CHRISTMAS AT THE AMISH MARKET by Shelley Shepard Gray is a charming Christmas Amish romance which has a young Amish couple who have been courting for years finding love where they least expect it. This is a standalone sweet holiday story and women’s fiction with believable life twists that while predictable is an enjoyable read.
Wesley Raber’s father has had a heart attack and with his mother go to their eldest son’s home to rest and recuperate. Wesley has been running the family Amish market under his father’s watchful eye, but now at the busiest time of the year, he is in charge. He has always put the family market first in his life and now with the added time necessary to run the market his longtime girlfriend, Liesl feels abandoned. Liesl decides to help Wesley by asking her aunt to come to stay and help at the market during December.
Jenny Kurtz is nothing that Wesley was expecting. She is only twenty-six years old and attractive, but Jenny is recovering from a broken heart. Wesley soon discovers Jenny is hard working and very attentive to the customers who all adore her. With long hours working together, they both begin to be attracted to each other, but Wesley is supposed to be Liesl’s boyfriend and Jenny would never hurt her favorite niece for the world, but Liesl has been finding happiness and attention from another and has some major life decisions to make of her own.
I found this Christmas story to be part romance and part women’s fiction due to the realistic problems all the main characters face in this Amish setting. It is not a straight-line romance plot, but has plenty of romance, family traditions, love, and surprises that still leave you with a warm holiday feeling.
I really enjoyed this Amish holiday book!
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About the Author
Shelley Shepard Gray is a NYT and USA Today bestselling author. She’s published over a hundred novels and has over a million books in print. She currently lives in northern Ohio and writes full time.
Shelley lives just an hour from Holmes County, where many of her Amish-themed novels are set. She currently writes contemporary romance and Amish fiction for a variety of publishers. When not spending time with her family or writing, she can usually be found walking her two dachshunds on one of the many trails in the Cleveland area.
She also bakes a lot, loves coconut cream pie, and will hardly ever pull weeds, mow the yard, or drive in the snow.
’Tis the season for cozy stories of falling in love
Here Comes Trouble by Debbie Macomber
After rival columnist Nolan Adams writes an unflattering piece about rookie journalist Maryanne Simpson, she decides to make some big life changes. She needs to show the tough, streetwise Nolan that she deserves his respect. When they end up as neighbors, Maryanne discovers that she can’t resist Nolan’s gruff charm, and although he doesn’t seem to be an appropriate match for a socialite, Maryanne has other ideas!
Once Upon a Wedding by JoAnn Ross
Desiree Marchand doesn’t have time for any complications ahead of her friend’s wedding—especially not her ex-boyfriend, rock star Bastien Broussard. Unfortunately, the wedding is down a singer…and whether Desiree likes it or not, Bastien is the perfect man for the job.
An Alaskan Christmas Homecoming by Jennifer Snow
The only thing Griffin Geller wants for Christmas is to reconcile with his family, which would take a real miracle. They haven’t spoken to him in the three months he’s been back in Wild River, Alaska. But when Jade Frazier walks into his tattoo shop, determined to decorate the front window, she helps remind Griffin that Christmas can be a season for second chances…in life as well as love.
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Mini Book Reviews
RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars
SNOWFLAKES AND STARLIGHT is a holiday anthology with three charming romances by two authors I always enjoy and one new to me author. I like anthologies during the holidays because the novellas are easier to finish quickly for that holiday romance feeling when I may not have time for a full-length novel.
Here Comes Trouble by Debbie Macomber was what I always expect and receive when I read a Debbie Macomber romance. Great characters and a romance plot that pulls me in and has me cheering for the couple to get it together and find their HEA. Maryanne and Nolan were so economically and socially different and yet their love triumphed. It was cute also, that their love story was told as a story for their daughters on Christmas Eve, so you knew it would all work out somehow.
Once Upon a Wedding by JoAnn Ross was a wonderful novella added to her Honeymoon Harbor series. It was a second chance holiday romance with all the feels. Desiree is a great heroine because she knew what she truly wanted and went for it, even at the cost of her young relationship with Bastien. And then for Bastien to know it was time for him to attempt to re-enter Desiree’s life was swoon worthy. The only problem with this novella was that there were a lot of characters from the series and if you are new to the series, it can be slightly confusing even though each relationship and character are explained.
An Alaskan Christmas Homecoming by Jennifer Snow is by a new to me author and it really packed a punch in a short number of pages. Forgiveness, love, and family. I am looking forward to checking out more of this author’s books.
I recommend this anthology of varying holiday romances. Enjoy!
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About the Author
Debbie Macomber is a #1 New York Times bestselling author and one of today’s most popular writers with more than 200 million copies of her books in print worldwide. In her novels, Macomber brings to life compelling relationships that embrace family and enduring friendships, uplifting her readers with stories of connection and hope. Macomber’s novels have spent over 1,000 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list. Fifteen of these novels hit the number one spot.
In 2022, Macomber’s all-new hardcover publications include The Best Is Yet to Come (July) and The Christmas Spirit (October). In addition to fiction, Macomber has also published three bestselling cookbooks, two adult coloring books, numerous inspirational and nonfiction works, and two acclaimed children’s books.
Celebrated as “the official storyteller of Christmas”, Macomber’s annual Christmas books are beloved and six have been crafted into original Hallmark Channel movies. Macomber is also the author of the bestselling Cedar Cove Series which the Hallmark Channel chose as the basis for its first dramatic scripted television series. Debuting in 2013, Debbie Macomber’s Cedar Cove was a ratings favorite for three seasons.
