The Naughty List by L.A. Kelley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I fancied reading something festive over the season, and this drew my eye, with its fun description of a desperate hunt for the missing Naughty and Nice List, of an E.L.F. (Elemental Life Form), hellhounds, demons etc.
I will admit that my original impression was of a more humorous book than this one turned out to be – not that there isn’t humour; there is – but the beginning was decidedly more grim than I was expecting.
David Kloss, son of the Santa, is on the run. He’s responsible for the Book that holds the Naughty and Nice Lists, and his carelessness has allowed it to be stolen. In the wrong hands, the world starts to shift towards a more negative existence, and only restoring the Book can reverse the trend.
In Penrose’s wonderful department store, Rosalie is caught up in the downward spiral as the manager’s job goes to a mean-spirited woman intent on making savage cuts in the lead up to Christmas. When Natalie and David accidentally become involved with each other, life becomes very interesting, in the way of the Chinese proverb.
The dialogue in this book is excellent, and the characters bounce right off the page. What, for me, was a little downer was the pacing of the plot, which seemed to rush at first, sag in the middle, and then build slowly towards a slightly hurried ending. Don’t get me wrong, the story and the resolution are great, the magic and the secret society of Integrals (such colourful people as Gnomes, Cupids, Shivas, Medusas etc.) is extremely well worked out and well presented, it was just that I found myself checking the read percentage on my kindle, because I couldn’t figure out whereabouts in the story I was a lot of the time.
There were a small number of incorrect words (homophones), but not so many as to spoil the read.
Overall, this was one I thoroughly enjoyed, even with the pacing issues, and I will be checking out more by this author.
Anyone else read any festive/seasonal books?
deborahjay 