This book may be unsuitable for people under 17 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence.
My Initial Reaction...
Santa's Wayward Elf is a great story for the holiday season, especially if you're looking for a sweet blend of naughty & nice.
The Characters...
Santa's Wayward Elf is told from the point of view of Sosie, the wayward elf, and Derek, a NY City police detective. I really enjoyed both characters, thought they were simple and uncomplicated.
Sosie is an 80-something year old elf (they live hundreds of years), who's never quite fit in. She's almost five feet tall, which makes her incredibly taller than the other elves. She's been very unsuccessful finding a male elf that can overlook her height. Plus she's bored working in Santa's Workshop, despite her fairly recent reassignment to the sex toys department. ---- That was our first sign that this book was going to have plenty of naughty to mix with the nice ;) Anyway, I thought Paige Tyler did a good job making sure we saw Sosie as a woman (otherwise this story would have been ewwy). I think it would have been easy to see her as a child because she's extremely naive and trusting when it comes to the world of BPs (Big People), not to mention short and adorable. But she's got curves in all the right places, is experienced sexually, and well, she's in her eighties! I found her really funny to read - she misinterprets BP phrases all the time and has her own set of curse words (like Figgy, or Santa's Sleigh Bells).
Then there's Derek. I liked him, but couldn't help rolling my eyes a bit, because no way this guy made it to lead detective in organized crime. What NY City detective is going to take in a girl like Sosie and accept her lies? I mean when he asked her old she was she had to think about it, said thirty - he looked at her funny - and then she said "twenty-five?" Yes, with the question mark. And there was tons of that - plus all the things she didn't know. I know this is a Christmas story about an elf - but I found Sosie's existence more believable than that Derek was a cop, let alone a detective. Believability aside, he was a super sweet guy and I enjoyed the steamy scenes between him and Sosie quite a lot.
The Story...
The story for Santa's Wayward Elf was a cute one. It was sweet watching Sosie finding her way among the Big People and even though the story was predictable - the moment I started reading I knew where the main story line was headed - it was still enjoyable to watch how Sosie would get to that end point. The added story line of Derek and the mob boss he was trying to take down was an interesting addition to the story and actually added a couple twists that I didn't expect. There was also a twist involving the elf world that I didn't entirely expect, so that was cool. I really enjoyed the world of the elves too, though we didn't actually see the North Pole directly we do hear a lot from Sosie's memories and comparisons to the Big People's world.
Concluding Sentiments...
All in all Santa's Wayward Elf was a sweet Christmas story that I'd recommend for a quick fun and spicy holiday read.