She serves on the Guideposts National Advisory Cabinet, is a YFC National Ambassador, and is World Vision’s international spokesperson for their Knit for Kids charity initiative. A devoted grandmother, Debbie and Wayne live in Port Orchard, Washington, the town which inspired the Cedar Cove series.
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About the Author
I wrote my first story — a tragic romance about two star-crossed Mallard ducks — as a second grade writing assignment. The paper earned a gold star. So I kept writing.
I’ve since written over a hundred novels and have been published in twenty-six countries. Two of my titles have been excerpted in Cosmopolitan magazine and as a New York Times, U.S. Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller, I’m also a member of the Romance Writers of America’s Honor Roll of best-selling authors.
I’m currently writing small town series for HQN set on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula. Honeymoon Harbor is inspired by a Victorian seaport peninsula town my husband and I fell in love with over thirty years ago and visit often. Readers who enjoyed my Shelter Bay series will feel right at home in Honeymoon Harbor.
I’m also excited to have a women’s fiction novel coming out September 7th. The Inheritance is set in contemporary Oregon wine county and WWII France.
I live in the Pacific Northwest with my husband—who proposed to me at the seawall where my Shelter Bay books are set when I was eighteen—and our still active, very vocal senior Siamese cat, Paws. Having joined our family when she was twelve years old, Paws pretty much runs the house.
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About the Author
Jennifer Snow is a USA Today Bestselling Author writing contemporary romance fiction for Grand Central Publishing, Entangled and Harlequin. Her stories range in heat level from sweet to sexy and are set everywhere from big cities to small towns. Her books are light and humorous, but also full of heart, featuring families and communities readers love to visit over and over again.
Originally from Newfoundland, Canada, she now resides in Spain with her husband, son and three mischievous cats.
She currently publishes psychological thrillers under her pen name J.M. Winchester and writes screenplays and TV shows in her ‘spare’ time. Her holiday rom-com, Mistletoe and Molly airs Christmas 2021!
More information can be found on her website at www.jennifersnowauthor.com.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review on the HTP Holiday Romance Blog Tour for RODEO CHRISTMAS AT EVERGREEN RANCH (Gold Valley Book #13) by Maisey Yates.
Below you will find a book summary, my book review, an excerpt from the book and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Summary
Gold Valley’s rodeo champion is facing the toughest challenge of his life – a Christmas wedding!
Legendary bull-rider Jake Daniels has only one plan this holiday season – to ignore the pain it always brings. Until his best friend Callie Carson shows up on his ranch with a marriage proposal! Jake has lived so close to the edge it’s a miracle he’s still alive – he knows all about risk. But marrying the woman he craves more than anything feels like the biggest risk of all.
Callie Carson might be rodeo royalty, but to fulfil her dreams of riding saddle bronc, she needs her inheritance. And to access that, she needs a husband. But Jake the husband is deliciously different from Jake the friend, especially after the wild heat of their wedding night! He was only supposed to be her cowboy for Christmas, but Jake’s every heart-stopping touch has Callie questioning how she’ll ever be able to walk away.
RODEO CHRISTMAS AT EVERGREEN RANCH (Gold Valley Book #13) by Maisey Yates is another holiday contemporary western romance addition to the Gold Valley series. I always look forward to the Gold Valley books, but especially the ones set during the holidays.
Champion bull rider, Jake Daniels has returned to his ranch for the holidays leaving the rodeo circuit behind. He risked his life for years to obtain his dream of his own horse ranch and now he just has to make it through the holidays and the painful memories they bring.
Callie Carson is from a rodeo royalty family and has dreamed of riding saddle broncs instead of barrel racing. To fulfill her dream, she needs her inheritance and to get her inheritance before she turns thirty, she needs to be married.
Callie follows her long-time friend, Jake to his home in Gold Valley and proposes. Things begin to change and heat up as Callie’s friend becomes her husband and Jake may be taking the biggest chance of his life.
I always look forward to returning to this series or any romance by Maisey Yates. Jake and Callie are both dealing with difficult emotional baggage. While these two characters eventually come together for their HEA, there is a lot of grief and pain to get through first. Christmas has always played an emotional part in these stories and this one is no exception. I loved Jake and really felt for his painful past and the present feelings he had for Callie, but Callie was a little more difficult to care about because at times I felt she was too centered on herself and her own feelings. The sex scenes are explicit and smokin’ hot, but not gratuitous. While I enjoyed the romance when the H/h were finally emotionally together and I enjoyed the snippets of previous characters in the series, this was not my favorite of the Gold Valley series.
This is a good friends-to-lovers romance set during the holidays and I recommend the entire Gold Valley series.
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Excerpt
CHAPTER ONE
JAKE DANIELS HAD grown up knowing that life was short. When he was in high school, he’d lost his parents, and along with them, the sense that anything in this world was guaranteed.
That kind of thing changed a man.
It could make him afraid of his own shadow, worried about taking risks and filled with a sense of self-preservation.
It was either that, or he realized since there were no guarantees, he might as well go all in. Push those chips out to the center of the table and see if the gamble paid off.
He’d done some admittedly dumb stuff as a kid. Not gambling so much as acting out. But the rodeo had changed him. It had saved him.
