Rating: ★★★☆
Audience: Contemporary Holiday Romance
Length: 336 pages
Author: Melanie Jacobson
Publisher: Self-Published
Release Date: November 8th, 2022
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads
BOOK SUMMARY:
When the sunniest woman in Creekville buys the house next to the grumpiest man on the street, sparks fly . . . and not just because she keep blowing his fuses…
Paige Redmond has done everything the hard way, from her wild child past to being a single mother raising her own delightful wild child now. But since landing in Creekville, she’s turned it all around. With her newly-inked college degree and her shiny new job title, nothing can get in her way, not even the fixer upper cottage she bought on a whim. It’s the worst house on the best street in town, and she can’t wait to give Evie the Christmas of her dreams in their very own home.
Paige tackles the holiday with a Clark Griswold-level of Christmas spirit, amusing the entire town who cheer her on–everyone except for her humbug neighbor, the reclusive, grumpy, and deliciously handsome professor next door.
Can Paige and Ellie win over the town’s biggest Scrooge? Or will he pull the plug on their first solo Christmas?
Experience the laughter and magic of a Creekville Christmas from USA Today bestselling author Melanie Jacobson today!
Thank you to the author for an eARC.
THOUGHTS.
I started out really enjoying this. Easily a holiday read, I liked the grump and sunshine set up (with easy nods to The Christmas Carol). Single mom trope is here too and I love a great kid in a book too.
There’s some good humor and I loved the slow burn romance. It was a well accomplished age gap and I was head over heels for Henry. He reminded me of Temperance Brennan (Bones from Bones). A very dry sense of humor and the way he viewed the world. I thought this was spot on and his growth was solid too.
Paige grew on me but we had some learning curves too. I struggled with her absolute inability to let others help her even though they’ve literally been helping her for years. It was a stubborn clash that made me shrug my shoulders a bunch.
Some of the trauma felt like it was approached with a bit of insensitivity. I think I got what the author was trying to do, but it was a miss for me.
It does have the perfect amount of holiday cheer and I thought the ending was really sweet. There’s a good combination of things here even if some of the stuff wasn’t clicking for me.
Overall audience notes:
- Contemporary Holiday Romance
- Language: very little
- Romance: kisses
- Violence: low
- Trigger/Content Warnings: loss of a grandparent (recounted), brief mentions of substance abuse, grief
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