Be careful what you wish for….

Hotel sales manager Clara Jenkins has an opportunity to take over as general manager of her hotel. There’s just one problem: she’s asked to shadow her boss for a year, and her boss happens to be her ex. Clara’s not so sure about working in close quarters with him for that length of time.

But her job opportunity isn’t the only major hurdle this year. At dinner the next night, her new boyfriend, Air Force pilot Brent McNally, drops the bomb that he’s being deployed on short notice for an entire year.

While rummaging through her grandmother’s box of Christmas decorations, she finds an old pocket-watch style ornament and, holding it, wishes she could skip the entire year.

The next day, when she arrives at the airfield to see Brent off, to her utter confusion, it soon becomes apparent that she may have skipped a year, and she’s waiting for him to return, not waving him off. Also, Brent—her brand-new boyfriend—goes down on one knee and proposes.

~Standalone~

This is a clean, sweet romance with either closed doors or fade to black scenes. Kisses might be involved 🙂

Title:  Wishing for Christmas
Series:  ~Standalone Title~
Author:  Caroline Stowe
Published:  October 21, 2025
Publisher:  Harpeth Road Press
My Rating:  4.5 stars

Wishing for Christmas is a delightful standalone time slip romance.  Be careful what you wish for, indeed… You just might get it!

Clara’s life is about to turn upside down, all over one sentimental wish spoken over a Christmas ornament owned by her grandmother.  She’s up for a promotion to general manager at the hotel where she works, which is great news, right?  Umm.  The problem is she’s asked to shadow her boss (her ex) for a year, which is emotionally annoying!  Then she learns that her boyfriend of two months, Brent, who is a military pilot, is being deployed for a year…tomorrow!  Could this holiday season get any more messed up?  Well, yes.  

Remember that wish?  Clara had impulsively wished to skip an entire year when her heart was so overwhelmed with dealing with her boss’s absurd attitude and the new man in her life was leaving for a year… that she made that silly, impulsive, didn’t expect it to come true wish.  Now, it’s obvious that she isn’t at the airfield to wish Brent a sad goodbye, but to welcome him home a year later!  Life just got complicated.

I adored Wishing for Christmas by Caroline Stowe.  Memories are precious things; I cannot imagine not remembering the events of an entire year.  But here Clara is.  At first, it felt a little jarring when Clara had no clue about a sentimental item… but then I realized that since she had no idea of its history, of course, she couldn’t act accordingly, and neither could I because that event wasn’t in her “forgotten year” memories (or the story).  It was intriguing in a way to be as unaware as the character in a story, and suddenly, those aspects of the story made more sense to me.  It was little twists like that which made Clara’s story so, yes, realistic in so many ways.

If you enjoy a well-written, emotional Christmas Romance with a bit of a time slip, a rollercoaster ride of emotions, and lots of holiday touches, then you’re going to love Wishing for Christmas by Caroline Stowe.  I look forward to what this new-to-me author brings us next.

*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)