He’d spent the last eighteen years gambling and doing pretty damn well for himself, it had to be said. Years spent in the rodeo, flinging himself around on the back of enraged bulls, had netted him a decent amount of money, and now that he was more or less ready to get out of the game, those winnings, and the amount of money his parents’ life insurance had left behind, had gotten him a big spread in Gold Valley.
He was going to be a rancher.
Not cattle, like his cousin Ryder. No. He was getting into horses. High-value breeds. Another gamble. It would either pay off, or ruin him.
That was the kind of life he liked. That was the kind of thing that made him feel alive.
And if this was retirement, hell, he was pretty damn into it. Thirty-two years old, and wealthy enough to figure out a way to live his dream. Not bad at all.
Of course, there were things he would miss about the rodeo. The people on the circuit were practically family now. So many years traveling around the same venues, getting busted up together, competing fiercely and going out for a beer after.
But it had been time to leave, and all it had taken was one fierce accident to teach him that.
And Gold Valley was his home, so this had been the place to go to when his time in the rodeo was done.
The day his parents had died, his aunt and uncle had also died, along with the mother of one of his closest friends. That had left a passel of orphaned children, a big old ranch that had once been run by their parents and a whole lot of chaos.
But it had been a good life. Other than all the crushingly sad parts.
His cousin Ryder had taken care of all of them, since he was the only one who’d been eighteen when the tragedy had happened.
He often wondered how they’d made it through without Ryder punching them all in the damn face.
He was sure that Ryder had wanted to from time to time.
Hell. Jake and Colt had been absolute assholes. Neither of them had handled losing their parents well. Well, was there a good way to handle that? He didn’t know. But at seventeen and fifteen, he and his brother had been mad at the world, and kicking against the one person who had been doing his best to help them.
They’d both left home and joined the rodeo, the Western take on running away and joining the circus.
It had taken some years and some maturity for him to fully appreciate what he’d had.
Because what Ryder had given to them had been bound up in his loss, and until he’d been in his midtwenties probably, he hadn’t fully been able to separate those two things and think of home, and his cousin, without a measure of pain and anger.
Even now, when he pulled into Hope Springs Ranch, a strange sensation took hold of him.
Nostalgia, grief and home, all rolled into one.
He’d been contending with it a lot lately, because his—for lack of a better word—retirement was still fairly new, and being in one place and not on the road was unusual for him.
But that was a choice he’d made, and one that was taking a bit of time for him to settle into. It had been just over three months, and it still felt…wrong in some ways.
It was easier to pretend that all your demons were dealt with when you just spent a good portion of the time running from them. Made things simple. At least as simple as they could be.
The problem was his demons had done a decent job of catching up to him on the circuit, and that was when he’d decided it was time to move on.
When Cal had fallen…
How could he live with something happening to his mentee? Cal was his best friend and with his guidance had gotten hurt.
No, that had brought him back to a dark, raw place. One he didn’t want to visit again.
That calm before the storm. That bright ray of sunshine revealed to be the headlights of a Mack truck bearing down on him.
He’d read that poem that said nothing gold could stay.
In his experience, it turned out gold was fleeting. And revealed to be fool’s gold on top of it.
Good never lasted.
And it was rarely real, anyway.
He’d been… Well, he hadn’t been thrilled about Cal wanting to come for Thanksgiving, but he felt responsible for the accident so in the end he hadn’t been able to say no.
He pulled his truck up to the front of the farmhouse, and the door opened, three dogs spilling out the front and down the front steps.
“Back, mutts,” he muttered when he got out of the truck, smiling affectionately at the creatures as he bent down and scratched them behind the ears.
He looked up and saw Sammy standing on the top step of the porch, her baby on her hip. Sammy was married to his cousin Ryder now, but she was another member of their ragtag family. She hadn’t lost her parents, but her situation at home, as he understood it, had been unacceptable, and when she was sixteen she’d come to live with them. She’d never left, and she and Ryder had gotten married a year earlier.
Finally, in his opinion.
The two of them had spent way too long dancing around the truth. Not that he could blame them. Nothing in his life had ever made marriage look particularly appealing. His parents…
His parents had been unhappy, slaves to a ranch and their children, to marriage vows they’d said to each other and had always seemed like they might regret.
For just a moment it had seemed like it might all be fixed. For just a moment it had seemed like they’d be okay.
Then it had all been destroyed.
That bright spot of hope swallowed by reality.
After years of unhappiness, his parents had just died.
Jake couldn’t imagine that kind of life.
“How you doing?” he asked.
Sammy shifted the baby from one hip to the other, the little girl reaching out and grabbing her mom’s blond hair. Sammy laughed and unwrapped the chubby fist from her curls. She looked happier than he’d ever seen her before.
He supposed for some people there was something to be said for this life.
God knew Ryder seemed happier.
But then, it was impossible for Ryder to seem more grim. Jake felt pretty guilty about that with the benefit of age and wisdom.
“Great,” Sammy said. “We’ve been seeing so much of you lately. I feel spoiled.”
“Well, that’s good, because it won’t take long for you to just feel sick of me.”
“Never,” Sammy said, coming down the steps and offering him a hug.
Sammy was like that. Effortless, easy affection with people around her.
He admired it, but he’d never much understood it. There was only one kind of touch he was free with. Sex was simple. And being a champion in the world of rodeo meant there was no shortage of buckle bunnies lining up to see if the rumors were true. His bull rides lasted eight seconds, and a ride in his bed lasted the whole night.
