3.5 stars

I love a holiday romance, so when I was given the opportunity to read and review a holiday romance by an author I had just recently started reading and loving, of course I jumped on the chance. So far, the books I’ve read by this author have been a bit more toward the women’s fiction end of things rather than the romance end. They all have romance, but it’s not always the central theme. In this book, I felt the journey of all of the main characters centered more on personal growth that opened them up to falling in love. They all wanted love, they just didn’t know how to go about finding the kind of love they yearned for.

First, I want to talk about the relationship between the sisters. Dena and Reggie are only a year apart and have always been very close. I really love their support and teasing banter. Not just between the two of them, but also their friends. And even their meddling (but truly lovely) mom. Nobody is afraid of telling the hard truths, but always with love and compassion and empathy.

While I enjoyed the Reggie/Toby pairing and felt they had a something, the connection between Reggie’s dog Belle and Toby’s son Harrison was even better. There was something holding Toby back from rekindling the first love romance he had with Reggie, and it had everything to do with Harrison. It’s made clear something terrible had happened in the past. Toby has gotten Harrison help, but it seemed to me that Toby needed to have some counseling himself. He does eventually open up to Reggie, but that barrier takes a bit longer to come down.

Dena and Micah were a couple I could get behind from the start. Theirs is a beautiful story. It gave me warm-fuzzies throughout the whole book. Not that they didn’t also have issues to work through. I just felt their chemistry much stronger than the other couple’s. There was a low simmering fire every time they were in the same room, yet also a sweetness to their interactions.

With all that being said, I did have some issues. One that even threw some sour into the sweetness of one of the characters. Toby is a single dad because Harrison’s mom did not want a child. Reggie’s reaction to the story of how Toby came to be a single dad was not great. What bothers me is I don’t feel the author intended it to be a bad thing. To me, it put a notch in the negative column when it came to that character. The important thing, in my mind, is Harrison’s birth mom realizing she was not capable of adequately caring for a baby and finding the best home she could for that baby. There is also mention of a bit of an antiquated idea of what a family is supposed to look like that really bothered me when it came to this part of the story.

Recently, I read another book with a widower that had aspects that bothered me. Micah is a widower and Dena was afraid he was still in love with his deceased wife. I cannot be reading these books back to back. That thought process drives me batty. In this story, Micah at least addresses this issue with Dena. As does Reggie. It’s at least put into perspective in this story. I’ll say it again in case you didn’t see that other review…of course he still loves his dead wife! They loved each other and she died, that doesn’t mean their love poofs into the ether. It also doesn’t mean he cannot find love again. Not better or worse love, different love. Ugh!

So there was a lot of good with some annoying issues that popped up now and again. And I adore this town! I want to live there. I found out there is a novella that deals with one of the sisters’ new friends and her HEA and I’m already on the waiting list at my library for that one. If you like a small town romance, you’ll really get behind this small town. It’s amazing.

**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley 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.

Two-For-One Christmas Romance. This is one of those Christmas Romance novels that almost seems destined to be made into a Hallmark Christmas movie - you've got the quirky town, the various leads that have no interest in an actual relationship, the innkeeper, the local shop owner, the mysterious stranger, and even the unusual-yet-cool career... and *none* of them are actually looking for romance. And yet... Mallery has a lot to cover in nearly 400 pages, and does a solid job of showing the two relationships - one new, one second chance - building throughout. If you're looking for a book where the couple is already together a quarter into the book... this isn't that. This is one of those where they finally actually get together closer to the end (which isn't a spoiler due to genre ;) ), and it is indeed a satisfying conclusion. It will be interesting to see where Mallery takes Book 2 of this new series, with a couple of interesting possibilities there. Very much recommended.