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A Reluctant Santa
Sometimes we fall in love by accident …
Charlie Parkingham hates the holidays. Working as a security guard for Macy’s, he sees the worst holiday shopping has to offer, so he’s glad he doesn’t have to worry about making Christmas for himself … or for anyone else. Until the day a mysterious package arrives on his doorstep.
Thomas Blake won’t stop until he’s made the holidays wonderful for every kid in Philadelphia. But when a grouchy neighbor returns a wrongly delivered package, Thomas knows there’s someone else who needs some holiday cheer.
Two men, one dog, and more presents than you can handle!
Charlie Parkingham hates the holidays. Working as a security guard for Macy’s, he sees the worst holiday shopping has to offer, so he’s glad he doesn’t have to worry about making Christmas for himself … or for anyone else. Until the day a mysterious package arrives on his doorstep.
Thomas Blake won’t stop until he’s made the holidays wonderful for every kid in Philadelphia. But when a grouchy neighbor returns a wrongly delivered package, Thomas knows there’s someone else who needs some holiday cheer.
Two men, one dog, and more presents than you can handle!
26 pages, ebook
First published December 1, 2018
About the author
Roan Parrish
38 books2,470 followersRoan Parrish lives in Philadelphia, where she is gradually attempting to write love stories in every genre.
When not writing, she can usually be found cutting her friends’ hair, meandering through whatever city she’s in while listening to torch songs and melodic death metal, or cooking overly elaborate meals. She loves bonfires, winter beaches, minor chord harmonies, and self-tattooing. One time she may or may not have baked a six-layer chocolate cake and then thrown it out the window in a fit of pique.
She is represented by Courtney Miller-Callihan of Handspun Literary Agency.
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When not writing, she can usually be found cutting her friends’ hair, meandering through whatever city she’s in while listening to torch songs and melodic death metal, or cooking overly elaborate meals. She loves bonfires, winter beaches, minor chord harmonies, and self-tattooing. One time she may or may not have baked a six-layer chocolate cake and then thrown it out the window in a fit of pique.
She is represented by Courtney Miller-Callihan of Handspun Literary Agency.
Roan's Newsletter
Roan's Facebook Group
Roan on Twitter
Roan on Instagram
Roan’s website
Ratings & Reviews
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Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews
December 3, 2019
3.5 stars
A sweet story, but I feel like there's something missing, something hinted but not explained.
*******
Re-read 12/2020
A sweet story, but I feel like there's something missing, something hinted but not explained.
*******
Re-read 12/2020
May 21, 2019
Sheesh, I just read a different novella by Parrish that I accused of moving too fast for the page count and yet this is way shorter and yet.. I'm sold?
Also, yes, I was choking back tears about Christmas in May.
Sure, we don't get a huge amount of character awareness or development and yet.. we do? Somehow? This little snippet truly is magic.
Also, yes, I was choking back tears about Christmas in May.
Sure, we don't get a huge amount of character awareness or development and yet.. we do? Somehow? This little snippet truly is magic.
December 18, 2021
Real Rating: 3.5* of five
It's exactly what it says it is...the holidays are hard for people who are lonely, and harder still for people who aren't glib and glad-handed. Here's a sweet story about two men whose holidays just got brighter because they took a chance, smiled instead of scowled, and connected. Free from the author's website, and excellent value for money spent.
It's exactly what it says it is...the holidays are hard for people who are lonely, and harder still for people who aren't glib and glad-handed. Here's a sweet story about two men whose holidays just got brighter because they took a chance, smiled instead of scowled, and connected. Free from the author's website, and excellent value for money spent.
December 19, 2019
That was really short and quite sweet. (and the emphasis is on short, I'm afraid)
Loved the scenario, loved the characters, and in the hands of an accomplished author like Roan Parrish, this could have been so much more, but there's simply not enough of anything to make this one memorable.
Lots of telling rather than showing and a very swift and short romance.
Loved the scenario, loved the characters, and in the hands of an accomplished author like Roan Parrish, this could have been so much more, but there's simply not enough of anything to make this one memorable.
Lots of telling rather than showing and a very swift and short romance.
November 26, 2019
As much as I love this author's books, the short stories are really not meshing with me.
For the most part this was cute and sweet, but there was this one detail that has extremely creepy implications, and since it's not explained at all my mind is running wild with what could be behind it.
