Resting Scrooge Face
by Meghan Quinn
Publisher: Self-published
Publication date: Nov. 29, 2022
Genre: Romance
Rating:
After a bad breakup, Nola wants nothing to do with Christmas, especially in her quaint hometown of Bright Harbor, Maine. Infuriatingly charming and cheery, Nola’s surroundings only worsen her sour mood.
To make matters worse, Caleb, the boy who broke her heart years ago, is all grown up and still living in town. While doing her best to avoid him, Nola bumps into the local mailman, who gives her a mysterious letter. And when she finds that the writer is a fellow Scrooge, she can’t help but feel her spirit lifting.
Nola writes back to her new pen pal—who, unbeknownst to Nola, is none other than Caleb. When Caleb gets a response hand delivered by the mailman, he’s intrigued by the mystery sender. A friendly correspondence develops—and quickly turns flirtatious.
Although Nola and Caleb claim they can’t stand each other, they can’t deny the simmering attraction that brought them together in the first place.
Can these nameless pen pals write their own love story—or will they be too caught up with the ghosts of their Christmases past to find a future together?
This is a cute second chance at love story. Nola and Caleb were high school sweethearts who were on their way to their own happily ever after. However, Nola had big dreams while Caleb felt stuck and safe staying in their hometown. So, they broke up. Now, years later, Nola is back in town and sparks are flying, only they aren’t the good kind.
While this could have been an enemies to lovers sort of story, I love that the whole premise revolves around a secret pen pal aspect. When the mailman finds a “Dear Santa” letter from Caleb listing all his discrepencies with the holidays, Arden decides to deliver it to Nola since he’s noticed she also seems to be exhibiting the same bahumbug-ness. Hoping that these two can find common ground via writing anonymously, Arden delivers letters between Resting Scrooge Face and Ho Ho No. Watching these two interact in person, and then joke in their letters really helped tie this story together and give it depth for me.
Normally I am not one for novellas, especially ones that are under 100 pages. However, the author did a really good job making the characters and the town feel very well rounded in such a short amount of time. Would I have liked the story to be longer? Of course! It would have been fun to see more angst between them. However, I thought the story also really worked as a short story.
That sounds pretty good. I think I would probably like this one.
While this isn’t a perfect story, its a fun sweet novella that had such a hallmark feel to me. Glad it was a solid one for you even if it wasn’t a perfect read.