Books & Spoons Review: EVERGREEN SPRINGS by RaeAnne Thayne

Celebrate the magic of Christmas in Haven Point with New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne, where hope, home, and happily-ever-after are as close as your holiday stocking...

Christmas is the last thing Cole Barrett is thinking about this year. He's barely hanging on trying to care for his two grieving children since his ex-wife died in a tragic accident. For the reclusive Cole, this is no time for gift-giving and celebration—and certainly not for a sunny-natured optimist to blow into his screwed-up life.

In the years since her cancer treatments, physician Devin Shaw has researched the curative powers of Lake Haven's mineral waters. Unfortunately, the hot springs are on Barrett property, forcing Devin to strike a bargain with the ranch's attractively gruff owner: she'll give Cole's children the magical Christmas they deserve, and Cole will allow her patients access to the springs. But can she work her holiday magic to heal the Barrett family's battered hearts—and her own?

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A warm and touching Christmas novel, about forgiveness, family, and finding a forever kind of love. This story made me smile, it had me in tears, just a very well written, clean (no love scenes, no bad language) story, that has abundance of Christmas spirit.
Devin and Cole are adorable. They fight the attraction between them, and it mostly stays on the back burner through the story, as the holidays approach, and the life turns into a storm like chaos for Cole. His pregnant sister arrives and has left her husband, his estranged father arrives and lives on the property, his children's mother has died, and suddenly he is a single father for two grieving kids, his horse business is just picking up... Just too much at once.
But Devin is there, she steps in, she takes care of things, she organizes things, finds help, and just is there when needed. I loved it. They form a friendship of a sort, and help each other out, support each other, and listen to each other.
Cole is such a good, caring, solid man. But he wasn't that in the past. He has a hard time forgiving himself for his past actions, and seeing himself now, how he has grown and matured to be the man he is today. He also struggles with his relationship with his dad, who abandoned him and his sister, after their mother died.
His sister and her husband have their own issues, that they have to work through, with the twins on their way into the world.
I loved the personalities of Cole's kids. They are true individuals, and spirited little people. Their sorrow over their mother's death was palpable, and the joy of the holidays then even more meaningful.
The people in town are inspiring and loving. The help and support from them is heartfelt.
The whole scene, with the extended cast, was so full of warm, fuzzy, Christmas spirits, and with several Christmas miracles, on the special night, this story just touched my heart, and I wasn't ready for it to end
~ Four Spoons with a teaspoon on the side