Don’t open that present!

If only Reva Dalby had listened to that warning.

But beautiful, cold Reva won’t listen to anyone. Reva thinks she can have whatever – and whoever – she wants. After all, her daddy owns Dalby Department Stores.

Now, someone has some surprises instore for her. Robbery? Terror? Even murder? Someone wants to treat Reva to a holiday she’ll never forget.

Holiday cheer quickly turns to holiday chills for Reva. Someone is stalking her, someone is trying to get to her.

Her money can’t help her. No one can.

After all, who can you turn to when murder comes gift-wrapped?

As I’ve reread a lot of this series, I’ve had times where I’ve struggled to feel any sympathy for the kids in these books. If anything, sometimes the books make me hope I was never so stupid at that age (though I probably was.) But this book really takes the cake. I don’t think I can recall a single book whose two main characters have annoyed me more than Reva and Pam.

Reva is not only a spoiled little rich girl. But her sense of entitlement has made her cruel and cold to the point she makes fairytale evil queens and stepmothers look like harmless cows. She lacks any real empathy for others and everything she does is for her own amusement and benefit. Nevermind who she hurts along the way. All she cares about is having what she wants and not being bothered by anyone. She makes me glad I never had a daughter, because had I, she wouldn’t be long for this world.

Pam is just a stupid teen who seems to think robbing her uncle’s department store is a great way to make this Christmas a good one. All because she’s angry at Reva for lying about there not being any holiday jobs at the store. The thing that bugs me is, why didn’t Pam go to her uncle. After all, he owns the store and as his niece, I’m sure he wouldn’t have had any qualms with getting her a holiday job. Instead, she uses her brain to plan a half-baked robbery and winds up in over her head.

If the characters weren’t despicable, I’m still not sure I’d have cared for the book. To be honest, the story line just didn’t do anything for me. Especially when it moves so far away from the horror genre, that it’s almost a crime novel. Say what you will about these books, but even they have some decent story lines and twists from time to time. This one just failed to raise any amount of interest within me.

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