Steve Stred's Reviews > All I Want for Christmas Is Utahraptor

*Huge thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for having this set to ‘Read Now’ for me!*

Recently, while scrolling through Netgalley, looking to see if anything had been added that I’d hope to be approved for, a cover caught my attention in the Sci-fi and Fantasy category. It was the one for this book, featuring an attractive looking woman gently caressing the chin of a dinosaur. I was intrigued. She was wearing a skimpy little red number and the dinosaur looked amazing.

Now, two caveats here. The first is that I generally dislike Christmas fiction – no matter the genre. The second, is that I typically steer FAR away from the romance world. Nothing wrong with it, but I want my love story to involve survival, creatures, and a never ending blackness. All things not typically within the romance genre.

BUT – I thought, you know what? Maybe this will be a fun read. Maybe this will be the palette cleanser between two horror reads and I’ll have a good time.

And you know what?

I did.

What I liked: The story follows Holly, now living in Chicago, dating douchebag Thad, and wondering just where the happiness in her life went. She should have it all. Thad’s super rich, his family is even richer and she’s living a life many would dream of. But she suspects Thad’s stringing her along. That the reasons she isn’t invited to some functions and trips is because there’s someone else and with no proposal appearing to be imminent, she wonders what would happen if she was to end it.

As Christmas approaches, Thad leaves to go on a boys skiing trip, leaving Holly alone for the holidays, so she heads back to see her parents in Utah.

It’s here where Faust sprinkles the story with some background. As humans discovered dinosaurs still alive, they also found they were smart and some could communicate. Those who met the criteria where given the chance to join into human society – go to school, get jobs, develop a culture. Oddly, I never expected a topical and socioeconomic metaphor to play out in a story about a woman who loves a dinosaur, but there we were and even though Faust doesn’t linger on it, it sets the stage for things further down the line.

So, it’s here that Holly remembers the days where she fell in love with Rocky, the Utahraptor. He attended her school and they became fast friends, but neither was willing to take it to the next level. Not until they reconnect and Holly realizes that everything she’s been wanting and missing, she can have, with Rocky.

This novella was an easy one-sitting read and it felt completely like I was watching a Hallmark Christmas movie, just with a dinosaur. The ending is exactly what you’d expect to happen and as much as it pains me to type this out, was a very sweet ending.

What I didn’t like: Well, honestly, I had a lot of fun with this one, but saying that, everything was surface level for the depth of emotions and descriptions. I think if this had been lengthened, we could’ve had a deeper experience where we see how Holly’s father turns his views around to accept Rocky, or how Thad’s behavior really effected Holly and she took some time to process it. As a base story, though, this was fun.

I will mention though – and mild spoiler here – if you don’t want to read about a woman and a Utahraptor getting it on, you’ll probably want to skip that part.

Why you should buy this: If you’re looking for a quick, adorable story of a woman realizing she’s better off without her asshole boyfriend and wants to return to her true love, no matter what society says, look no further.

Faust makes you immediately root for Holly and when her and Rocky reconnect, sparks fly from the page. Overall, a really sweet, Holiday story, one that would be perfect to read after the kids have gone to bed and Santa’s delivered all the presents.