A small-town Texas Christmas story, where hearts are lost, love is found, and family always brings you back home. Griffin Holloway is desperate: the Maverick Ranch has been in his family for generations, but lately, it’s a money pit. He’d sooner marry one of his horses than sell the ranch. Marriage, though, could be a solution. If he can woo a wealthy bride, he might save the ranch—just in time for Christmas. Jaxon O’Grady likes his solitude just fine, thank you very much. But when a car accident brings the unexpected to his door, he realizes just how much one person can need another. Crossroads is the perfect place for Jamie Johnson: avoiding nosy questions about why she’s single, she’s happy to keep to her lakeside home. So she’s baffled when she gets the strangest Christmas present of all, in the form of a Mr. Johnson, asleep on her sofa. Who is he, and why does everyone think he’s her husband? In this uplifting novel, three unlikely couples discover just what Crossroads, Texas, can offer: romance, belonging, and plenty of Christmas spirit. I read hundreds of books each year, and there are a few authors who stand out from the crew, each for different reasons with their own style of writing. Jodi Thomas is a true storyteller. She has such a handle on the words, the ways to pull the readers into the tale, to build up characters that are easy to connect with and fall in love with, care for like they were your best friends. The vivid images she paints with her words draw the pictures so clear that they come to live in the reader's mind. I adore this series and Mistletoe Miracles, it was just as marvelous as the rest of the books, with three couples finding their destinies, love, and soulmates over the miraculous time of Christmas. Each of these tales is unique. The lives the characters have lived have been challenging, their lone existence in a way satisfying yet the longing for a mate is there somewhere deep in their souls. Nothing comes easy, each couple has to face their own challenges, and with some, it is an instant connection under false pretenses, with other a marriage of convenience, and with the third, it takes a longer time to heal the wounds in their souls and bodies before they are ready for a new relationship. Yet in each story, there is the magical wonder of the holidays, where everything seems possible, and falling in love seems so natural. The book is build so that each couple takes turns to tell their tale of falling in love. The intervals are clearly marked, and there is never a question who's story it is at the hand. With the intertwined tales, the interest, and intrigue of the romances allure, and I inhaled the book at once, smiling, sighing, swooning, and even tearing up several times because of the touching, compelling, nearly spellbinding way the stories unfold. With the clean and sweet romance stories, this book is easy to recommend to all romance readers. From heartbreak to dreams come true, from saving lives to risking them, from small-town charm to adorable four-legged friends, the book with its three couples and their stories covers life, loving, and living in a fluently flowing, brilliantly written, pleasing tale that delighted, captivated, and mesmerized all at the same time ~ Five Spoons! Jodi Thomas is running a contest for a reader to spend a vacation in her New Mexico condo where she spends time writing. |