Trope: Undercover Hero

  • Mistletoe and Mobsters

    Mistletoe and Mobsters

    He’s undercover. She’s unraveling the case. Can one fake Santa survive a small town filled with secrets, cocoa and second chances?

    Marley Winters is not here for the mistletoe. After a spectacular professional crash-and-burn, she’s back in Snowball Falls to regroup with glitter, cocoa and no patience for mysterious men in red suits.

    Then he shows up.

    Vin DeLuca looks like he was assembled in a holiday hero laboratory. Broad shoulders. Haunted eyes. A Santa beard that definitely doesn’t belong in aisle seven of the mall. Marley remembers him from band camp, but he claims he doesn’t remember her at all.

    She isn’t buying it.

    When a kindergarten field trip goes sideways and their makeshift North Pole begins to look suspiciously like a front for something bigger, Marley starts digging. She investigates the town’s alarmingly festive PTA, Vin’s increasingly questionable answers and the confidential file he keeps trying to hide beneath his Santa suit.

    The deeper Marley gets, the harder it becomes to ignore the man behind the beard. Vin has spy-level reflexes, a soft spot for marshmallow-sticky children and far too many reasons to keep her at a distance. Unfortunately, Snowball Falls has never respected anyone’s wish for privacy.

    Now Marley must decide whether exposing Vin’s secrets will solve the mystery, ruin his mission or reveal a heart worth unwrapping.

    Mistletoe and Mobsters is a sweet, closed-door Christmas romantic comedy filled with small-town shenanigans, slow-burn attraction, undercover trouble and enough kindergarten glitter to compromise a federal investigation.

    Mistletoe and Mobsters by Robin Bayliss, showing undercover Santa Vin with a badge and confidential file beside Marley at a snowy Snowball Falls Christmas market.