to Charli about 'hope' being in the cabin now and then leaves. The others say their goodbyes and then take off as well so they can get back to the city in time. I was half expecting one of them to get stuck.
We jump ahead one year. Ari, Charli and their baby girl Hope are preparing to go to North Pole City for the year. Charli is a little sad but she wants her daughter to know her grandmother. She can emai and video chat with her sister and visit her every Christmas Eve and she figures that's enough. If I were her, I'd try to set her sister up with Rhys. Then they can just live up on the north pole together.
The book ends with them on their voyage home and the news that Ari still holds the Blitzen position and will be required to work later that night.
Seriously? Poor Charli has to fend for herself in a brand new place immediately? That kind of sucks.
There are at least six other books in the series and I'll probably read them sooner or later if they're on KU so I guess we'll see if there's more to their story or not.
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