Studmuffin Santa (Ponderosa Resort Romantic Comedies) - Heartwarming Holiday Romance Novel for Christmas Reading & Gift Giving

This was a cute holiday-time read. Jade and her sister are running their family property themselves and to make money over the Christmas period, it becomes a reindeer ranch, offering a variety of activities for the holiday season. Jade's sister hires Brandon as their Santa with a difference, hoping his good looks, charm and medal-winning Marine background will draw in a plethora of mothers that want a bit of eye candy while getting their Christmas photos, etc. with the kids. Unbeknownst to Jade, her sister has also hired Brandon to use his military expertise to keep an eye out on the property as a series of mysterious and troublesome events have been taking place as of late.Brandon and Jade went to school together. He had everything going for him as a popular football player, whereas she was severely bullied for being quiet and overweight. She's apprehensive about him being there, but he perseveres and they begin to fall for each other in the picturesque, snowy town they grew up in. I loved both Brandon and Jade. He acknowledged he'd been a bit of a jerk during school (although he never picked on her) and was funny and charming. Jade tried hard to overcome her self-esteem issues, lost the baby fat and was a confident individual who tried not to let her past define her. I would have liked a bit more depth around her issues, rather than glimpses from high school here and there as it seemed a bit scattered with the random memories. A couple of the flashbacks to her time at school were really sad and Jade's mature approach to it made me really like her.Small things continue to go wrong at the ranch, but there wasn't too much focus on this, with the emphasis being on Jade trying to run a successful business and Brandon trying to decide where his life is headed as he comes to terms with his father being ill, bringing up memories of his less than happy childhood. It was a sweet read as both characters weren't pretentious and had good chemistry. The mystery side of things wasn't built up too much. Honestly, there was more written about the reindeer (which I found really interesting!). The secondary characters were good and splashed in here and there, probably due to the fact that they feature in future books in the series. I loved the Christmas/snow/ranch theme and would recommend reading this even if it isn't Christmas. The writing was well-paced, entertaining and funny and idea of a hot Santa was a fresh take on a holiday period romance.I was lucky enough to snag this when it was free. If I'd paid for it, I probably would have taken a star off as I think the normal price is a bit steep because it was a fairly short, uncomplicated read. I will definitely read other books in the series, but will wait until they hopefully go on sale.