Category: Christmas Romance

If Santa Were a Cowboy by Melissa Cutler

Posted December 1, 2016 by Marsha in Christmas Romance, Contemporary Romance / 0 Comments

Title: If Santa Were A Cowboy
Series: One and Only Texas #2.5
Author: Melissa Cutler
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Published: October 25, 2016
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
My Rating: 3.5 stars
Source: NetGalley
Cover Description:

This Christmas, Santa wears a Stetson.

Paul Savage loves Christmas at Briscoe Ranch Resort, when he gets to take a break from being a back country guide to play Santa in the resort’s lobby and talk to kids about toys. The last thing he expects is his high school crush to come waltzing in as his new assistant photographer, wheeling a suitcase that’s more naughty than nice.

Kelly Walker is a disaster. All she’d wanted was spice up her life by saying ‘yes’ to every opportunity, which is when the universe started pelting her with ‘no’s. So when she comes across a job listing for a holiday photographer working with the sweet, scrawny boy whose advances she’d laughed off in high school, she jumps on the chance to turn her bad Karma around by giving Paul a second chance.

Trouble is, Paul’s anything but scrawny anymore, and his cowboy swagger throws her grand plans for a loop—especially when he tempts her with a red hot proposition of his own. Kelly’s in way over her head, but as she gets swept up in the magic of Briscoe Ranch’s holiday charms—and Paul’s—could Kelly’s year of ‘no’s be leading up to the ‘yes’ of a lifetime?

Titles in this series include: The Mistletoe Effect – One Hot Summer – One More Taste – If Santa Were A Cowboy – One Wild Night (March 2017)

A Christmas Day at the Office by Matt Dunn

Posted November 30, 2016 by Marsha in Christmas Romance, Contemporary Romance, Series / 0 Comments

Title: A Christmas Day At The Office
Series: A Day At The Office #2
Author: Matt Dunn
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Published: October 11, 2016
Publisher: Lake Union Publishing
My Rating: 3 stars
Source: NetGalley
Cover Description:

One office, five lives, on the most romantic day of the year.

One Christmas party. Two merging companies. Free-flowing champagne. What could possibly go wrong?

With her new billionaire boss in town, Sophie’s determined to swap the No-Jobs she meets on Tinder for her very own Steve Jobs. But will looking like a million dollars be enough to kick-start a Fifty Shades adventure?

A ring in his pocket and dressed to kill, Calum’s planning to get down on one knee. Though if Mia doesn’t say ‘yes’, he’s not sure he’ll ever get back up.

Julie’s got a surprise for Mark—though it’s something she’s not even sure she wants. Meanwhile, Mark’s got another choice to make: the love of his life, or the opportunity of a lifetime?

With his job on the line, and the ex who broke his heart back on the scene, Nathan’s day is becoming a nightmare. But he’s about to meet the woman of his dreams.

This year’s office Christmas party should be a night to remember—but for five of Seek Software’s employees, it might be one they’d sooner forget.

Titles in this series include: A Day At The Office – A Christmas Day At The Office

Miracle on 5th Avenue by Sarah Morgan

Posted November 30, 2016 by Marsha in Christmas Romance, Contemporary Romance, Series / 0 Comments

Title: Miracle On 5th Avenue
Series: From Manhattan With Love #3
Author: Sarah Morgan
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Published: November 29, 2016
Publisher: Harlequin – HQN Books
My Rating: 4.5 stars
Source: NetGalley
Cover Description:

It will take a Christmas miracle for two very different souls to find each other in this perfectly festive fairy tale of New York!

Hopeless romantic Eva Jordan loves everything about Christmas. She might be spending the holidays alone this year, but when she’s given an opportunity to house-sit a spectacular penthouse on Fifth Avenue, she leaps at the chance. What better place to celebrate than in snow-kissed Manhattan? What she didn’t expect was to find the penthouse still occupied by its gorgeous—and mysterious—owner.

