Three writers, three fun, sexy Christmas romances—light, sugary holiday fare.
Three best friends attend their small-town community Christmas cookie swap, bemoaning their loveless state, but the holiday season will prove to be their most romantic ever.
Clara, Abby and Lily have been friends since childhood, and they are each devoted to their Blue Ridge town of Pine Mountain. Abby and Lily are both baking entrepreneurs, while Clara can’t boil water, so it’s no big surprise when Clara has one of her friends bake her cookies for the annual cookie swap. It is, however, a huge surprise when Clara’s assigned to write a column on holiday cookie baking for the local paper. Trekking to the bookstore a town away for a cookie cookbook for beginners, she runs into Will, her college crush/friend, who is now the hunky cover model for a charity beefcake firemen’s calendar. Still reeling from the attraction she’s never forgotten, Clara is both mortified and fascinated when she nearly burns down her house, Will comes to her rescue, and she winds up in his guest room. Holiday yearning and romance ensue. Meanwhile, Abby, who has created an online business selling anatomically correct gingerbread men through the innovative use of peppermint sticks, regrets her decision to bring some of her wares to the conservative community’s cookie swap. Saved by a gorgeous stranger who walks in off the street and pays a fortune for the still-boxed cookies, Abby is stunned an hour later when she finds the handsome man unconscious in his wrecked car, the victim of a storm-related accident, and takes him to her isolated cabin to wait out the blizzard. Finally, Lily is preparing for the event of her life, a cookie baking contest at an area resort. She’s up against one of the best chefs around, Pete Mancuso, who just unwittingly humiliated Clara in front of the whole town. Lily wants nothing more than to beat the arrogant man and put him in his place, but the more time she spends getting to know him, the more she realizes his place is right by her side.
Three writers, three fun, sexy Christmas romances—light, sugary holiday fare.Pub Date: Sept. 24, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-7582-9088-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Kensington
Review Posted Online: Sept. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2013
An entertaining page-turner.
Terri Rayburn is devastated that her perfect man belongs to someone else, but once Nate Taggert realizes that Terri's the one for him, her complicated past still stands in the way of their being together.
Terri is attracted to Nate the moment she lays eyes on him, and soon they fall into an easy partnership at the Virginia lake resort she runs with her father. Nate is upfront about being engaged to the mayor’s daughter, Stacy, but she’s in Europe for a few weeks, and it quickly becomes clear to Terri that Nate and Stacy aren’t a great match. However, Terri, whose mother left when she was 2, has always had a problematic relationship with the citizens of Summer Hill. Since Leslie disappeared, the town gossip has made sure everyone remembers her as a promiscuous vixen, a label which tainted Terri as she got older and made her look like a problem when, as Nate begins to understand, she was really a victim. It’s clear to everyone around them that they are falling in love, but even as Nate realizes it himself, Terri is adamant that they can’t be together. She won’t steal him from the popular Stacy because it would mean she’d never be able to live in Summer Hill, and she won’t abandon her father. Deveraux spins an intriguing and unorthodox romance, continuing her Summer Hill branch of the Taggert/Montgomery series with two characters who have some unique, interesting obstacles in their paths and navigate through them with secrets uncovered and old wounds healed. The story is well plotted, though Nate is unnecessarily oblivious sometimes and the book takes an unexpected swing into romantic suspense territory in the last quarter. The solved mystery resolves Nate and Terri’s conflict, though the villain’s motivations seem a little cartoonish.
An entertaining page-turner.Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-7783-5124-5
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2019
Hoover is one of the freshest voices in new-adult fiction, and her latest resonates with true emotion, unforgettable...
Sydney and Ridge make beautiful music together in a love triangle written by Hoover (Losing Hope, 2013, etc.), with a link to a digital soundtrack by American Idol contestant Griffin Peterson.
Hoover is a master at writing scenes from dual perspectives. While music student Sydney is watching her neighbor Ridge play guitar on his balcony across the courtyard, Ridge is watching Sydney’s boyfriend, Hunter, secretly make out with her best friend on her balcony. The two begin a songwriting partnership that grows into something more once Sydney dumps Hunter and decides to crash with Ridge and his two roommates while she gets back on her feet. She finds out after the fact that Ridge already has a long-distance girlfriend, Maggie—and that he's deaf. Ridge’s deafness doesn’t impede their relationship or their music. In fact, it creates opportunities for sexy nonverbal communication and witty text messages: Ridge tenderly washes off a message he wrote on Sydney’s hand in ink, and when Sydney adds a few too many e’s to the word “squee” in her text, Ridge replies, “If those letters really make up a sound, I am so, so glad I can’t hear it.” While they fight their mutual attraction, their hope that “maybe someday” they can be together playfully comes out in their music. Peterson’s eight original songs flesh out Sydney’s lyrics with a good mix of moody musical styles: “Living a Lie” has the drama of a Coldplay piano ballad, while the chorus of “Maybe Someday” marches to the rhythm of the Lumineers. But Ridge’s lingering feelings for Maggie cause heartache for all three of them. Independent Maggie never complains about Ridge’s friendship with Sydney, and it's hard to even want Ridge to leave Maggie when she reveals her devastating secret. But Ridge can’t hide his feelings for Sydney long—and they face their dilemma with refreshing emotional honesty.
Hoover is one of the freshest voices in new-adult fiction, and her latest resonates with true emotion, unforgettable characters and just the right amount of sexual tension.Pub Date: March 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4767-5316-4
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: May 6, 2014
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