The Curse Before Christmas
A Paranormal Winter Romance
A grieving bookshop owner. A grumpy, centuries-old Santa. And a curse that refuses to let either of them walk away.
Sugar's tiny, festive bookshop on wheels is meant to be a fresh start—a soft place to land after loss. Instead, it becomes the exact place Christmas Magic finds her and sends her on a romantic and moody holiday adventure.
Klaus is bitter, guarded, and carrying far more than holiday cheer. For seven hundred years, he's been searching for a Christmas Witch to break his curse, and now that he's found her, he is surprised by the connection binding them together.
As the season unfolds, what starts as reluctant proximity turns into something deeper—something that just might heal the wounds they’ve both been carrying for far too long.
The Curse Before Christmas is a cozy, emotional holiday romance filled with warmth, longing, and a spicy twist on Santa Claus.
Content Warnings: Grief/Loss • Sexual Content
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3 ratings
Rebecca D.
🎅 The Curse Before Christmas ARC review
⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
🎄 Thank you to @authorlarissawrites and @insidestory.app for an advanced reading copy!
🎅 I am now in such a festive mood! I absolutely loved Sugar and Klaus’ Christmas story. It went so much deeper than just a lighthearted romance, and how it explored holiday grief, loneliness, and loss was heartbreaking and genuine. This was a delightful novella and I highly recommend!
Bianca D.
A cute and cozy read.
Karen B.
The Curse Before Christmas: A Paranormal Winter Romance
Curses and Kisses: A Holiday Collection, Book 1
~Larissa Antonioni
The Curse Before Christmas by Larissa Antonioni opens like a snow globe on a cold December night, one with a hairline crack running through the glass. Glitter still swirls among the snowflakes as they drift to the ground, but underneath all that sparkle sits a dullness just waiting to be polished back to a shine.
Sugar built a life out of loss. Her mother drowned in a tragic car accident when black ice sent their car off a bridge and into the water below, her seatbelt jammed and leaving her trapped. Sugar has carried the weight of that night ever since, convinced her mother only died because she had driven out to pick her up from a party.
Then a letter and check from her late mother hand Sugar a lifeline: chase the dream.
So she does.
An old building becomes a bookstore with a loft above it, and eventually Sugar takes that dream one step further with an old VW van converted into a mobile bookshop. But after the town's Bookmas event, Christmas magic comes barging into her life in the form of Klaus, a seven-hundred-year-old, curse-ridden, self-proclaimed Santa Claus who's as bitter as burnt cocoa.
Klaus has spent centuries hunting for the Christmas Witch who can break the curse placed on him by her ancestor. But the woman he's looking for turns out to be Sugar, who has never even lit a magic candle and certainly doesn't believe in magic.
Sugar tells him exactly what she thinks of his story and to get lost, while wielding a giant candy cane as her weapon of choice.
Because apparently even Santa needs a little sugar with his spice.
When Klaus proves that magic is very real, the quest to break his curse begins.
Antonioni shines as brightly as the star atop the Christmas tree when it comes to her characters. Sugar loves hard and wears every emotion on her sleeve. She's a guilt-ridden woman who adores Christmas even though the season continues to salt one of her deepest wounds. Even her mobile bookshop becomes a perfect metaphor for a life she's still learning how to navigate: always moving, always carrying pieces of home with her, and never quite sure where she'll land next.
Klaus is her perfect foil. He's a figure the whole world associates with joy, yet seven centuries of carrying a curse and calling it duty have hollowed him out. Their wounds mirror each other, bringing two people together who aren't healing despite their scars, but through them.
Their journey becomes one of self-discovery, healing, love, and growth, and the results feel earned rather than magically gifted.
The pacing is brisk, with emotional beats that hit quick and clean, leaving little room to catch your breath between chapters. You turn one page and the next has already grabbed you by the scarf and pulled you along.
And the atmosphere? Impeccable.
A bookshop that smells of paper and cinnamon. A curse ticking against the Christmas calendar. Magic that hunts you down instead of waiting to be summoned. It's an immersive holiday recipe just waiting to be devoured.
This is a spicy twist on the Santa myth, and Antonioni delivers it with a wink, a warm mug of cocoa, and just enough heat to melt the snow.
The Curse Before Christmas is a warm, moody, emotionally loaded treat for readers who want their holiday romance served with a little bite and a kiss under the mistletoe in equal measure.
Releasing on Kindle November 1, 2026. Be sure to add this one to your holiday-season must-read list.
Thank you to Inside Story and author Larissa Antonioni for allowing me to preview The Curse Before Christmas. As always, all opinions and reviews are my own volition, Karen Brooks, aka The Tx Lit Chic. I have not been promised any compensation, current or future, by the author or publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review of The Curse Before Christmas.