From USA Today bestselling author Nancy Naigle, The Christmas Shop is a heartwarming Christmas story about finding your passion for life and love. A holiday retelling of You’ve Got Mail that will make you fall in love with the Christmas Season! Angela Carson wants nothing more than to be the third-generation to run her family’s holiday store, Heart of Christmas, successfully. They’ve weathered … Heart of Christmas, successfully. They’ve weathered over sixty tourist seasons, major hurricanes, and urban sprawl, in their old decommissioned lighthouse. But the national chain that set up shop in their small North Carolina town of Pleasant Sands may be more than Heart of Christmas can survive.
Encouraged by her niece to ask Santa for help through the Dear Santa app, Angela gives in and lets the words fly in a way that, if Santa were real, would no doubt land her on the naughty list. What’s the harm when it’s just a computer-generated response?
Geoff Paisley has been at his mother’s side running the mega-chain Christmas Galore for the last ten years. When his mother falls ill, Geoff promises to answer the Dear Santa letters in her stead. Soon he realizes the woman he’s been corresponding with on Dear Santa is Angela. How could the woman that grates his every last nerve in person have intrigued him so deeply through those letters?
When Geoff reveals that he’s her Dear Santa, will Angela be able to set aside their very public feud to embrace the magic of the holiday and possibly find true love?
* Originally published as Dear Santa
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Dear Santa is the most recent holiday offering from author Nancy Naigle. With shades and shadows of two favorite romantic comedies, The Little Shop on the Corner and You’ve Got Mail, Ms. Naigle has put together a delightful story with a lovely holiday twist. Shop owner Angela Carson is seeing the demise of her several generation owned Heart of Christmas. Although she has seen a decline over the past few years since the economic downturn, she is focusing the anger over her loss at the new big box chain discount store, Christmas Galore.
During the Thanksgiving gathering at her sister Marie’s, her young niece Chrissy gets Angela to write a Dear Santa letter using her special app. This app just happens to have as one of its main sponsors her arch enemy, Christmas Galore. To appease Chrissy, Angela goes ahead and does it, but signs it Anita C. Miracle (I need a Christmas miracle).
Through a series of events, Geoff Paisley, the handsome son of the chain store founder, becomes charged with addressing the Santa letters the app algorithm sends to be answered directly rather than by the savvy computer program. When he encounters the letter from Angela, something about it draws him in and a series of responses volley between them.
Although they have several negative real life encounters, their correspondence is purely positive, neither one knowing the true identity of the other. When Geoff figures out her true identity, he takes great strides to make things right between them with some unexpected results.
This is a lovely holiday story involving family, friends, love, and forgiveness. It carries inspiring messages so appropriate to the season. I very much enjoyed this book and do recommend it!
“Dear Santa” by Nancy Naigle
I loved this sweet, clean contemporary romance. I fell in love with Pleasant Sands, NC…. and the stars of the story Angela & Geoff… Well to be honest it took me awhile to warm up to Geoff. I laughed and chuckled and had tears run down my cheeks.. And one of these days I plan to read this story again. I was gifted an ARC copy by the publisher via NetGalley. I am pleased to give you my review. I am sure you will enjoy your time in this story.
This was a wonderfully sweet Christmas romance story that I really enjoyed. It is the story of a woman struggling to keep her small Christmas shop open, struggling to survive against a large Christmas store that seems to be taking away her business. It is an enemies to lovers story that was very enjoyable. If you are looking to read a very sweet and romantic Christmas story then this is the book for you!
This story was a fun, updated version of the movie, You’ve Got Mail.
All of Angela Carson’s life has been spent helping run the family Christmas store, Heart of Christmas. Even as a little girl, raised by her Grandma , Angela would be there helping. Now the store is completely hers and ever since the mega-chain box store Christmas Galore opened up, her business has been steadily declining. If business don’t pick soon, Angela will have to close Heart of Christmas.
One day while picking up a coffee order for her sister, Angela notices a good looking guy, Geoff Paisley. Too bad he ends up being the owner of Christmas Galore, the company helping to put her company out of business.
Geoff is immediately smitten with Angela. He doesn’t realize that she is the owner of Heart of Christmas at first. The more he gets to know her, the more he realizes that he wants her in his life. That has never happened to him before.
When Angela’s niece, Chrissy, convinces her to send a letter to Dear Santa, she reluctantly agrees hoping he could help her keep her business open.
When Geoff’s mom, whom he owns the business with, has a heart attack, she makes Geoff promise that he will keep up in answering their Dear Santa letters. Imagine his surprise when he starts enjoying it and even starts communicating with someone outside of Dear Santa.
