Chimera for Christmas

Sophie has a cheating boyfriend and no job, both in the same week. She takes a seasonal contract on Elora Station, a busy commerce station decked out for the holidays. The plan is to earn a little money, clear her head and then go back to her life on a colony planet.

Her plan leaves out her coworker, known as X. He is a Chimera, one of the deadliest alien soldiers in the universe. He is a genetically modified man seven feet tall, with black horns, glowing yellow eyes and a famously sour temper. Sophie cannot work out why someone like him is pouring drinks in a small coffee shop owned by humans at Christmas.

The book is a science fiction romance told in Sophie's first-person voice. It follows a slow thaw between a human woman and a gruff, guarded alien, and the tone is warm and festive, with humor in the mismatch between a fearsome warrior and a cafe counter. Sophie finds that X is more than he first appears, and his few words and quiet manner begin to win her over.

As Christmas approaches, her contract runs down. She no longer wants the colony life she planned to return to, and she does not want to leave X. The question is whether an ordinary human can find a lasting place on Elora Station before the holidays end. That place would also be in the heart of a man who keeps everyone out.