I cannot be the only one who wasn’t sure about Holt at the beginning of this series. Of course, by the end of the first book he had endeared himself to me. But still, would I be able to fall in love with him as the main character of a story? Why yes, yes I would.

This is a touching Christmas story. It has all of the elements to tug at your heartstrings and give you a warm feeling in your heart and soul. We have the lonely hero who is friends with everyone, but has nobody of his own. There’s the feisty heroine who has never really felt unconditional love and acceptance from her family, but has no problem (even unintentionally) creating a chosen family to surround her. Don’t worry, there’s even a cranky old lady who actually has a heart of gold that helps these two find their way to one another.

What I love about this story is the way Claire’s secret is handled. Holt knew she had a secret going in, he was aware there were aspects of her life and past she was not yet able or willing to discuss. One of the issues I had with the first book was the secret keeping. In this story it was handled in a much better way for the type of reader I am. Sure, I felt Claire could have easily told Holt some things sooner and he would have been fine with that. But it’s okay that she didn’t since he knew she was holding back. In other words, her secrets were no secret.

There was another reason to love Holt after reading this book. Holt had a great childhood. He’s very close to his parents and looks up to his father, always has. That did not make him blind to some of the mistakes his father may have made over the years when it came to their neighbors. And Holt wasn’t afraid to call his dad on these issues. Part of that is because Holt is an extremely honorable and moral man. And part of that is because Holt always had his parents’ unconditional love, therefore he wasn’t afraid to tell them the truth when something about their actions bothered him. It’s really such a subtle and, most likely, overlooked aspect of this story.

Now that this series seems to be over, I need to look at reading some of this author’s other work. I’ve been enjoying her writing style and the way she is able to write such amazing chemistry between her characters.

**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely**

You can find more of my reviews at All In Good Time.