A Candlelight Courting

Whenever I open a book by Ms. di Pastena I'm confident that the time period is well researched and the romance will be clean and sweet. 

This is the perfect short holiday story as you only need an hour or two to read it.

We spend one important night with the characters as they overcome their barriers and agree to marry. Sounds impossible, not so. 

This is easy to make time for in the rush of the season. 

AMAZON

When Burthred comes courting on Christmas Eve, Meg rejects his advances. She has her heart set on becoming a nun and insists that he call her Christina, the spiritual name she has chosen for herself. She tries to make him swear on her box of holy relics that he will not pursue her, but he carefully words his oath to allow him to stay in her candlelit chamber and try to change her mind.

What Meg does not confess is that her reliquary box holds a secret.

Burthred needs a wife, and no one will satisfy him except Meg. He swore on his father’s deathbed that he would marry her. But Burthred has a secret, too. When they come together before the Yule fire, their shared revelations will either join their hearts together or tear them apart.

Her Mistletoe Cowboy

Ms. Isaacson weaves an excellent holiday romance. 

I'm always impressed how Ms. Isaacson creates relatable believable characters with real emotional issues and keeps a steady flow and pace that keeps the reader turning pages while soaking up the romance blooming off the pages book afer book. 

Great watching these two characters overcome the internal and external battles while enjoying swoony kisses. 

AMAZON

Logan Buttars has always been good-natured and happy-go-lucky. After watching two of his brothers settle down, he recognizes a void in his life he didn't know about. He tried to fill that void with canine service for special needs students, but it's not quite cutting it.

Veterinarian Layla Guyman has appreciated Logan's friendship and easy way with animals when he comes into the clinic to get the service dogs. When she attends his brother's wedding, she sees him through new eyes.

But with his future at Steeple Ridge in the balance, she's not sure a relationship with him is worth the risk. After all, she's got an established practice in her east-coast hometown and he's talking service dog training all the way across the country in California.

Can she rely on her faith and employ patience to tame Logan's wild heart?

Scrooge & the Girls Next Door

I'm a long time fan of Ms. Jacobson, and this story lives up to her high bar. 

Lots of feels, great romance, humor, and how did I not see the grandma thing coming?! 

Also, I can totally relate to the laughing issue. This is a real thing. 

If you like enemies to lovers, holiday, and characters that grow, then you're ready to pick up this book. Be prepared, you won't want to put it down. 

AMAZON

When the sunniest woman in Creekville buys the house next to the grumpiest man on the street, sparks fly . . . and not just because she keeps blowing his fuses...

Twenty-six-year-old Paige Redmond, single mom and go-getter, can’t wait to give her daughter, Evie, the Christmas of her dreams. Nothing can get in Paige’s way, not even her newly purchased fixer-upper cottage needing way more fixing than she planned.

Paige tackles the holiday with Clark Griswold spirit, amusing the entire town—except for her humbug next door neighbor, the grumpy but deliciously handsome Professor Henry Hill. With the help of colorful friends and found family—plus a feral cat and a pancake snowman—Paige and Evie wage a campaign to cure the cranky professor of his Christmas blues.

When Paige's feelings for Henry wind up as tangled as her Christmas lights, there's suddenly more than Christmas spirit on the line. Will Henry pull the plug on their first solo Christmas? Or can Paige and Evie convince the town's biggest scrooge to open his grinchy heart to the holiday . . . and to them?

Cowboy Billionaire Best Friend

Liz Isaacson always delivers a good holiday story. 

This is a sweet small town, slow burn novel. It's part best friends to lovers, part second chance romance since one of them had romantic feelings toward the other long ago. And it's good in all the right ways a holiday romance should be. 

Settle in for good read. 

AMAZON

A cowboy returning to his hometown—and the best friend he left a dozen years before. This Christmas, can Graham and Laney build a family and find their happily-ever-after?