For the most part this was cute and sweet, but there was this one detail that has extremely creepy implications, and since it's not explained at all my mind is running wild with what could be behind it.
July 1, 2019
Every bit as charming and beautifully written as I expect from Roan Parrish. Sweet Christmas short.
December 2, 2020
Very romantic!
Very sweet!
Quiet & reserved grouch
Talkative & open soul
Furry pup
Many packages
Cups of cider
Walks
Hugs
Kisses
Lovin’
Xmas HFN
Very sweet!
Quiet & reserved grouch
Talkative & open soul
Furry pup
Many packages
Cups of cider
Walks
Hugs
Kisses
Lovin’
Xmas HFN
December 14, 2020
Very sweet, I loved it.
May 19, 2019
Such a cute Holiday romance. A treat from the newsletter with a lovely connection between the heroes that brings more and more light in this slow burn short story. We get a doggie too!
June 18, 2022
3.5 stars
It's a sweet holiday story; Charlie has to bring holiday packages to his upstair neighbor (since the neighbor put the wrong address) and ends up with love. It's just too short!!!
It's a sweet holiday story; Charlie has to bring holiday packages to his upstair neighbor (since the neighbor put the wrong address) and ends up with love. It's just too short!!!
December 23, 2019
***3 Stars***
Quick and cute.
November 14, 2021
Roan Parrish never fails to amaze me. She even makes (Christmas) shortstories as amazing as could be.
This was adorable and heartwarming.
It’s Christmas time, Charlie is super lonely since his grandma died, his job kinda sucks and he lacks a lot of meaning and happiness in his life.
Then he meets his sunshiny neighbour Thomas, and of course Thomas’ dog, because it’s not Roan Parrish without pets.
I think they were both kinda lonely and looking for someone in their life.
So cute! Read it! I would have read a whole book about them.
This was adorable and heartwarming.
It’s Christmas time, Charlie is super lonely since his grandma died, his job kinda sucks and he lacks a lot of meaning and happiness in his life.
Then he meets his sunshiny neighbour Thomas, and of course Thomas’ dog, because it’s not Roan Parrish without pets.
I think they were both kinda lonely and looking for someone in their life.
So cute! Read it! I would have read a whole book about them.
December 11, 2019
Bro.....what????
This was really cute but the final lines...the implications are so ominous what in the world? Why didn’t the author explain 😳
This was really cute but the final lines...the implications are so ominous what in the world? Why didn’t the author explain 😳
December 10, 2020
Charlie a lonesome grump keeps getting packages of his upstairs neighbor, Thomas Blake, sent to his apartment by mistake. After a few too many Charlie confronts his neighbor but the confrontation never occurs. Instead a sort of friendship begins. This was cute just too short. I honestly needed more of their story.
November 10, 2019
Una historia bonita, pero demasiado corta...
December 4, 2019
Wow, wow, wow.
If this was a plain ol' romance I'd be screaming about the length and all that was missing, but since this is Christmas, it was perfect.
Such a feel good Christmas romance full of magic and joy and hope and love.
I loved it!
Of course I'd have loved it to be longer and I'd have loved to know what happened next but for a Christmas shorty, perfect.
If this was a plain ol' romance I'd be screaming about the length and all that was missing, but since this is Christmas, it was perfect.
Such a feel good Christmas romance full of magic and joy and hope and love.
I loved it!
Of course I'd have loved it to be longer and I'd have loved to know what happened next but for a Christmas shorty, perfect.
December 21, 2019
Sort of sweet. Charlie trudges through his hum-drum life and when he meets Thomas, he realizes just how lonely he really is. While it is nice that Charlie found someone, especially at Christmas, there was something very off about Thomas that didn’t sit well with me. From the description, he seemed rather pixieish and I was expecting a handicap of some kind. His hyperactive behavior, and that of his dog (a female named MR. Pimm) was somewhat unnerving.
There is almost no character development. We know that Charlie was raised by his grandmother because his parents couldn’t. Why couldn’t they? It would have been nice to know. Thomas is even more of a mystery. He has a family he get along well with but that’s all we know. Does he work for some charity organization and that’s why he gets all these donated presents to wrap and deliver? What does he do the rest of the year? And then when Thomas tells Charlie that he has always been in love with him, the story picks up an almost paranormal element. It’s just a tease and then the author leaves us hanging. When I got to the end, I felt more like “Huh, what the heck was that about” more than anything else. And that’s not how I prefer to feel after reading something.
