An Impish Christmas

Woops! I joined this series already REALLY in progress. We're talking a lot of stories, world building, and character development! It says this can be read standalone, but I'm sure you would appreciate a lot of what happens more if you knew these characters better.

Kenzie is a selkie shifter who is a bit of an outcast at school. She has a core group of friends and a boyfriend, but appears to feel very alone, especially when nobody wants to join in with her christmas celebration and decorating. One random person who appears suspiciously interested in helping her is a mer-shifter, who also happens to hang around her biggest bullies. Trevor, said mer-person, obviously shows interest in Kenzie, and I was a little torn about rooting for him when she was apparently mated to Wes (previously mentioned boyfriend).

Things go from bad to worse when Kenzie accidentally casts a "helper" spell that causes someone to be compelled to make all sorts of mischief. There's a lot of boyfriend drama, friend drama, misunderstandings, and christmas related destructions. All in all, we find our way to a happy ending, but jeez it takes a lot to get there.

"An Impish Christmas" is the first book I have read by this author. The story was easy to follow as a standalone but kept referencing past events that happened in previous stories. Kenzie is the only selkie at the Shifter Academy and apparently last year she ruined Christmas for everyone. This year she is determined to make it great for everyone but no one wants to help. A little magic spell gone awry and an imp appears that keeps sabotaging all Kenzie's plans. Cute and sometimes funny with hints of romance, the story is enjoyable with characters you want to get to know. I plan on going back to read the first story and all future ones as this author has made a new fan. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.

3 stars for me as rather light.
A YA story in the Shifters’ Academy series of stories.
There are some amusing antics of the Imp related even though I did guess who was the Imp fairly early on. The clues were all there.
It is a nice setting with a touch of Hogwarts - a hidden railway train and platforms and all... for the intended audience a 4.

This book is classed as a standalone, but at times I did feel as though I should have read the other books in this series. To be able to understand everything fully. Needless to say it didn’t really stop me from enjoying the book.


Kenzie is a Seklie and she is finally a student at the Shifter Academy. As a Selkie she has magic where other students have other talents. Kenzie is the only Selkie in the school which has made it hard for her to be accepted by some of the other students. As they still don’t thing she should be at the school.

When Kenzie goes back to school after Thanks Giving, and as Christmas approaches all Kenzie can think about is bringing back the Christmas Spirit to the school. As something happened at the school the Christmas before.

Kenzie decides to approaches her boyfriend Wes and her friends Leya, June and Jesse during meal time to see if they would help her. They really don’t feel excited about trying to get the school in the Christmas spirit. Basically they don’t want to spend their spare time decorating the the school and trying to get the other students into the swing of things.

Kenzie still can’t give up on her vision of Christmas so she decides that she will just have to go it alone. In doing so she cast a helpers spell in spell’s class as she thought that she could use it on her friends. As she was practising to cast the spell she was interrupted. So she quickly cast another spell to cancel out the helper spell. Except the spell had backfired without her knowing it.

Later Kenzie decides that she is going to make a start on her bring the Christmas Spirit to everyone by herself. While she is decorating the entrance to the food hall, Trevor one of the Mer, who is best friends with Kenzie’s main antagoniser, offers her his help. Kenzie is sceptical on his motives for helping her but she relents as he is taller and can decorate higher than she can. Please with their handy work they think Kenzie’s idea to bring back the Christmas spirit is defiantly now on track.

However the next morning as Kenzie goes to the food hall for breakfast, all of her and Trevor’s handy work was destroyed and in tatters. Needless to say Kenzie is upset about what has happened and she is sure Trevor’s friends and her nemesis are behind this destruction. She makes known her suspicions to the Academy Director.

Still undeterred Kenzie puts different plans in to place, and each time her efforts are yet again either destroyed or sabotaged.

During one night Kenzie is woken up as she sensed that something wasn’t quite right. When she went out to the main part of the school all hell had been broken loose. As she looked around at all the mess and destruction she heard a manic laugh, and a small figure running away, which she decided to class as an anti helper.

Kenzie started to realise that this small creature was down to her doing and that she needed to fix it fast. So she wouldn’t be expelled from the school she had worked so hard to get into. Luckily for Kenzie her new friend Trevor was there to give a helping hand. Which really didn’t do anything in helping her relationship with Wes. As the days went by and more disasters happened she ended up being royally dumped by Was in front of the whole school, as he couldn’t take anymore.

Can Kenzie stop this little anti helper that she is now calling an Imp, from destroying everything without the director finding out she is responsible for whats been going on. Will Travis still stand by her as all of her other friends have turned their backs on her and will she ever be able to win back Wes back.

An enjoyable little read to get you into the Christmas spirit. With some very funny parts that made me chuckle and I’m sure they will make you chuckle as well.

Kenzie is a selkie who loves christmas. She wants to make up for last christmas bymaking this one extra special so she decides to cast a spell which had disastrous results. Instead of christmas cheer, she got a mischievious little imp. This book was hilarious. It has romance and comedy and disaster. I dont think I have ever laughed this hard at a book before. If you are looking for that perfect read, look no further. You owe it to yourself to check this one out.

Poor Kenzie, she tries hard but things do misfire on her! I really enjoyed this story of her attempts to bring Christmas to the Shifter Academy she's finally attending, whether her fellow pupils are onboard or not. Lots of humour, a fun read.

An Impish Christmas is an entertaining story about peer relationships and young love.

Kenzi is the only selkie at the Shifter Academy. Among her peers, she's a seal out of water. Her boyfriend, Wes, is a cougar shapeshifter; he was formerly a Hunter of paranormal creatures. To add to the stress, Kenzi's math teacher is also her mother's boyfriend. Then there's Trevor, a mer, who's romantically interested in Kenzi.

Kenzi is determined to decorate the school.for Christmas. When the other students refuse to help, Kenzi accidentally creates a creature to help her. Total chaos ensues as the creature creates havoc and the female mer go out of their way to torment Kenzi.

I enjoyed the book and would recommend it for older teens and adults who enjoy reading young adult titles.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received a free digital copy of this title to review from Net Galley.

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