Mardi Gras Publishing, $3.99, ISBN 1-934329-07-X
Contemporary Erotica, 2006

Naughty or Nice features heroine Jenna Peterson, who decides to be very naughty towards Santa come Christmas. Santa is actually Scott, a currently out-of-work soap actor who is currently passing time in his hometown playing the meet-and-greet Santa Claus. And, er, that’s all to it in this story. Jenna and Scott sneak off to play and party until they have to take a break to catch their breath before they party once again.

However, I must say this one is a most charming story that is almost an anomaly in that this is the story about two refreshingly normal people deciding that they like what they see in each other and set off to explore their mutual physical attraction. Jenna doesn’t act like having sex is like having her limb cut off with a blunt saw, unlike many heroines who would behave the same in her situation, and in fact she is quite level-headed when it comes to lust versus love. Scott is a very nice guy, and normal too – Ms Lyons doesn’t mention that he has a twenty-inch penis or that he has ten million notches in his bedpost. Like Jenna, he’s just a normal person without any exaggerated neurosis.

And when Jenna and Scott get along like fireworks on New Year’s Eve, that’s even better, right. I especially like how Ms Lyons have the two characters don’t rush into marriage at the last page. After all, it is too soon and this is supposed to be fling between the two characters that, to their delight, is just starting to become possibly something more meaningful.

Therefore, yes, I really adore Naughty or Nice. It is what it is – a short story of a most enjoyable fling that promises to be something more for the two most likable main characters – and it does what it does so well.