He took a lot of pride in the fact that he had staying power. That he gave a damn for the pleasure of the women who passed through his hotel rooms.
But that was as deep as he got.
“Come on in,” Sammy said. “Logan and Rose are already here. Iris and Griffin are on their way.”
It was strange to him that everybody had paired off now. Everybody except for himself, and his brother, Colt, who would rather take a stick between the eyes than settle down.
Jake was confident that would be his brother’s stance.
His brother was still going out hard in the rodeo. As far as Jake knew he wasn’t even interested in coming back to town and settling down the way Jake was, let alone getting married.
He walked into the living room, and noticed all the little changes.
Since Ryder and Sammy had gotten married, the place, which had actually been basically the same in all the years since their parents had died, had gotten a bit of a facelift.
Sammy had added a whole lot of real grown-up touches to it. Pretty things.
It was weird. Weirder that he cared.
Ryder came through from the kitchen and offered a greeting. “Good to see you.”
“You, too. Hey, Sammy,” Jake said. “Would it be all right if my buddy Cal came for Thanksgiving?”
“Sure,” Sammy said. “The more, the merrier.”
He was glad Sammy was thrilled. He was less thrilled. But there were a spare few things on God’s earth he saw as sacred. His friendship with Cal was one of them.
The accident might have been a catalyst for Jake deciding to leave the rodeo, but it was just damned cowardly to then deny his friend’s request to come visit. Why? Because he felt guilty about the fall?
Hell, yeah, he did.
But that didn’t mean he had to be happy about the visit. Though even just being away and out of the game, knowing he was just out of it now for good… There were things he missed. He was looking forward to having a few beers and talking about old times.
“Good,” Jake said.
Eventually, Iris and her new husband arrived, followed by Pansy and her husband, West, and West’s teenage brother, Emmett. West and Pansy had taken over the raising of the kid, since West’s mother wasn’t hugely into the maternal thing. Putting it mildly.
And while everything with his family was good—it always was—there was an indefinable feeling of…change.
Right. Well, you haven’t been here very much, so you don’t have the right to have an opinion about how things have changed.
That thought galled him a little bit.
And it was true enough. He’d been gone, seen to his own affairs all this time, and something that had given him a small measure of comfort was the fact that he could come home at any time and things would be roughly the way that he left them. But not so much anymore.
There were new people. New plates. The house was fuller than it had ever been, but that made it a little bit unrecognizable, too.
It was a whole damn thing.
He finished eating, and hung out for a while.
Then he bid everybody farewell, got in his truck and started on the road back to his ranch.
Settling in Gold Valley.
There was a time when he’d been sure he’d never do that. And as he drove down the familiar highway he had a strange sense of…dread.
He hated that.
He chased dread. The kind of fear that held other people down, he pursued it. He’d spent years riding bulls because he’d figured why not give fate the biggest middle finger of all.
It was the quiet moments that seemed to bring the fear. The still moments. The golden hour, when the sun lit up the world around him and everything looked new. And there would be a moment. A breath. Where peace rested in his soul.
And right on its heels came the hounds of hell.
The arena had stopped it. The pounding of hooves, the danger.
It was just that it had followed him to the arena now so he’d figured he’d take his chances here.
Maybe that had been a mistake.
Too late now.
He drove through town, trying to get a look at how it might seem if he were an outsider. If he was someone who hadn’t grown up here. The brick facades were the kind of thing tourists lost their shit over. But he lost the ability to see them a long time ago.
For him… For him, Gold Valley had just represented everything he lost.
He’d been running when he’d left.
He’d run for a long time. And he’d achieved a hell of a lot.
But whatever he thought he’d feel when he got here… He didn’t.
And so he was trying to see everything with new eyes, like he was a new man, because he felt just so damned much like the old one. And he wasn’t the biggest fan.
Hope Springs always put him in this kind of mood.
So he shrugged it off and started mentally going over the timeline that he had in place for getting his ranch going. His first five horses were coming at the new year.
It was a new challenge. And it reinvigorated him. That was the problem. The rodeo had gotten stale. He’d won everything twice. You didn’t get better than that. He’d done it twice in a row, and he didn’t want to get to the point where he wasn’t winning anymore.
He’d peaked. Basically.
So now he had to go find somewhere else to do that.
That was something, anyway.
It was one reason he’d backed his cousin Iris when she had decided to open her bakery.
He knew all about needing a change.
Maybe that meant he actually was still running.
None of it mattered now, though.
He hadn’t had enough to drink tonight because he’d needed to get his ass home, but he was going to open some whiskey the minute he got in the door.
The place was out about ten miles from town, a nice flat parcel of property with the mountains behind it. The house itself was a big, white farmhouse with a green metal roof. Different to the rustic place at Hope Springs, but he liked it. The driveway was gravel, long and winding, with tall, dense trees on either side of the road.
But when he came through the trees into the clearing where the house was, there was a surprise waiting for him in front of the house.
An old, beat-up pickup was parked there, and he could see a lone figure leaning up against the hood. He parked the truck and got out, making his way over to the figure.
In the darkness, he couldn’t quite make it out, but he had a feeling he knew who it was. Early and unannounced.
Entirely in keeping with what he knew of his friend.
“Cal?”