Through some luck and Christmas magic, Geoff and Angela actually find themselves a happy ending.
This was a delightful story and a perfect read during the holiday season. I really liked Geoff and Angela. They both were work-a-holics in a way and together they were able to find a nice balance. Highly recommend this one!
ARC for honest review with no compensation, received from Negalley and St. Martin’s Press
Angela is the owner of Heat of Christmas, a store that has been in her family for generations. She has seen the times changing but when another store comes to town, Christmas Galore she knows she can no longer compete. She knows she has to make the hardest decision ever and when her niece tells her to email Dear Santa and ask for help and a miracle she does. What she doesn’t expect is to get a personal email back which then starts a wonderful romance until the truth comes out as to who Dear Santa really is….Geoff the owner of Christmas Galore!!
This book is what Christmas is all about…hope, holiday spirit and love!!
I won a copy of this book from Goodreads giveaways, I was not required to give a favorable review. This is beautiful story of how traditions can change but the true heart of any small town are the people who live there. Angela had been running the family Christmas store that was started by her great-great-grandmother the building was part of the decommissioned lighthouse. But she feels that the big box store is really the reason. Geoff’s mother had moved her new store to Pleasant Shores because this is where she fell in love with Geoff’s father and she knew she was dying. No Geoff & Angela battle each other, but little did she know the Dear Santa was being answered by him. They both have come a long way. I loved this story.
Dear Santa by Nancy Naigle
Definitely a retelling of a favorite movie starring Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks this story is set in a small tourist town in North Carolina. In this version we have Angela Carson running a family business that has been in business for nearly a century when along comes Christmas Galore to compete with her. Sure, her business wasn’t doing as well as it had in the past but the competition of Geoff Paisley’s store down the block didn’t help her out at all. Geoff and Angela soon become enemies with tense encounters that sometimes made them seem more like high school students than adults.
Add into the story good friends, a supportive family, holiday scenes and a wonderful small town community and you have the makings of a sweet romance that could easily be made into a Hallmark movie.
I enjoyed the story and believe someone looking for a clean holiday romance who also liked You’ve Got Mail will enjoy this book, too. That said, it wasn’t new or different but more comfortable, sweet and predictable.
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the ARC – This is my honest review.
3-4 Stars
This is my first read by this author and I truly enjoyed these enemies becoming more. When her store starts having problems thanks to the chain store that’s come to town. Angela tries to make some changes and is trying to avoid closing the doors on her store. I love the banter and back and forth letters, although I kept waiting for them to realize who they were writing. The letters to Santa at the beginning of each chapter were priceless. Overall great easy read without too much angst but a whole lot of fun. As I said this is a new to me author and I truly enjoyed her style and will most definitely come back for more.
What happens when a struggling shopkeeper’s business declines after a large competitor arrives in town? Protagonist Angela, aka Anita C Miracle, needs just that, a miracle. Her Christmas shop in the town’s historic lighthouse has been in the family for generations. So, when her letter to Santa asking for advice generates a response, fate steps in and deals her a hand that she couldn’t have foreseen. As always, the characters are delightful and the setting charming. The story, however, could have used a bit more richness.
Loved this falling in love with someone through correspondence trope….You’ve Got Mail in a book…with it’s own twist.
This is the second one of Nancy Naigle’s books that I have read. So far, I just love her stories. This is well written and the flow/pace is “spot-on”. It left me with that “good feeling” when I finished. There are often common social issues addressed in her stories, along with some romance thrown in. I feel that they center around family and then touch on current issues in today’s society.
Our story begins on Thanksgiving day and we learn that Angela is about to lose her family business in a small South Carolina coastal beach town. She is heartbroken over it. We take the journey with her as she goes through the five/seven stages of grieving. Her sister, brother-in-law, and niece are all there for her in differing degrees (obviously). Knowing that the family store is on it’s “last legs” and then having a Christmas superstore come into town is “the straw that breaks the camels back”. Angela sees them as the enemy and takes her hurt and anger out on the manager; when she meets him accidentally.
This book gives you all the feels of a Hallmark movie. If it hasn’t been turned into one, well, then, it should be.
Angela Carson inherited the Heart of Christmas after her grandmother died. And despite the proof in the accounting, Angela is desperate to keep the place afloat. It seems easy to blame the new store in town, Christmas Galore, for the pending demise of her store…even if it isn’t true. She finds the owner, Geoff to be infuriating and gorgeous…
Geoff Paisley is co-owner of Christmas Galore with his mother. The new store is thriving, and Geoff is surprised when he learns that his mother wants to stay for two years instead of one. He is even more surprised when his mother ends up in the hospital to learn that his father was from the area, the father he never knew. Maybe it won’t be so bad to settle in one area…if only the local shop owner, Angela Carson, would stop being so angry at him. She sure is beautiful…
The story is predictable, but wonderful at the same time. Sometimes, we just need a predictable feel good book. I loved it and will read more of Nancy Naigle in the future.
