Review: Mending Noel by Charlie Cochet

North Pole City Tales: Book One

All is not sparkly snowflakes and sweet candy canes in North Pole City. Office workers Tim and Noel do nothing all day but antagonize each other—petty fighting that might be based on hatred… or a heated mutual attraction. It’s up to Jack Frost and his elf-friend Rudy to broach the hostilities and introduce some Christmas kisses, but is the Frost Prince up to the challenge of launching a new romance when someone’s trying to break his holiday spirit?

I adored this book.

Grumpy elves. The North Pole. Rudy the Rein Dear. This story basically exploded in Santa jizz all over my Kindle, and I adored every moment of it.

The worldbuilding in this story is so fun with cute turns of phrases and clever little plays on words for the various persons and magical beings who inhabit the North Pole and make the magic of Christmas possible. I just loved stepping into the fantasy world of the North Pole that Mending Noel creates so effortlessly.

The MC elves were initially a little hard to warm up to for me. We're first introduced to Tim, the beleaguered and down-on-himself office elf who doesn't do anything remotely cool like the cookie bakers or the toy makers. No, he's an office elf, and to make things worse, his boss Noel treats Tim like Noel has received a coal in his stocking every damn year. Poor Tim.

The beauty of this story is that, even though I wasn't warming up too much to Tim OR Noel, the way they resolve their differences -- and the reasons for said differences -- was totally believable in a magical fairy tale kind of way. I even got a little choked up and teary eyed when I found out why poor Noel was behaving the way he was. It was so sweet, and the way Tim handled everything was even sweeter. Hey, it's a Christmas story, and I can like 'em sticky-sweet if I want to!

Mending Noel is a clean romance. That is to say, there are kisses and some light petting, but nothing happens below the belt. I was a little bummed because (call me a perv!) I wanted to see some hot elf-on-elf action. Alas, I had to make do with my imagination.  Even so, this story was perfect for the holidays and a wonderful addition to my Santa jizz arsenal. Highly recommended for those who like their stories sweet and fantastical!