And two wide, brown eyes looked up at him from beneath the brim of a white cowboy hat, long, glossy brown hair shifting with the motion. “Jake. I’m really glad to see you. Because… I don’t just need a job. I need a husband.”
Maisey Yates is a New York Times bestselling author of over one hundred romance novels. Whether she’s writing strong, hard working cowboys, dissolute princes or multigenerational family stories, she loves getting lost in fictional worlds. An avid knitter with a dangerous yarn addiction and an aversion to housework, Maisey lives with her husband and three kids in rural Oregon.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review on the HTP Holiday Romance Blog Tour for A LITTLE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT by Sheila Roberts.
Below you will find a book summary, my book review, an excerpt from the book and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Summary
The best Christmas gifts—family, friendship, and second chances—are all waiting to be unwrapped in this sparkling new novel from USA Today bestselling author Sheila Roberts.
Single mom Lexie Bell hopes to make this first Christmas in their new home special for her six-year-old son, Brock. Festive lights and homemade fudge, check. Friendly neighbors? Uh, no. The reclusive widower next door is more grinchy than nice. But maybe he just needs a reminder of what matters most. At least sharing some holiday cheer with him will distract her from her own lack of romance…
Stanley Mann lost his Christmas spirit when he lost his wife and he sees no point in looking for it. Until she shows up in his dreams and informs him it’s time to ditch his Scroogey attitude. Stanley digs in his heels but she’s determined to haunt him until he wakes up and rediscovers the joys of the season. He can start by being a little more neighborly to the single mom next door. In spite of his protests he’s soon making snowmen and decorating Christmas trees. How will it all end?
Merrily, of course. A certain Christmas ghost is going to make sure of that!
A LITTLE CHRISTMAS SPIRIT by Sheila Roberts is a wonderful Christmas holiday standalone fiction story with romance elements. A grumpy old neighbor who lost his Christmas spirit when his wife died, a single mother and her young son who are new in the neighborhood are all brought together by a Christmas ghost.
Stanley Mann lost the love of his life, Carol, three years ago in a terrible car crash and he has never recovered. He continues on by himself and wants nothing to do with anyone or anything outside of his home and he especially hates the holidays. Then Carol’s spirit returns during several nights to remind Stanley of their time together and to encourage him to start living life again and not just existing and he can start by helping his new neighbors.
Kindergarten teacher Lexi Bell and her young son, Brock, have moved from California to the Pacific Northwest and are excited about spending their first Christmas in their new home. Their next-door neighbor at first is more grumpy hermit than neighbor, but Lexi and Brock have a way of squirming into his heart during the day even as Carol nudges him into being the man she remembers during the nights.
This story is absolutely perfect for a holiday read! It is full of love, family, forgiveness, and holiday spirit. Brock is endearing and you can understand how he was able to worm his way into Stanley’s closed-off heart. Lexi’s trial of looking for the perfect man is all too familiar for many of us. When Stanley sits down with The Grinch and Scrooge in one of his dreams it was very entertaining. The secondary characters all make their appearances at just the right time and give this story a realistic feel even with its ghostly apparition. Keep the tissues close for a few of the scenes. This is the first time I have read a book by this author, and it will not be the last.
I highly recommend this Christmas tale of love!
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Excerpt
1
It was the sixth call in two days, all from the same person. Wouldn’t you think, if a man didn’t answer his phone the first five times, that the pest would get the message and quit bugging him?
But no, and now Stanley Mann was irritated enough to pick up and say a gruff “Hello.” Translation: Why are you bugging me?
“It’s about time you answered,” said his sister-in-law, Amy. “I was beginning to wonder if you were okay.”
Of course, he wasn’t okay. He hadn’t been okay since Carol had died.
“I’m fine. Thanks for checking.”
The words didn’t come out with any sense of warmth or appreciation for her concern to encourage conversation, but Amy soldiered on. “Stan, we all want you to come down for Thanksgiving. You haven’t seen the family in ages.”
Not since the memorial service, and he hadn’t really missed them. He liked his brother-in-law well enough, but his wife’s younger sister was a ding-dong, her daughters were drama queens and their husbands were idiots. The younger generation were all into their selfies and their jobs and their crazy vacations where they swam with sharks. Who in their right mind swam with sharks? He had better things to do than subject himself to spending an entire day with them.
He did have enough manners left to thank Amy for the invite before turning her down.
“You really should come,” she persisted.
No, he shouldn’t.
“Don’t you want to see the new great-niece?”
No, he didn’t. “I’ve got plans.”
“What? To hole up in the house with a turkey frozen dinner?”
“No.” Not turkey. He hated turkey. It made him sleepy.
“You know Carol would want you to be with us.”
He’d been with them pretty much every Thanksgiving of his married life. He’d paid his dues.
“You don’t have any family of your own.”
Thanks for rubbing it in. He’d lost his brother ten years earlier to a heart attack, and both his parents were gone now as well. He and Carol had never had any kids of their own.
But he was fine. He was perfectly happy in his own company.
“I’m good, Amy. Don’t worry about me.”
“I can’t help it. You know, Carol was always afraid that if something happened to her you’d become a hermit.”
Hermits were scruffy old buzzards with bad teeth and long beards who hated people. Stanley didn’t hate people. He just didn’t need to be around them all the time. There was a difference. And he wasn’t scruffy. He brushed his teeth. And he shaved…every once in a while.
