Kaitlin Harrington hates Christmas. A year ago, she was beaten by her boyfriend and lost her unborn baby on Christmas Eve, and now she finds it too painful to celebrate the holiday season. A rookie border guard, she is stationed along the Arizona/Mexico border on Christmas Eve, watching for illegal immigrants and the coyotes who shepherd them across the border. She is not searching for trouble, but it certainly finds her, and she is soon running for her life from a band of vicious desperados who would rather shoot first and ask questions later. One of these coyotes, a man named Miguel, does not seem to be made from the same mold as the others. He may be a part of this hard outlaw group, but there is a gentleness to him that belies his criminal nature, and when he kisses her, she can almost forget that he is her captor. Before the night is over, Kaitlin will find that Miguel is not the enemy she believed him to be, and that Christmas can indeed be a season of miracles.

Vijaya Schartz’s A Desperado for Christmas is a love story and an adventure rolled in to one. Kaitlin is running from her pain and figures that Christmas Eve duty in the desert will keep her mind off the violence and loss she suffered the previous year. She has her own Christmas miracle this night when she meets Miguel and the group of immigrants, and it gives her something to feel grateful for. Along with a story of love and hope, A Desperado for Christmas packs a pretty exciting adventure tale as Kaitlin and Miguel pit themselves against the coyotes as well as a couple of possible terrorists. There is very little “down time” in this fast-paced story, and this reader was glued to it until the very end.

Reviewed by: Whitney