Rating: ☆☆☆ 1/2
Audience: Contemporary Romance
Length: 378 pages
Author: RaeAnne Thayne
Publisher: Harlequin HQN
Release Date: October 28th, 2014
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads
BOOK SUMMARY:
New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne welcomes you to a small town full of big surprises that are both merry and bright…
Nothing short of a miracle can restore Eliza Hayward’s Christmas cheer. The job she pinned her dreams on has gone up in smoke—literally—and now she’s stuck in an unfamiliar, if breathtaking, small town. Precariously close to being destitute, Eliza needs a helping hand…for her sick young daughter’s sake as well as her own. But she’s not expecting her holiday hero to almost run her down with his car!
Rescuing Eliza is pure instinct for tech genius Aidan Caine. At first, putting the renovation of his lakeside guest lodge in Eliza’s hands assuages his guilt—until he sees how quickly he could fall for her. Having focused solely on his business for years, he never knew that what his life was missing was Eliza and her little girl. But is he willing to risk hoping for a yuletide romance that could lead to forever?
A MIXED BAG.
To break this down, what I enjoyed was the romance. I thought the chemistry and relationship between Eliza and Aiden was sweet. It moved well for the short time-period and I was invested. The banter, passionate kisses and everything was great.
I also really enjoyed the setting. The small town, holiday/Christmas vibes was perfect for the season. With an awkward meet cute and lovable family members it made for a good started book for the series.
What I struggled with was the tragedy that enveloped every single person. Each one of them (as in, each character) had a backstory that was intense and took away from the story. It was then repeated way too often and sentiments were added every time they looked at another character. Repeat this scenario every few pages and I was exhausted from it all.
A bit good, a bit eh. It was a nice quick read though. I flew through it and it was overall enjoyable to check this off of my holiday TBR read.
Overall audience notes:
- Contemporary romance
- Language: very little
- Romance: kisses
- Trigger/Content Warnings: main character with cancer, loss of a loved one(s), a child with a life-threatening condition, getting hit by a car
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