“Amy, I’m fine. Don’t worry. Happy Thanksgiving, and tell Jimmy he can have my share of the turkey,” Stanley said, then ended the call before she could grill him further regarding those plans he’d said he had.
They were perfectly good plans. He was going to pick up a frozen pizza and watch something on TV. That sure beat driving all the way from Fairwood, Washington, to Gresham, Oregon, to be alternately bored and irritated by his in-laws. If Amy really wanted to do something good for him, she could leave him alone.
At first everyone had. He was a man in mourning. Then came COVID-19, and he was a senior self-quarantining. Now, however, it appeared he was supposed to be ready to party on. Well, he wasn’t.
Two days before Thanksgiving he made the one-mile journey to the grocery store, figuring he’d dodge the crowd. He’d figured wrong, and the store was packed with people finishing up the shopping for their holiday meal. The turkey supply in the meat freezer was running dangerously low, and half a dozen women and a lone man crowded around it like miners at the river’s edge, searching for gold, each trying to snag the best bird from the selection that remained. A woman rolled past him with a mini-mountain of food in her cart, a wailing toddler in the seat and two kids dragging along behind her, one of them pointing to the chips aisle and whining.
“I said no,” she snapped. “We don’t need chips.”
Nope. That woman needed a stiff drink.
Stanley grabbed his pizza and some pumpkin ice cream and got in the checkout line.
Two men around his age stood in front of him, talking. “They’re out of black olives,” said the first one. “I got green instead.”
The second man shook his head. “Your wife ain’t gonna like that. Everyone knows you got to have black olives at Thanksgiving.”
“I can’t help it if there’s none left on the shelves. Anyway, the only one who eats ’em is her brother, and the loser can suck it up and do without.”
Yep, family togetherness. Stanley wasn’t going to miss that.
He’d miss being with Carol, though. He missed her every day. Her absence was an ache that never left him, and resentment kept it ever fresh.
They’d reached what was often referred to as the Golden Circle, that time in life when you had enough money to travel and enjoy yourself, when your health was still good and you could carry your own luggage. They’d enjoyed traveling and had planned on doing so much more together—taking a world cruise, renting a beach house in California for a summer, even going deep-sea fishing in Mexico. Their golden years were going to be great.
Those golden years turned to brass the day she died. She didn’t even die of cancer or a stroke or something he could have accepted. She was killed in a car accident. A drunk driver in a truck had done her in and walked away with nothing more than some bruises from his airbag. It wasn’t right, and it wasn’t fair. And Stanley didn’t really have anything to be thankful about. He didn’t like Thanksgiving.
There would be worse to follow. After Thanksgiving it would be Merry Christmas!, Happy Hanukkah!, Happy Kwanzaa!, you name it. All that happy would finally get tied up in a big Happy New Year! bow. As if buying a new calendar magically made everything better. Well, it didn’t.
Stanley spent his Thanksgiving Day in lonely splendor, watching football on TV and eating his pizza. It’s not delivery. It’s DiGiorno. Worked for him. He ate two-thirds of it before deciding he should pace himself. Got to save room for dessert. Pumpkin ice cream—just as good as the traditional pie and whipped cream, and it didn’t come with any irritating in-laws. Ice cream was the food of the gods. After his pizza, he pulled out a large bowl, filled it and dug in.
When they got older, Carol had turned into the ice cream police, limiting his consumption. She’d pat his belly and say, “Now, Manly Stanley, too much of that and you’ll end up looking like a big, fat snowman. Plus you’ll clog your arteries, and that’s not good. I don’t want to risk losing you.”
Ironic. He’d wound up losing her instead.
Between all the ice cream and the beer he’d been consuming with no one to police him, he was starting to look a little like Frosty the Snowman. (Before he melted.) But who cared? He got himself a second bowl of ice cream.
He topped it off with a couple of beers and a movie along with some store-bought cookies. There you go. Happy Thanksgiving.
For a while, anyway. Until everything got together in his stomach and began to misbehave. He shouldn’t have eaten so much. Especially the pizza. He really couldn’t do spicy now that he was older. Telling everyone down there that all would soon be well, he took a couple of antacids.
No one down there was listening, and all that food had its own Turkey Day football game still going in his gut when he went to bed. He tossed and turned and groaned until, finally, he fell into an uneasy sleep.
“Pepperoni and sausage?” scolded a voice in his ear. “You know better than to eat that spicy food, Stanley.”
“I know, I know,” he muttered. “You’re right, Carol.”
Carol! Stanley rolled over and saw his wife standing by the side of his bed. She was wearing the black nightie he always loved to see her in. And then out of. Her eyes were as blue as ever. How he’d missed that sweet face!
But what was she doing here?
He blinked. “Is it really you?” He thought he’d never see her again in this lifetime, but there she was. His heart turned over.
“Yes, it’s really me,” she said.
She looked radiant and so kissable, but that quickly changed. Suddenly, her body language wasn’t very lovey-dovey. She frowned and put her hands on her hips, a sure sign she was about to let him have it.
“What were you thinking?” she demanded.
He didn’t have to ask what she was referring to. He knew.
“It’s Thanksgiving. I was celebrating,” he said.
She frowned. “All by yourself.”
“I happen to like my own company. You know that.”
“There’s liking your own company, and there’s hiding.”
“I am not hiding,” he insisted.