I love this book! It is a great Christmas romance and everyone should read it. Thank you Nancy for giving us such a fun holiday book!
Oh my goodness I adore this story. Angela is priceless in her love of family and town history. Geoff is adorable even when he is being a pain in the butt. I like the way these two are finding things that are important that they never saw before.
Theirs is not what I call a flash romance. It is a slow build that brings out the really important issues and I love that. It broke my heart all through the book what Angela was going through and how much it hurt her. But when one door closes another door opens right?
Nancy did a wonderful job of incorporating all things Christmas and the joy of living in a small town into Dear Santa. It makes me want to go visit a small seashore town now. 😉 I am now a true Nancy Naigle fan.
Dear Santa was a heart-warming holiday novel! I enjoyed the small-town friendly atmosphere and the holiday spirit throughout the story. Dear Santa takes place in a North Carolina town. Angela has been running her store, Heart of Christmas, here for many years. She has taken over the store in the tradition and memory of her family that started the store. Heart of Christmas sells pricier high-quality items and over the recent years has been struggling financially. Things seem especially worse now that the new impersonal and cheaper Christmas Galore has set up a store in the same town. Angela actually gets into some embarrassing confrontations with one of the owners of Christmas Galore in public. Angela’s young niece tells her about a “Dear Santa” app where she can write a letter to Santa. Angela writes a letter to Santa to get Santa’s help with her store. Somehow, Angela ends up corresponding with “Santa” as she struggles more and more with the future of her store. As Christmas nears, Angela is hoping for a Christmas miracle that will help her decide what she should do. Both the characters and the story are delightful! This is a great book to get you into the holiday spirit.
A great read to get you in the Christmas spirit! I grew up with a family business so I understand Angela’s desire to keep the business alive at all costs but I also can see the madness behind Geoff’s actions. When Geoff had to respond to the Dear Santa letters, I couldn’t wait to see what he would do or say. I found it hard to believe that Geoff or Angela didn’t catch on that they were responding to each other earlier but nonetheless, a festive read!
Really enjoyed this book. Read it in one day. Reminded me how important it is to support local businesses.
Nancy Naigle has worked her magic with this wonderful feel-good romantic comedy, inspired by one of my all-time favorite movies, “You’ve Got Mail”.
Angela and Geoff start off on the wrong foot. They are both passionate about their business and they also happen to be competitors. The anonymity of Dear Santa letters and emails brings them together, but in real life they can’t help but antagonize one another. While despising each other in person, they continue to grow closer in cyberspace.
I found their evolving relationship and romance just endearing, the build up from hate to love was delightfully paced. Angela is an adorable heroine, and I rooted for her. Geoff was not a picture perfect hero, but he grew on me. He is a shrewd businessman whose sole focus has been on his family’s company and his bottom line. Handling Dear Santa’s letters is completely out of character, but it is a welcome change. It is time for him to put down some roots, to take the time to build a relationship with Angela.
I took this little fantasy joyride and had fun. I only wish we got more storyline with Angela and Geoff once they confessed their attraction to each other.
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and I am voluntarily reviewing it.
This was an enjoyable read. It really gets you in the mood for Christmas. It was a little depressing that Angela was losing her store that had been in her family for several generations though. The romance took some time in developing and that was very realistic (none of that insta-love generally seen in romance novels.) The story and the romance developed over time and was interesting to read about. Angela at times seemed a little mean spirited but she had a lot on her plate so it made the character so believable. I truly enjoyed Geoff’s character though. He was so busy with work and having his mother having a heart attack really helped him to “stop and smell the roses.”
Having the book written in a dual POV, helps me the reader to understand the character’s actions and speech so much better. Again I really enjoyed this story!
Dear Santa is a good holiday story. Angela Carson loves her store”the Heart of Christmas” but sales have been going down, and continued going down. Especially, after the new mega chain-store arrived in town … the “Christmas Galore”. Geoff Paisley is part owner of new store and also the new guy in town. A chance meeting / glance across the coffee shop between Angela and Geoff bring both of them hope for a very merry holiday. That changes once Angela finds out who Geoff is. Geoff is now the enemy, but is he really.
I loved reading the letters to Santa and how one particular letter that Angela sent at her nieces urging started something beautiful. Change is never easy, but sometimes something better comes along. I received an Advance Reader Copy from NetGallery for an honest review.