Bestselling crime writer Lucas Blade is having the nightmare before Christmas. With a deadline and the anniversary of his wife’s death looming, he’s isolated himself in his penthouse with only his grief for company. He wants no interruptions, no decorations and he certainly doesn’t appreciate being distracted by his beautiful, bubbly new housekeeper. But when the blizzard of the century leaves Eva snowbound in his apartment, Lucas starts to open up to the magic she brings…This Christmas, is Lucas finally ready to trust that happily-ever-afters do exist?

Titles in this series include: Midnight At Tiffany’s – Sleepless In Manhattan – Sunset In Central Park – Miracle On 5th Avenue

It Must Be Christmas by Jennifer Crusie, Mandy Baxter, Donna Alward

Posted November 29, 2016 by Marsha in Christmas Romance, Contemporary Romance / 0 Comments

Title: It Must Be Christmas
Series: -Anthology-
Author: Jennifer Crusie, Mandy Baxter, Donna Alward
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Christmas Romance
Published: October 4, 2016
Publisher: St Martin’s Paperbacks
My Rating: 4 stars
Source: NetGalley
Cover Description:

t’s the most wonderful time of the year, when love is in the cold and frosty air—and desire reaches the boiling point. . .

Hot Toy
From New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Crusie comes a hilarious, sexy story about a determined shopper who grabs the last action figure off the shelf, only to find herself plunged into the arms of a sexy secret agent. Mayhem under the mistletoe ensues. Business as usual this Christmas season…right?

Christmas with the Billionaire Rancher
Nate wants to stay away from all the women who want his money in Mandy Baxter’s story set deep in the heart of Texas. But when gorgeous do-gooder Chloe Benson comes knocking at his door—in search of funds for her charity—Nate can’t ignore the passion he feels for her. Maybe love is priceless after all?

Christmas at Seashell Cottage
’Tis the season in Jewell Cove when local doctor Charlie Yang finds her quiet, steady life disrupted by both an abandoned baby in the nativity manger and ex-SEAL Dave Ricker. Are these turn of events too good to be true? Or is Christmas working its magic—for real— Donna Alward’s heartwarming holiday story?

Anthology

Winter Wonderland by Elizabeth Mansfield

Posted November 28, 2016 by Marsha in Christmas Romance, Regency Romance, Series / 0 Comments

Title: Winter Wonderland
Series:
Author: Elizabeth Mansfield
Genre: regency Romance, Christmas Romance
Published: October 4, 2016
Publisher: Open Road Media Romance
My Rating: 4 stars
Source: NetGalley
Cover Description:

For inexperienced, painfully shy Barnaby Traherne, the glittering society ball is akin to a battlefield . . . that is, until his attention is captured by an auburn-haired beauty. Scandalous rumors swirl around Miranda Pardew and now she has set her cap for a renowned rake. Ignoring the gossip, the already-smitten Barnaby gathers his courage and asks Miranda for a dance. When she rejects him—in a very public humiliation—he vows that when he reenters the fray, he will be better prepared. Eleven years later, he gets his chance, along with the opportunity to deliver to a certain haughty beauty her long-overdue comeuppance.

Once the belle of the ball, Miranda is now an impecunious widow. A stroke of luck lands her a governess position in Norfolk. Before she arrives, her stagecoach is ambushed by highwaymen, and Miranda finds herself stranded with an attractive stranger. She has no idea he’s the nobleman she rebuffed years earlier. But Barnaby has not forgotten her—and is shocked to discover that Miranda has been employed to look after his nephews. At his brother’s estate for Christmas, Barnaby tries in vain to conceal his still-wild attraction to Miranda, but a capricious fate conspires to throw Barnaby and Miranda together at every turn.

Stand Alone Title

True-Blue Cowboy Christmas by Nicole Helm

Posted November 28, 2016 by Marsha in Christmas Romance, Contemporary Romance, Series / 0 Comments

Title: True-Blue Cowboy Christmas
Series: Big Sky Cowboys #3
Author: Nicole Helm
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Christmas Romance
Published: October 4 2016
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
My Rating: 4 stars
Source: NetGalley
Cover Description:

Thack Lane has his hands full. For the past seven years, he’s been struggling to move on from his wife’s tragic death and raise a daughter all by his lonesome. He doesn’t have time for himself, much less a cheerful new neighbor with a smile that can light up the ranch.