“Yes, you are. I gave you time to mourn, time to adjust, but enough is enough. Life is short, Stanley. It’s like living off your savings. Each day you take another withdrawal, and pretty soon there’s nothing left. You have to spend those days wisely. You’re wasting yours, dribbling away the last of your savings.”
“That’s fine with me,” he insisted. “I hate my life.”
He hated waking up to find her side of the bed empty and ached for her smile. Without her the house felt deserted. He felt deserted.
“You still like ice cream, don’t you?” she argued.
Except for when he paired it with pizza.
“Stanley, you need to get out there and…live.”
“What do you think I’m doing?” he grumped.
“Going through the motions, hanging in limbo.”
What else could she expect? “It’s not the same without you,” he protested.
“Of course it’s not. But you’re still here, and you’re here for a reason. Don’t make what happened to me a double waste. Somebody snatched my life from me, and I wasn’t done with it. I want you to go on living for the both of us.”
“How can I do that? This isn’t a life, not without you sharing it.”
“It’s a different kind of life, that’s all.”
It was a subpar, meager existence. “I miss you, Carol. I miss you sitting across from me at the breakfast table. I miss us doing things together and sitting together at night, watching TV. I miss…your touch.” He finished on a sob.
“I know.” She sat down on the bed next to him, and he couldn’t help noticing how the blankets didn’t shift under her. “But you have to start filling those empty places, Stanley.”
“I don’t want to,” he cried. “I don’t want to.”
He was still muttering “I don’t want to” when he woke up.
Alone. For a moment there, her presence had felt so real.
“She wasn’t there at all, you dope,” he muttered.
Except why was there a faint scent of peppermint in the bedroom? It made him think of the chocolate Christmas cookies she used to make with the mint-candy frosting and sprinkles on them. After a few big sniffs, he couldn’t detect so much as a whiff of peppermint and shook his head in disgust. Indigestion and memory. That was all she was.
Sheila Roberts lives on a lake in Washington State, where most of her novels are set. Her books have been published in several languages. On Strike for Christmas, was made into a movie for the Lifetime Movie Network and her novel, The Nine Lives of Christmas, was made into a movie for Hallmark.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review on the HTP Holiday Romance Blog Tour for THE CHRISTMAS WEDDING GUEST by Susan Mallory.
Below you will find a book summary, my book review and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Summary
The last thing Reggie Sommerville wants is to come back home for Christmas. It’s only been a year and a half since her boyfriend, Jake, proposed and then broke up with her, all in one weekend, and the prospect of facing the entire town is humiliating. But when her parents reveal that they’re renewing their vows in the lavish wedding they always wanted and her mother asks her to be a bridesmaid, Reggie knows she can’t say no. No matter how much she wants to. She expected the town would be gossiping about her relationship with Jake, but she never expected to run into Toby, her first love that broke her heart all those years ago, living in town and raising his son. She always thought things between them were long over…but this Christmas is full of surprises.
Dena Sommerville has only ever wanted one thing: to have a child. But motherhood has been alluding her because she never met the right man…until she took the bull by the horns and decided to have a baby as a single mom. She knew it would be difficult and the morning sickness alone is knocking her down for the count, but she’s determined to do this on her own. So when a handsome musician checks into the inn where she works, Dena is surprised when a friendship develops. He has his own issues to work through—that much is clear. But she can’t deny there’s something between them
This Christmas, guilted into being bridesmaids at their parents’ vow renewal ceremony, Reggie and Dena Sommerville just might find the most unexpected gift of all—love.
THE CHRISTMAS WEDDING GUEST (Wishing Tree Book #1) by Susan Mallery is an enchanting small town Christmas contemporary romance story times two featuring two sisters and their very different paths to HEA. I am very excited that this is going to be a series and I cannot wait for more from Wishing Tree.
The Somerville sisters are excited about their parents wedding to renew their vows.
Dena Somerville is a teacher at the local Wishing Tree elementary school besides owning the small town’s B&B. Being financially secure and never having been lucky in love, Dena decides to have a baby on her own. Micah Ruiz has come to town for the holidays to visit his ex-band mate and try to get inspiration for his song writing. When he meets Dena, he is intrigued by this woman’s strength to have a baby on her own and he is falls for her with their first kiss, but Dena is afraid to believe that a rock star could fall for a small-town girl.
Regina “Reggie” Somerville has returned after a year away to help her mother with her wedding. Being her own boss and having a job she can do from anywhere she moves back to her parents’ home for the holidays with her rescued Great Dane, Belle. She is surprised to learn her first love and high school sweetheart is back in Wishing Tree with an eight-year-old son. Toby finds he is just as attracted to Reggie as he was before he left town as an eighteen-year-old. Reggie wants to give their relationship a second try, but Toby has been hurt in the past and has difficulty trusting. Can Reggie and the holidays work their special magic to get Toby to love again?
Ms. Mallery’s writing wraps you up in the story like a cozy blanket that you do not want to leave until “The End”. I feel like I should be able to find Wishing Tree on the map and become friends with all the town’s occupants. I appreciate that the sisters are very forth right and honest. They were each dealing with different relationship paths and men, but their stories were believable with the help of family and their circle of friends. These are mature relationships with realistic problems and dialogue. There are no sex scenes in either storyline, but there is plenty of caring, love and romance. I am looking forward to reading about more romances in Wishing Tree and checking in with these two couples again.
I highly recommend this Christmas contemporary HEA times two and this author!
