This guest review comes from Lisa! A longtime romance aficionado and frequent commenter to SBTB, Lisa is a queer Latine critic with a sharp tongue and lots of opinions. She frequently reviewed at All About Romance and Women Write About Comics, where she’s on staff, and you can catch her at @‌thatbouviergirl on Twitter. There, she shares good reviews, bracing industry opinions and thoughtful commentary when she’s not on her grind looking for the next good freelance job.

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New York, Christmastime, and a suspenseful mystery tangle up in the incredibly entertaining The Santa Claus Con, which ended up being way more intense than I expected it to be at first blush. While it seems to promise a fluffy fun time based on the cover, the action kicks off right from the first chapter, and doesn’t let up until the ending. It’s not all intensity, however: properly tempered with humor, The Santa Claus Con is also achingly funny and sweetly romantic – a book that left me feeling fantastic as I read it. It ended up being one of the best books I’ve read all year, expertly combining romantic tension, good suspense and a fun, silly plotline.

Amazingly-named FBI agent Scarlett Payne has been sent a threatening, cryptic poem claiming they will destroy New York City’s iconic Santa Claus Con and demanding she show up in Rockefeller Center wearing a Mrs. Claus outfit. Even though she’s supposed to be on vacation, she does so, in time to see the star atop a tree near the center’s iconic skating rink explode. In the chaos that follows, Scarlett gets injured — and someone sends her another letter. The team dubs him “Sadistic Santa,” and they must stop him from destroying the event.

Fellow FBI agent Nathan Lambros has just exited a two-year deep cover mission. A year before that assignment, he had ended his relationship with Scarlett, shattering her heart. Back at the office, the two of them are annoyed to be assigned to the Sadistic Santa case. They both hate Christmas, and things have been tense between them since the break-up, to say the least. Nevertheless, Nathan agrees to go undercover as Santa at Santa Claus Con to try to protect the other right jolly old elves and figure out who’s trying to shut the con down – and why they’re targeting Scarlett. This naturally joins the exes together in something much closer to wintertime harmony than either of them could have imagined. Will the magic of the season – and the power of near-death experiences – draw them closer together?

This book reminded me of Ally Carter’s The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year, one of my favorite reads of 2024, which says a lot. The Santa Claus Con is lighthearted but has a surprisingly twisty and satisfying plot. It’s funny without being goofy, has stakes without being super serious, and is romantic in a way that made this a top ten of the year read for me.

I deeply loved Scarlett and her relationship with her sisters and colleagues, which helps deepen her character and makes her feel more human. She’d been hoping to ‘try on’ the Christmas spirit and be cheerier but nope – she still hates it. She’s grumpy and funny and has an edge that makes her believable.She’s very reminiscent of Sandra Bullock’s Gracie Hart in Miss Congeniality. I could imagine her strategizing and kicking butt with the best of them.

Nathan just wants to turn in his badge and get on with simple civilian life, but can’t turn down one last case.. His grumpy matches her grumpy, and he has a similar sarcasm and sense of humor that really made him a yummy, enjoyable hero. The two of them grouch their way through the investigation, but both have years of field experience together, which means they work together smoothly as silk.

There’s a balance in the layers of conflict that is understandable from both perspectives and provides plenty for them to work through personally while they’re dodging Christmas-related deadly threats. Their breakup has left behind an emotional mess, and addressing it years later while working together doesn’t make the cleanup easy. It helps that they have great colleagues, and it was fun to spend time with all of them as they tried to figure the case out.

This is such a fun ride, and I really had a great time following Scarlett and Nathan through the ins and outs of the Santa mission, as well as through the flashbacks to their previously shared cases. There’s an extra fun element of competition thrown in, too: Nate ends up competing for Santa Claus of the Year and actually becomes a social media darling. Their past cases provide more humor and competence, as Scarlett shows off her skills and keeps Nathan out of hot water.

I’m a thriller girlie; I enjoy spy shows like Burn Notice and Alias, where girls kick butt and take names, so this was quite a delightful experience all around. I can’t emphasize enough how well the blend of romance and suspense works here. The balance is a complete miracle because it is very tricky to pull off successfully.

You might have to pay close attention as the POV switches between Nathan and Scarlett, and note when the narrative jumps backwards and forwards in time. I had no problem keeping up with those switches at all, but I can see it maybe being a problem for some readers.

This one won me over in an instant, but then again I really enjoyed Lauren Kung Jessen’s previous romances so that shouldn’t be too big of a shock. The Santa Claus Con is incredibly special – a wonderful, hilarious book that kept me completely absorbed in its many twists and turns.