Christmas spirit? Bah, humbug.

With Christmas right around the corner, Summer Shaw is searching for somewhere to belong. When her neighbor’s young daughter takes a shine to her, she is thrilled. But Thack is something else altogether. He’s got walls around his heart that no amount of holiday wishes can scale. Yet as joy comes creeping back to the lonely homestead, Summer and Thack may just find their happily ever after before the last of the Christmas miracles are through…

Titles in this series include: Rebel Cowboy – Outlaw Cowboy – True Blue Christmas Cowboy (links are to reviews on Keeper Bookshelf)

Mistletoe Between Friends / The Snowflake Inn by Samantha Chase

Posted November 24, 2016 by Marsha in Christmas Romance, Contemporary Romance / 0 Comments

Title: Mistletoe Between Friends – The Snowflake Inn
Series:
Author: Samantha Chase
Genre: Christmas Contemporary Romance
Published: October 4, 2016
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
My Rating: 4 stars
Source: NetGalley
Cover Description:

The holidays don’t have to be fraught with tension, as lifelong friends Lily Cavanaugh and Cameron Greene discover in Mistletoe Between Friends when they cook up a scheme to fool their family and friends.

The Snowflake Inn shows rivals Grace Brodie and Riley Walsh that Christmas is a time when dreams come true-even if you’ve given up on those dreams long ago.

This is a combination of two earlier novels by Samantha Chase… a more detailed cover description for each is below:

MISTLETOE BETWEEN FRIENDS

All lifelong friends Lily Cavanaugh and Cameron Greene want is a chance to enjoy the Christmas season. What’s stopping them? Their matchmaking parents who seem determined to set the two of them up on some of the worst blind dates in the history of dating.

They’ve identified the problem and have come up with the perfect solution – they will pretend to be dating in order to get their parents off of their backs and finally have a chance to enjoy a peaceful Christmas.

It was a simple concept; spend some extra time together pretending to like one another. But neither of them expected long-hidden desires to come to the surface or that a pretend relationship could suddenly feel very real.

THE SNOWFLAKE INN

A home for the holidays…

Grace thought she had finally found a place to belong. Coming off of ten years of tragedy and disappointments, her arrival at The Snowflake Inn finally gives her a reason to have hope for her future and the possibility of her forever-home. Until one man arrives with the power to take it all away.

Versus NOT wanting to be home for the holidays…

Riley’s world has been turned upside down. He’s back at the one place that he never wanted to return to and it looks like he may be staying longer than he had planned. Taking over The Snowflake Inn was never his dream, it was his family’s dream for him, and all Riley wants to do is cut his losses and leave. But one fiery red-head has him rethinking everything he had planned.

Both Grace and Riley had very different plans for their time at The Snowflake Inn but with the magic of Christmas all around them, and an attraction that they can’t seem to ignore, this could be the perfect time and place for everyone’s dream to come true.

A Very Jaguar Christmas by Terry Spear

Posted November 23, 2016 by Marsha in Christmas Romance, Series / 0 Comments

Title: A Very Jaguar Christmas
Series: Heart of the jaguar #5
Author: Terry Spear
Genre: Paranormal Romance Shifter
Published: October 4, 2016
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
My Rating: 4.5 stars
Source: NetGalley
Cover Description:

As a protector of all jaguar-kind, Guardian agent Demetria MacFarlane isn’t surprised to get a call near Christmas—but when she’s sent to protect a cub whose species she didn’t even know existed, her holiday season gets complicated. And it doesn’t help that her partner is a distraction of the hottest kind.

