Naughty List Krampus

She's too good. He's the Krampus. And the naughty list just chained them together until Christmas.

Clementine Bell is the nicest person in Merrow Falls, Vermont. The first-grade teacher knits scarves for strangers, bakes for the whole town, and has never once said no to anyone. She's so relentlessly good that her entry on the ancient naughty-and-nice ledger has broken: eleven thousand kindnesses given, three received.

And every time she does something nice, it summons the one creature whose job is keeping track of the bad ones.

Kaspar has kept the naughty list for four hundred years. He's horned, hooved, seven feet tall, and very grumpy. He's also secretly the best baker in New England, though no one knows it. When Clem climbs onto her porch roof at midnight to bring him a cup of cocoa, the ledger binds him to her side until her scales balance.

That means a Krampus on her tiny couch, a Krampus on the playground bench outside her school, and a Krampus kneading gingerbread in her kitchen at two in the morning. To set him free, Clem has to learn the hardest thing she's ever done: let someone do something for her.

Naughty List Krampus is a funny, tender Christmas monster romcom with:

• Grumpy sunshine with a horned hero who secretly bakes

• Magical forced proximity (he literally can't leave)

• Twenty-two first graders who are not afraid of him at all

• Gingerbread, ice skating, and a very festive small town

• A closed door and a guaranteed happily-ever-after