Kieran Dunne isn’t worried about the holidays. They will come and go, and he will be left with a big property tax bill from the estate he inherited. His brother finds a newly-listed job in the paper that could match Kieran’s unique abilities. A woman has put an ad out for a shifter for Christmas, and the pay would cover his bills. She’s asked for a non-predator shifter, but he can lie just a little. What could it hurt? He’s just supposed to babysit a crazy lady during the holidays, and then collect his pay and move on with his life. But when he meets Leslie, it’s clear this job is more complicated than he’d anticipated. She isn’t what he thought at all. And the more he understands of her life, the more he doesn’t want to leave her at the conclusion of Christmas Day, as their contract requires.

Leslie Wilson wants to bring a man home for the holidays. She’s tired of ruining her family’s annual parties with her single-ness. She wants a teammate this year to face the Wilson family with her. All her life, her last name has cast a long shadow over her life. All she wants is a simple life, but her family has different plans for her. And what better rebellion than bringing a date to the holiday celebrations than hiring a real-life shifter? Her sister’s fancy husbands might be rich, but they don’t turn into animals. It’s a simple contract, but when Kieran shows up at her door, she realizes fast that there is nothing simple about her feelings for him. Now she must walk the line this holiday season—pretend to be in love without actually falling in love.

And if she can accomplish that? She just might make it to New Years’ still human.

This is an adult 18+ story that contains language, possible violence, and sexual situations geared to an adult audience.

Titles in the Shifter for the Holidays series include – A Shifter for Christmas – A Shifter for New Years –

Title:  A Shifter for Christmas
Series:  Shifter for the Holidays #1
Author:  T. S. Joyce
Published:  December 14, 2020
My Rating:  4.5 stars

A Shifter for Christmas starts off the Shifter for the Holidays series with a fun romance between one broody lion shifter with a heavy debt hanging over his head and a klutzy, family outcast of a human who needs a fake boyfriend for the Christmas season.  Their relationship was supposed to be all pretend — until it wasn’t.

One of the things that I enjoy most about T.S. Joyce’s series is that I never know exactly what I’m diving into when starting a new series – what type of shifter/animal – what kind of family (pack/den/pride) dynamic – there really isn’t a tried and true pattern, and I happen to like that.  Some are more serious than others, some I simply sit back and chuckle throughout –

…and that’s kind of what A Shifter for Christmas was for me.  I was captured by Leslie’s personality, the total klutz, the really square peg in a round hole kind of family, and the underlying vulnerability of not fitting in brought to her life even if she hid it well behind laughter and simply being herself no matter what.  Kieran allowed the death of his parents to overshadow so much in his life, even to the point of holding onto a house that was drowning him in debt every single year to hold on to a piece, a tangible piece of his parents, of their family history.  One woman full of giggles – one man full of scowls.  They shouldn’t have worked… but they certainly did.

When the yearly property taxes come due and Kieran is still short one unusual ad might be the answer to his dilemma – a pretend shifter boyfriend just for the holiday week.  He could do that, reluctantly.  What he didn’t expect was to like the lady with the wild hair, and over the top personality or to begin to wish for a lifetime together, even if that was on the very edge of forbidden to his type of shifter.  Leslie filled a space in his heart, one he didn’t realize was empty, and if she could get past his small lie and was willing to take a chance on a life with him, Kieran would have all his dreams come true.

I enjoyed Leslie and Kieran so much.  I have a friend who is very much like Leslie, totally unique in personality and actions (and if I thought of her while reading that was between me and my book *wink*).  I chuckled throughout A Shifter for Christmas but was also very aware of the serious issues being faced as well.  I had a blast, and I cannot ask for more than that from any book.  Now, on to Kieran’s brother, Burke’s story up next in A Shifter for New Years.

I own a Kindle edition of this title.

Available for the Kindle