There is almost no character development. We know that Charlie was raised by his grandmother because his parents couldn’t. Why couldn’t they? It would have been nice to know. Thomas is even more of a mystery. He has a family he get along well with but that’s all we know. Does he work for some charity organization and that’s why he gets all these donated presents to wrap and deliver? What does he do the rest of the year? And then when Thomas tells Charlie that he has always been in love with him, the story picks up an almost paranormal element. It’s just a tease and then the author leaves us hanging. When I got to the end, I felt more like “Huh, what the heck was that about” more than anything else. And that’s not how I prefer to feel after reading something.
June 16, 2019
Is this... Pining? This needs to be a 70k full novel I don't make the rules.
July 18, 2023
Such a perfect little morsal of a holiday short story for Christmas in July. I read and loved author Roan Parrish's The Holiday Trap late last year. Was so happy to be gifted this delight for signing up for Roan's newsletter. A Reluctant Santa seamlessly tells the story of an isolated young man who finds love right in his own apartment building with a kind, loving colorful (literally) young man. Too sweet.
May 15, 2019
Got this for free through Parrish's mailing list.
Short, sexy, sweet! The only issue for me was that there seemed to be some more ~backstory~ on how Thomas knew Charlie that we don't get and it made me desperately curious!
Short, sexy, sweet! The only issue for me was that there seemed to be some more ~backstory~ on how Thomas knew Charlie that we don't get and it made me desperately curious!
June 3, 2019
I’m mush... so so sweet! I could’ve eaten them up!!
July 8, 2019
Really good. I liked they way supernatural/paranormal/past lives were teased at without being spelled out. Charlie and Thomas are adorable, and this is a sweet story.
Freebie from author.
Freebie from author.
December 19, 2019
A sweet generous bauble of a short story, about a Macy’s security guard and his eccentric neighbour falling in love at Christmas. And it has a dog. I absolutely adored it.
December 30, 2019
Yeah the romance was beautiful, BUT THAT DOG WAS SUCH A HOT MESS LIKE MY FAVORITE DOG. A+ pup (and pup owner) writing.
October 25, 2019
3.5*
A sweet and sexy Christmas MM romance with heat. Two lonely men who meet over packages and a wrong address.
A sweet and sexy Christmas MM romance with heat. Two lonely men who meet over packages and a wrong address.
December 20, 2019
Short and sweet.
December 13, 2023
This was so soft and sweet and cozy. I loved that Charlie got to come out of his grumpy, gloomy shell and that Thomas was the one to do it, with his bright sunshiny self. I loved the way their relationship developed from delivering mislabeled packages to friends to lovers. It was just so sweet and it’s getting four out of five stars!
Read
May 26, 2019Absolutely delightful. Exactly what I want out of something called “a small romance.” Lovely slow development despite the shortness of the tale (this is how you do it!!!!)
May 31, 2019
A cute little story. I think Parish is too used to writing complex characters to put them in something paced as quickly as this tho. I absolutely love the many dimensions she always gives her characters and I would absolutely love to read this story as a full book at some point. There’s so much hidden in Charlie - why does he not see how Thomas falls for him? And Thomas too; what moves him to take care of all those packages and who is his family if he loves them but they apparently never see him? (I know this is probably a plot hole but I’m rolling with it having a function instead!)
July 16, 2019
A very short and sweet Christmas treat. It was a freebie from the author’s website, so even though it’s the middle of summer.....
Scrooge-ish Charlie hates everything Christmas, so when he starts receiving mis-addressed packages for Thomas, who lives one floor up, he’s furious - he’ll make sure that nonsense stops. But it doesn’t, and Charlie soon finds himself being drawn into Thomas’s orbit - where Christmas means fun, laughter, connection....and love.
It’s a Christmas quickie...but the author manages to pack it with heart.
Scrooge-ish Charlie hates everything Christmas, so when he starts receiving mis-addressed packages for Thomas, who lives one floor up, he’s furious - he’ll make sure that nonsense stops. But it doesn’t, and Charlie soon finds himself being drawn into Thomas’s orbit - where Christmas means fun, laughter, connection....and love.
It’s a Christmas quickie...but the author manages to pack it with heart.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 75 reviews