This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.
Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
In Mikael Carlson’s Finding Santa, days before Christmas, Santa Claus disappears from his office inside Santa Claus Village in Rovaniemi, Finland, after three men force him onto a private jet headed across Europe. Wyatt Huffman, a former Washington political figure now living quietly in Vermont beside pediatric nursing trainee Stowe Bessette, becomes involved when Aurielle, one of Santa’s chief elves, arrives, claiming Santa would never willingly abandon Christmas. FBI agent Gavin Kinnaird joins the investigation while veteran reporter Keith Meadows transforms the disappearance into an international media obsession that puts growing pressure on everyone searching for answers. Guided by mysterious red cards appearing in Finland, Paris, and Switzerland, Wyatt and Stowe follow a trail leading toward wealthy technology executive Trent Quinlan, whose connection to Santa is hidden behind heavily guarded mountain properties, secretive flights, and a frightened young girl who may know more than anyone realizes.
Mikael Carlson’s Finding Santa shows how Christmas stories survive because people keep searching for signs that goodness still exists somewhere beneath disappointment. The author places that idea inside a modern world where Santa’s disappearance becomes a public spectacle, but he keeps the book centered on smaller human reactions instead of noise and conspiracy. The story's stability comes through characters who continue looking after other people while uncertainty spreads around them. Stowe Bessette is memorable because her concern for frightened children feels natural and immediate. Carlson also handles Trent Quinlan carefully. His resentment toward Christmas gives the novel an undercurrent of sadness that makes him more believable than a conventional villain. I love it when Carlson pauses long enough to let ordinary human feelings show. The sunrise gathering at Paris’s Trocadéro Gardens works because the silence, setting, and human presence carry the moment on their own. Very highly recommended.
