Lila McAllister has built a successful career as a hospitality consultant, but this Christmas, she isn’t chasing five-star ratings; she’s chasing answers. Facing her first holiday alone, she sets out to find the birth mother who gave her up for adoption on Christmas Day thirty-four years ago.

Her only clue is a handmade baby quilt that leads her to Pine Ridge Inn, a cozy mountain retreat in Colorado. But what begins as a quiet search turns into something much more when she’s drawn into the charm of the town’s festive traditions and the warmth of a found family. Then there’s Brady Hanson, the inn’s handsome but protective manager, who challenges her need to control every situation.

As Christmas Eve approaches, long-buried secrets come to light, forcing Lila to choose between the carefully built life she left behind and the family- and love- she never expected to find.

~Standalone~

This is a clean, sweet romance with either closed doors or fade to black.

Title:  Christmas at Pine Ridge Inn
Series:  ~Standalone title~
Author:  Savannah Carlisle
Published:  November 1, 2025
My Rating:  4.5 stars

Christmas at Pine Ridge Inn is a standalone Christmas Romance featuring Lila, a hospitality consultant who is searching for answers after her adoptive mother’s death.  This will be her first Christmas without her loving adoptive parents, and she’s giving in to the need to discover her past, where she came from, why her birth parents gave her up for adoption, and perhaps to find closure on her past, or the greatest gift would be to actually find her birth mother.  

She has one clue, a baby blanket with a tag that says it was made in Pine Ridge, Colorado.  She went searching for answers, but didn’t expect to find her future in the form of one not always welcoming inn manager, Brady.  I chuckled a bit because Lila just cannot stop being what she is… a hospitality consultant who is constantly giving unsolicited opinions to Brady about the inn, even when she had to see that it was annoying him to his absolute limits.

As Lila looks for answers, she’ll find herself falling in love with a small town that absolutely loves Christmas, meet some quirky residents, and begin to feel like this town could be what she’s searching for beyond finding her birth mother.  The longer she’s around Brady, the more certain she becomes in trusting that she’s found her forever person.  Brady feels like home.

I loved everything about Christmas at Pine Ridge Inn by Savannah Carlisle.  From the search for Lila’s birth mom to the snowy Christmas scenes to the people of both the town and the inn, and of course, the growing relationship between Lila and Brady.  Their story is full of emotions, laughter, and answers to questions that have, in some ways, defined Lila’s life.  It’s well-written, emotional, and easily drew me into their world.  I think I’ve found a new-to-me author that I’d like to explore their backlist of stories, for Lila and Brady’s romance is exactly what I look for in a good romance. If this sounds like your kind of Christmas Romance, then you’ll love Lila and Brady’s story.

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley, and I sincerely thank the author or publishing house for their trust.  It is my choice to leave a review, giving my personal opinion about this book.*

This title is available at Amazon (affiliate link)