Review: Cute Holiday Read
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 11, 2012
With a message that family is more important than money and prestige, Sylvia McDaniel treats us to a second chance romance taking place during the holidays.  With a likable, yet also annoying, hero and heroine, a precious child and well written secondary characters, Ms. McDaniel's story is a good reminder of what's important, regardless of the season.  Ms. McDaniel's well paced plot and setting round out this entertaining tale of love.Ambitious and hardworking, salesman Colin McDermott has worked all year to earn a promotion to Regional Sales Manager of the West Coast.  Discovering the promotion he thought was a done deal is now up for grabs thanks to some last minute sales by a rival, Colin heads out to make additional calls on prospects he's trying to turn into clients.  He didn't plan on running into Brooke, his college sweetheart, at one of the prospective hospitals he's trying to sell software to or on having to play a last minute Santa Clause to a roomful of kids.  Ms. McDaniel does a good job developing Colin's character; at first he comes off as a single minded, almost obsessive businessman who has money and success on his mind.  As we get to know Colin and his background, we get to see a man who grew up poor and thinking both of his parents abandoned him.  Discovering he has a child he never knew about throws him into an emotional tailspin and makes him question what's really important.Single mother, Brooke Warren, is content working at a local hospital and raising her daughter Olivia.  Running into Colin, her college sweetheart, and the man who is secretly the father of her child, is something she never planned on.  Talking Colin into playing Santa Clause in a last minute emergency is easy, coming clean about their daughter is not.  While Brooke plans to keep Colin at arms length, she wasn't counting on Olivia, an angel named Gabriella and a demon named Devon, ruining all of her plans.  Ms. McDaniel did a good job with Brooke's character; she's responsible, a loving mother and a good daughter.  She's also scared of letting Colin into their daughter's life and into her heart.The scenes between Colin and Brooke are well written; they're both likable characters but their fear, their stubborn behavior and their unwillingness to forgive their shortcomings in the past, made me want to slap them once in a while.  Luckily Olivia, Gabriella and Devon always know what to do to bring them together, even if it wasn't what they planned.  While Ms. McDaniel did a good job through most of these scenes there were a few times when both Colin and Brooke's emotional immaturity and inability to be totally honest with each other got annoying.Will Colin choose money and a promotion over Olivia and Brooke or will he make peace with his past and look towards a brighter future?  Who will win the battle for Colin's soul over the holidays - the angel or the demon?  You'll have to read The Reluctant Santa to find out.  It's a short, entertaining holiday read.