3 stars

A decent holiday tie-in, I consider Secluded Cabin Sleeps Six to be a 'so bad it's good' novel, and going into Christmas Presents expecting a similar combination of genre cliches and over-the-top goofiness—happy to say it has met my expectation (but not more).

All the popular tropes are here (a writer, a podcast, a childhood trauma, and romance), and the novella moves at a fast enough pace to distract one from over-scrutinizing its logic. However, I still find the reveal to be a slight letdown, feeling expected yet underdeveloped at the same time. While I do wish the Christmas atmosphere can be even more heightened, the ones that are present definitely scratch my itch—feeling like the story is build around a pivotal scene for a character to scream 'f*ck you' at Santa (which is exactly the cheesiness I'm here for).

Christmas Presents is a Hallmark-style thriller that doesn't overstay its welcome. Yes, some dialogs and scenarios are eye-rollingly corny (such as the who/reasoning behind the titular presents), and there are more plot threads and characters than the length allowed to be fully fleshed out (which is the same issue with Secluded Cabin), but these are as expected and I'm overall satisfied.