Graham Whittaker returns to Coral Canyon a few days after Christmas—after the death of his father. He's just found out his long-time girlfriend in Seattle has been cheating on him, and while Coral Canyon isn't his first choice of where to live, it's certainly the friendliest. He takes over the energy company his dad built from the ground up and buys a high-end lodge to live in—only a mile from the home of his once-best friend, Laney McAllister.

Laney returned to her family ranch after college, but her husband left Laney and their daughter, Bailey, to work the ranch themselves, which they've been trying to do. But with her furnace on the brink of failure and the snow falling faster than ever, Laney agrees to bring Bailey up to Graham's lodge for the holidays.

They were best friends once, but Laney's always entertained feelings for him, and spending so much time with him while they make Christmas memories puts her heart in danger of getting broken again.

Can they take their friendship to the next level and build a family? Or will Laney be risking her heart only to remain in the friend zone?

Man of My Dreams

It's challenging to write a review of Ms. Rabe's book without spoilers. 

Yes, there's a twist. And I struggled with it. Mostly because the genre of the romance wasn't accurately represented, and so I felt blindsided. 

Is there good chemistry between the characters? Yes. 

Does it follow the usual romance formula? No. 

Will you still like it? 

You'll have to read to decide. 

The writing is solid which is the most important part. 

I've enjoyed other books she's written better. 

AMAZON

On yet another pointless errand for her boss, Rory runs into the handsome, Dr. Camden. Despite knowing it might get her in trouble, Rory can’t resist falling for Cam’s refreshing honesty and easy-going attitude.

But Cam’s got a sticky past and before Rory falls for him, she has to find out the truth. Not only does she discover it, she uncovers a scary secret he’s been hiding that proves his life is not only in danger, but that also puts her heart in jeopardy of breaking.

The Fall of Lord Drayson

Ms. Anderson is a fabulous hitstorical romance writer. 

What an fun premise to base a romance on. The evictor gets amnesia and becomes the servant to the evictee. Brilliant. The characters are well thought out and their interactions are both fiery and charming. 

With more than one obstacle to overcome, cue the nosy neighbor, this book kept me interested from page one to the end. 

AMAZON

WHEN COLIN CAVENDISH, the new earl of Drayson, informs Lucy Beresford that she and her mother need to vacate the house they've called home for the past two years, Lucy is fit to be tied. They have no money, no relations they can turn to for help, and nowhere to go. How dare the earl break the promise his father had made to the Beresfords without so much as a twinge of conscience?

Fate plays her hand when Lucy discovers the earl unconscious and injured in the middle of the road. When he awakens with no recollection of who he is, Lucy seizes the opportunity to teach the earl a much-needed lesson in humility and tells him that he is nothing more than a mere servant. Her servant, in fact. And thus begins the charming tale of a pompous lord and an impetuous young woman, caught together in a web so tangled that it begs the question: Will they ever get out?

Kiss Me, Cowboy

Ms.McClone has crafted a story that won't disappoint. 

These two MCs had a lot of issues to work out. Sometimes I wanted to shake them and tell them to have a simple conversation. 

But that would've taken away the angst of the story. Things get interesting when Zack offers to help Charlie find the perfect man. 

If you're a fan of the cowboy tropes, including friends to lovers, you'll enjoy this one. 

AMAZON

It was one small kiss.
After all, a kiss is just a kiss.
Or is it?

After a passionate and empathetic kiss, dude ranch wranglers, Charlotte "Charlie" Randall and Zack Harris, are out of sorts as they pretend nothing happened. With too many demons to battle, Zack can't let Charlie get close. But it's too late, because she's fallen hat over spurs for the handsome military veteran turned cowboy. Taking a job in another state is the only way to protect her heart and finally move on.

But Zack can't let her leave, so he concocts a plan to find Charlie a boyfriend--a perfect match--to keep her in Montana. Until he realizes the only cowboy he wants her with is him. But it might be too late. Has Charlie made up her mind to put the kiss in the past and forget the cowboy who rode off with her heart?