CHRISTMAS IN JULY

One Christmas Eve by Shannon Stacey
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I've never done Christmas in July before and now I am so happy I'm doing it, cause this Christmas novella From Shannon Stacey hit all the feels. I love her Christmas stories, they always manage to capture the spirit of the season with warm and fuzzy feels with laughter and love. The romance between Preston and Zoe is delightful, ardent, and sweet. They both have been hurt before, wounds they carry nearly wrecking their dreams and hopes for the future. This story had me laughing out loud with the banter, swoon and sigh with the passion between the protagonists, and even tear up with the power of love, with the magic of the season, and cheer for conquering life's hurdles. A potent tale in a shorter form of a novella.
~ Five Spoons

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Coming Home for Christmas by RaeAnne Thayne
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A brutally beautiful tale of life, love, forgiveness, new chances, and Christmas miracles. It's a story of family, it touches the darkness of depression, and it underlines the chances for condonation, the power of love, and wonder of the season.
I inhaled this story in one evening. The heartache of Elizabeth and Luke and their children pulled me in, the possibilities of new chances and new beginnings held me captive. I have wanted Luke and his children to find all the love and happiness and peace of heart and mind they yearned for and this story filled my heart to overflowing.
RaeAnne Thayne is a master of sweet, heartfelt, clean romance stories that still delivers all the feels of adoration and passion without going into the details. These tales show how everyday miracles still happen, how love still wins, how by doing the hard things in life, the rewards are captured, how family and community can do wonders when they set their minds into uplifting others.
Coming Home for Christmas was indeed a homecoming literally and figuratively, with all the splendor and marvel and intensity of a delightful love story.
~ Five Spoons

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A Tale of Two Christmas Letters by Cathy Gillen Thacker
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The story has all the makings of holiday cheer, little kids, puppies, cookie making, tree decorating, family, and caroling... It is a sweet and passionate story of second chances, new beginnings, and dreams coming true if you just dare to get your walls down and take the risk of being honest and vulnerable with your feelings.
I liked the characters, I liked the setting, a texas hospital, and two large merging families at Christmas time. The story does have a little thrid person drama, going on a date with someone else after the initial attraction. The conflict in the story is my least favorite type, and it keeps repeated several times throughout the book: lack of communication, not being honest about feelings, emotions, hiding the true reasons for actions. A constant in the tale is the inner monologue from both of the protagonist that shows how their true thoughts and emotions are far from what they show and communicate. I know some enjoy that yet I find it frustrating.
Overall a cute Christmas love story
~ Three Spoons

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Soldier's Christmas Secrets by Laura Scott
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

An intense and thrilling start to the story pulled me in and the twists in the fervent tale had me inhaling it at one sitting. The story is engaging, filled with deadly danger, desire to survive, to have a new chance in life, to make amends, to redefine their fate in God and His guidance in life.
I enjoyed all aspects of the tale so much that I didn't even stop to consider if the plot was plausible, and honestly, I don't care, it entertained, it inspired, and gave me an adrenaline rush like a great thriller does.
The protagonists have both had so much sorrow and hardship, yet their hearts and minds were filled with grace and forgiveness. The Love Inspired books are all based in Christian faith, and Jillian's strong, unvarying trust in God, and Hawk's doubts and weariness to believe anything or anyone was true, palpable, and natural part of the harrowing events their go through while fighting to survive in the hands of the culprits.
There are heartfelt, adorable, and emotional moments as Jillian and Hawk deal with their relationship and Hawk getting to know his daughter. I loved the connection between Hawk and his friends, the Callahans, who were the stars of a previous series with the author.
A fabulous, potent start to a new spinoff series, highly recommend
~ Five Spoons

