All I Want For Christmas Is…
All I Want For Christmas Is Revenge by K.A. Merikan
This is a standalone M/M dark romance where an obsessive hitman desperate for love zeroes in on a young man willing to trade his life for revenge. (+Cute Christmas dates!)
Themes and tropes: Size difference, assassin, mistrust, snowed in, small town, revenge, loneliness, illicit arrangement, possessive hero, past trauma, dark humor, abduction, first love, soulmates, age gap, disabled hero, morally gray.
Warnings: Kidnapping, violence, gore, stalking, strong language, and steamy, explicit scenes.
Saint is a serial killer. Well, he’s a hitman for hire and he only takes revenge jobs, but he still does murder, so it counts. I’m not judging - he’s fictional - I’m just letting you know.
He’s also super sweet. Y’know, when he’s not doing murder.
Rowan is a fully traumatized, attempted-murder survivor. No, Saint didn’t do that murder.
Rowan writes a letter to Santa in a therapy session detailing the absolute horrors he wants to dole out onto the assholes who did murder his family and who shoved him down a set of stairs disabling him for life. The letter doesn’t really help, and honestly I’m not surprised. What kind of therapist has a 20-year-old write a letter to Santa?? With the shit this kid has seen and been through, how could she think he’d still believe in Santa? I get that it’s an exercise in putting what you want out there or getting it off your chest, but like… Santa? Whatever. It does the trick. Rowan tosses the letter and Saint finds it and BAM, Saint has found a person who has the same internal darkness. The pursuit is awkward and sweet and aaaaaabsolutely messed up, but that’s what you read this kind of book for honestly. The spice is nice too.
I’d give this a 3 outta five under normal circumstances because while I enjoyed it I was pulled out of the story a couple times and it wasn’t quite entertaining enough to stick in my head after I finished it (but that’s a me problem, not the book’s). Instead I think this one gets a 4 star rating simply because I really did appreciate the inclusion of the disability and how it affected every single aspect of Rowan’s life. Disabilities are 100% like that but they’re often used as interest-gathering for protagonists and then promptly forgotten. This one didn’t feel that way. The emotional side of things was cute if overall a little shallow, but it did have its moments of poignance that I liked, so 4 stars from me!
