The Christmas Curse by Erika Marks

Posted November 10, 2015 by Marsha in Christmas Romance, Contemporary Romance, Series / 0 Comments

The Christmas CurseTitle:  The Christmas Curse
Series:  Loveless and Dunn #6
Author:  Erika marks
Genre:  Contemporary Romance, Christmas Romance
Published:  November 1, 2015
Publisher:  Tule Publishing
My Rating:  5 stars
Source:  NetGalley
Cover Description:

After three holiday heartbreaks in a row, caterer Emily Landon is determined to break her Christmas Curse–and what better way than to spend Christmas at the remote inn, Angel’s Landing, where her recently cold-footed boyfriend can’t reach her to break things off.

For small-town veterinarian Griffin Boone, the holidays always find him falling in love with the wrong woman–but this year he has a fail-proof plan to keep his heart safe: One last house call to Angel’s Landing and the aging Golden Retriever, Sassy and he’s heading to a cabin in the woods to hide out until the New Year.

But when an ice storm strands Griffin at the inn with Emily, everyone’s careful holiday plans are tossed like last year’s tree.

Will unexpected attraction confirm Griffin and Emily’s worst fears–or could this year’s Christmas Curse be a blessing in disguise?

Read on for my thoughts on The Christmas Curse.  No true spoilers, promise.

The Christmas Curse is one of those stories that is going to grab your heart and not let go.  Both Emily and Griff feel cursed around Christmas.  Things have happened to them both during what should be the happiest season of the year that just brings back sad, unhappy memories.  Ironically, they have both decided to run away for Christmas this year.  Emily to a mountain cabin that promises to let her disappear if that’s what she wants.  Griff to the cabin he keeps where no one will venture anywhere near him.  What they actually got was a bit of both their wishes and a whole lot more.

The last thing Emily had expected was to be stranded at the inn, during an ice storm with a total stranger – a totally gruff and rude stranger.  Yes, maybe she’d turned her cell phone off a bit too early in her attempt to hide from Christmas and missed some important messages.  And maybe she should have checked the weather predictions for the location in the mountains she was heading for, but she didn’t.  All too soon she realized that those small things that she had thought unimportant were really deal breakers right now.  Snow was one thing, but an ice storm that coated everything in a shimmering glow that looked beautiful from behind the window curtains, but held deadly consequences if you ventured out in it…  was just not something she had planned for this trip.

During their time of isolation, Emily and Griff did their best to cope with the situation and each other, if a bit grudgingly.  Griff was reliving memories of a past Christmas that had taken place at this very house.  He had been running away to try to escape those memories.  Now here he was babysitting another young woman who has no clue how to survive outside of town.  And she’s opening up parts of his emotions that he really isn’t ready to deal with  Emily was left with time to compare Griff to her current boyfriend (the one she is sure intended to breakup with her) Phillip.  The comparison didn’t come out very good on Phillip’s side of the coin..  On one of the rare times when she and Griff actually talked civilly to each other, he had made some very good points about her so called curse.  And thinking about them and the effect Griff is having on her heart is bringing some very strong, hard truths to Emily.

I really enjoyed The Christmas Curse.  What’s the saying?  Bad things happen to good people.  And eventually those good people get their act together and make changes in their lives that will enrich and satisfy them instead of waiting for the fallout from a feeling of being cursed.  While they were definitely attracted to each other, and maybe a romance had its beginnings during those few days of isolation both Emily and Griff made changes.  The kind that make you ready for the love of your life to walk back into your life and bring that happy ever after with them.

*I received an e-ARC of The Christmas Curse from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. That does not change what I think of this novel.*

Available for the Kindle