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Cowboy Christmas Redemption by Maisey Yates
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Raw and real emotions, turbulent inner conflict, sorrow, guilt, and pain, exhilaration, passion, and adoration... As the story is told mostly by the fervent inner monologue of the protagonists, every feeling and all the turmoil in their hearts and minds are palpable forces that shape their characters, makes them grow and change them to be the people they were always meant to become.
I knew the story of Caleb Dalton and Ellie Bell was going to be an emotional roll-a-coaster, only this tale dived into such deep, dark storms of the mind and heart that it blew me away. There is no doubt that these two best friends loved each other, but were they ever going to be able to grow into the profound (romantic) emotions they awoke in each other, that was left to be found out in this unique tale of life, loss, and love, of family, friends, and lovers.
From sweet and adorable to ardent and heartwrenching, I felt all the feels and textures of the turmoil and mayhem in their minds and hearts. Yet, there is redemption, there is deliverance, there is hope eternal, and there is faith for the future. There is growth and maturing from the loss, there is peace from the childhood drama, and there are even those delightfully lovely holiday moments that will your heart to overflowing.
A beautiful, unputdownable emotion-filled, fervent and heartfelt tale that took my breath away.
~ Five Spoons

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Christmas in Winter Valley by Jodi Thomas
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Jodi Thomas is a talented storyteller, whose words on paper paints vivid pictures into the reader's mind, embedding them into the tales, while wrapping their hearts to the warm, loving feels radiating from her characters.
Christmas in Winter Valley tells the tales of four couples destinies, endearing romances on the side of the most adorable, heartfelt bromance between a young orphan boy and Cooper.
The characters all are charming and sweet, the drama is limited, and while passion and loving are notching the temperatures up in the cold winter weather, the action mostly happens off the pages of the book.
With multiple storylines fusing into one plot, the happiness, joyous, miraculous Christmas spirit is a tangible force bringing people and families together. Of course, the multiple narratives have no chance or space to dig deep into all of the characters and the nuances of the romances budding through the ranch. Yet the message of the season, that there are hope and faith for the future if love conquers all, that is the genuinely tangible happily ever after in the air at the Holloway ranch at Christmas in Winter Valley
~ Four Spoons and a teaspoon on the side

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A Coldwater Christmas by Delores Fossen
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Going to Cold Water and meeting the Laramie brothers and their extended family is always like going home. A chaotic home, where emotions are high, where everyone wants to know the other's business, yet are willing to stand up for each other when need arise.
When it comes to creating a world where readers feel like part of the community is just one of the reasons why I love Fossen's books.
The oldest brother, Kace, has been the caretaker of everyone else since their father walked out on the family, and he truly deserves a happily forever after.
I loved the connection and palpable attraction between Kace and Lana. And the way Lana's little girl reacted to Kace, was truly heartwarming. Lana and Kace seemed to be on the same frequency, the same wavelength, they understood each other and why they were the way they were. Even though I am not big on angst, I wish there would have been a bit more about why Lana and Kace divorced the first time and a clear solution to those issues. But I felt them at the bottom of my heart, rarely is there a couple - even in romance novels - who so tangible belong to each other.
Even in the tumultuous disarray of all the family drama and Coldwater reacting to it, this tale delivers all the feels of family and home, a community where you belong to, and love that will survive even in the toughest times and the biggest obstacles. I laughed, I sighed and I swooned, and mostly I enjoyed the last installment of the saga of Laramie brothers.
~ Four Spoons

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Rancher's Wild Secret by Maisey Yates
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Revenge, passion, deep, bold emotions, pretentious facades hiding secrets that are causing family drama...
A breathtaking quick read with a raw ardent coupling that gets a chance to be something more, bigger, deeper, and real while Holden McCall works on his vengeance towards Emerson Maxfield's father.
I love Yates' style of storytelling and her ability to adjust the writing to a different category, even while writing in the same series and their spinoffs. This story, part of the new spinoff and Desire books in Harlequin, had the focus on the fierily igniting, undeniable lust the protagonists have for each other. There was still space for drama, and most importantly the characters to grow and develop, find their selves while finding a new normal in their lives while desperately falling in love.
An intensely fervent tale of hunger for more, in love as well in life, that surely brings on the heat and entertains.
~ Four Spoons

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