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Author Bio
Susan Mallery is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of novels about the relationships that define women’s lives—family, friendship, romance. Library Journal says, “Mallery is the master of blending emotionally believable characters in realistic situations,” and readers seem to agree—40 million copies of her books have sold worldwide. Her warm, humorous stories make the world a happier place to live.
Susan grew up in California and now lives in Seattle with her husband. She’s passionate about animal welfare, especially that of the two ragdoll cats and adorable poodle who think of her as mom.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book on the DREAMER Harlequin Series Winter Blog Tour for CHRISTMAS AT THE CHATEAU (Bainbridge House Book #2) by Rochelle Alers.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book, an about the author section and the author’s social media link. Enjoy!
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Book Description
CHRISTMAS AT THE CHATEAU by Rochelle Alers (on-sale Nov.30, Harlequin Special Edition): The halls are decked for holiday romance in nationally bestselling author Rochelle Alers’s latest book in the Bainbridge House series! Christmas dinner’s on the table, and it’s being served with a side of romance! Executive chef Viola Williamson has to have the kitchen up and running by the time the Bainbridge House restoration is complete. Working closely with Dom Shaw, Viola is struck by her hotter-than-mulled-cider attraction to her family estate’s handsome caretaker. It’s obvious that he feels it, too—yet Dom keeps his distance. Can Viola convince him that with all this cooking going on, he’s the only one stirring her heart?
CHRISTMAS AT THE CHATEAU (Bainbridge House Book #2) by Rochelle Alers is a holiday contemporary multicultural romance and the second book in the Bainbridge House series. It can be read as a standalone, but there is crossover with the H/h from book one who are this book’s heroine’s brother and best friend.
Viola Williamson has worked hard for years to earn her title as chef. When she is passed over for promotion one too many times at her current Michelin star restaurant, she decides to accept the position as Executive chef for the family’s Bainbridge House when it is fully restored and running. She is excited about being her best friend’s maid of honor for her Christmas wedding and being the head chef for their reception.
Dominic “Dom” Shaw has worked as the caretaker for Bainbridge House since his father’s retirement. Dom has been burned in love before, but he cannot seem to keep away from the new Executive chef.
Neither is looking for love, but the attraction grows as they work together to get the kitchen up and running for the wedding and Dom has a secret that could change everything.
I did enjoy this story with the descriptions of the renovations of Bainbridge House, the amazing descriptions of food throughout the story and the backstories of both Dom and Viola’s families. While I enjoyed these descriptions, the romance was slow to start and did not really pick up or become the focus of the book until halfway through. That said, I did feel it progressed and grew at a realistic pace since both were romance adverse. There is just one short sex scene and it is not explicit. The twist before the ending with Viola’s mother was a surprise because I was expecting Dom’s secret to be the final twist.
I am looking forward to the other brother’s romance stories to come.
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Excerpt
Dom turned his head, successfully hiding the smile struggling to emerge. He didn’t know why, but he hadn’t expected to overhear the ribald curse that had flowed so effortlessly from Viola. “That’s good to know because that would definitely negate us becoming friends.”
Viola narrowed her eyes, reminding him of a cat ready to attack. “Do you always test your friends?”
“Most times I do.”
“Why, Dom?”
“Because I have trust issues.” The admission had come out unbidden. But if he were completely forthcoming with Viola, then he would’ve said his distrust was with women. It didn’t matter whether they were platonic or intimate, he’d made it a practice to keep their relationships at a distance.
“Bad breakup with a girlfriend?”
“No,” he said truthfully. “It was a marriage that ended with irreconcilable differences.”
She blinked slowly. “Well, you’re not the only one with trust issues. And mine are not with an ex-husband but with the men I’ve dated. They say one thing and do something entirely different.”
This time Dom did smile. She’d just given him the opening he’d needed to discover more about her. “Are you saying you’re not currently involved with anyone?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. I’m not involved and don’t want to become involved. Right now, my sole focus is getting these kitchens renovated so that I can be ready once the hotel opens for business.”
It appeared as if they were on the same page when it came to relationships. Neither wanted one. And for him, it would make her presence on the property a win-win. Although he’d found Viola attractive, just knowing she didn’t want anything more than friendship would make it easy for Dom to relate to her as a friend.
“Do you have an idea as to what you want to offer your guests?” he asked, deftly changing the topic of conversation.
“That all depends on the clientele. If it’s a wedding, then that would be at the discretion of the bride and groom. However, for guests coming for a business conference, the food would be different from what would be served at a wedding reception. Then there are folks that may just want to stop by to hang out at the lounge for drinks and to watch sports. For them, I would have a special bar menu.”
“It sounds as if you have everything planned out in advance.”
Viola flashed a dreamy smile. “I would have to. I can’t afford to wait until we’re ready to open for business to begin creating menus without taste testing every item beforehand.”
Dom grinned from ear to ear. “I wouldn’t mind becoming one of your taste testers.”
She laughed. “I’ll definitely keep that in mind.”
Dom sobered. “When do you intend to come back here again?”
Viola also sobered. “Why?”
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About the Author
Hailed by readers and booksellers alike as one of today’s most popular African-American authors of women’s fiction, Ms. Alers is a regular on bestsellers list, and has been a recipient of numerous awards, including the Vivian Stephens Award for Excellence in Romance Writing and a Zora Neale Hurston Literary Award.