Hotshot JAG agent Everett Anderson can handle dangerous poachers and wildlife traffickers, no problem…but kids? Everett fears he’ll be stuck cub-sitting under the Christmas tree, but working with one sexy Guardian she-cat may be the best present he’s ever gotten

Titles in this series include: Savage Hunger – Jaguar Fever – Jaguar Hunt – Jaguar Pride – A Very Jaguar Christmas

The Christmas Tree by Allyson Charles

Posted November 22, 2016 by Marsha in Christmas Romance, Contemporary Romance, Series / 0 Comments

Title: The Christmas Tree
Series: Pineville #2
Author: Allyson Charles
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Christmas Romance
Published: November 22, 2016
Publisher: Kensington Books – Lyrical Shine
My Rating: 4 stars
Source: NetGalley
Cover Description:

It was one little fender bender. Sadie was only in picturesque Pineville, Michigan, for a day, trying to handle the ramshackle house her grandmother left her and juggle the sale of her failing design business at the same time. Her debtors don’t care that it’s almost Christmas. But then neither does the big bad contractor whose truck got squashed.

Colt McCoy might be the least festive person she’s ever met. He’s gruff, rude, and way too upset about a minor accident. Of course, he is nice to look at, with dimples hiding in his scruffy beard and a body like a lumberjack’s. And Sadie will have plenty of time to enjoy the view, since their community service sentence has put the two of them in charge of Pineville’s jinxed Christmas tree.

But as their squabbles over ornaments turn to laughter, anyone can see Colt and Sadie have something electric. The hard part is guessing if they’ll light each other up—or just keep blowing the fuse.

Titles in this series include: Putting Out Old Flames – The Christmas Tree

Holiday House Parties by Elizabeth Mansfield

Posted November 21, 2016 by Marsha in Christmas Romance, Historical Romance, Regency Romance / 0 Comments

Title: Holiday House Parties: Two Tales
Series:
Author: Elizabeth Mansfield
Genre: Regency Romance, Christmas Romance
Published: October 4, 2016
Publisher: Open Road Intrigated Media
My Rating: 4 stars
Source: NetGalley
Cover Description:

In “The Girl with Airs,” Lord Dunvegan—Laird Geordie to his friends—attempts to persuade bluestocking Caroline Woolcott to give his besotted, tongue-tied friend Sir Archibald Halford a chance to win her hand in marriage. A Scotsman banished to England to cultivate a more genteel manner, Geordie has yet to meet a female who tempts him to settle down. It certainly isn’t the headstrong lass who wants nothing to do with Archie—or Geordie. But then Geordie’s father decides the standoffish Caroline would make an ideal bride for his wayward son, and a sizzling kiss in the doorway of a grand Lancashire estate turns two warring hearts to love . . .

In “A Sneeze on Tuesday,” Elinor Selby succumbs to the worst cold she’s ever known five days before Christmas, and her entire future takes a catastrophic turn. After an absence of five years, Elinor’s betrothed, Julian Henshaw, Lord Lovebourne, is due home any day. Were it not for her quick-thinking, curmudgeonly neighbor, Miles Endicott, on whom she’s relied since childhood, she might not be able to cope with the momentous reunion. But then an unexpected series of events forces Elinor and Miles to take part in a scandalous deception that will ignite a firestorm of longing and love.

Stand Alone Titles

Holiday with a Twist by Shannon Stacey

Posted November 21, 2016 by Marsha in Christmas Romance, Contemporary Romance / 0 Comments

Title: Holiday With A Twist
Series:
Author: Shannon Stacey
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Christmas Romance
Published: November 21, 2016
Publisher: Carina Press
My Rating: 4 stars
Source: NetGalley
Cover Description:

After a messy breakup, Leigh Holloway is ready to start her life over. Until her parents put the family home on the market and call her back for one final, memory-making Christmas. The last thing she wants to do is deprive her mom of the perfect holiday, so she’ll lie her way through the visit and worry about her future in the New Year. Too bad the only bar in town is owned by a guy she seriously wronged in high school.

Leigh’s best friend broke Croy Dawson’s heart, and Croy knows it was Leigh’s fault. They’ve never liked each other, but Croy isn’t cruel: he’d never turn away a pretty woman in need of some family-Christmas fortification. He doesn’t expect her to drink just enough candy-cane martinis to tell him her secrets—and he definitely doesn’t expect to get caught up in her holiday madness.

Despite the surprising love and laughter, Croy and Leigh can’t escape the truth: he can’t walk away from his family obligations and she has a life and career to reboot. But anything is possible if your holiday comes with a twist…

Stand Alone Novella (at this time)