Isabelle Taylor’s Christmas with a Chimera is the second book, a novella, in her Claw Haven series, a small town full of humans and monsters who live side by side as friends, neighbours and romantic partners. I haven’t read book one, so I’ll reserve judgement on that, but this second one has some flaws that I found hard to overlook.

Arthur Pineclaw is an A-list actor who left Claw Haven ten years earlier and hasn’t looked back. That’s not to say he doesn’t think of his high school sweetheart Emma Curt from time to time, but considering he dumped her on Christmas Eve, he wouldn’t expect a warm welcome if they ever meet again. When Claw Haven is chosen as the site to film his next movie, a cozy holiday rom-com, Arthur expects to be in town for two weeks before hightailing it back to L.A. – he just doesn’t expect that seeing Emma again will set off a lot of unexpected feelings.

The last person Emma expects to see in her café is Arthur. Had she realized that the movie shoot she’d agreed to was going to be a rom-com and that it would involve seeing Arthur again, she’d definitely have said no. But now there’s nothing she can do but grin and bear it, especially watching him give his warm and seductive smile to another woman (even if it is on camera).

Coming face-to-face with your ex can be pretty daunting, especially when things ended on a sour note. But to Emma and Arthur’s surprise, once they actually have a conversation reconnecting isn’t all that bad. In fact, it reminds them both of the good times they had and leads them back into bed together. Arthur finally realizes how much their breakup hurt Emma and is determined to make amends. He’d like a second chance. But with his life in L.A. and Emma’s in Claw Haven, can their reunion really lead to a long-term relationship?

On the face of it Christmas With a Chimera has some good qualities. I enjoyed the town of Claw Haven and its eclectic mix of characters, the worldbuilding is well executed, and the town serves its reputation well as a place where monsters can find some peace and quiet and live harmoniously with humans. The problems I have are mostly with Arthur. He’s a chimera, a mythical creature whose body is made of different animal parts, but I couldn’t figure out what he was supposed to look like, which made it hard to picture him as a character. If I hadn’t looked at the cover (and as we all know, covers constantly change), I wouldn’t have known he has the head of a lion, horns, and wings – and truthfully I’m still not certain what his lower body looks like. And since he’s a monster, he doesn’t shift into a different shape for sex like an animal shifter would, so I found that all quite confusing. But more importantly, I wasn’t convinced that Arthur and Emma (who is human) would make it for the long haul. He seems so obtuse to the fact that he’d really hurt Emma, and then, after just two weeks back in Claw Haven he falls in love with her again and is willing to compromise his movie star life to be with her? After ten years in L.A. and not missing Claw Haven at all in that time? Yeah, I just didn’t buy it. While they get their happy-for-now ending, I think Emma could do better and that’s not what you want to think at the end of a romance. I do have plans to read book one of the series, and I’m hoping it will leave me with a better impression.