He’d lost the holiday spirit…
Until she brought light back into his life.
Rancher Arlo Fortune is devastated when he loses his best friend in a tragic accident. The only thing that heals him is opening his heart to his friend’s adorable daughter, Aviva…and his friend’s grieving sister-in-law, the brand-new guardian to the orphaned child. Carrie Kaplan has one mission: to lavish her niece with love in a Jewish home like her sister always wanted. Her stop in Chatelaine is only temporary. Right? But as she teaches Aviva about the miracle of Hanukkah, holiday magic might just beckon from Arlo’s ranch around the bend…
Hellie’s Heeds
This book was a bit more of a struggle for me–and I think it’s because I did not read the other books in the series. However, while I like to seek out Wilck’s books, the other books in this series were written by different authors. It’s a series where a group of authors have taken on characters from the same family or group–and then write books that have interactions with those other groups (at least occasionally). Like you’re writing a series of tandem books all going on at the same time. Hats off to the authors for pulling this off.
While you can obviously read this book without having read the other books in the series, I do believe the reader will have a better connection to the characters in this particular book (and the other books) IF they read the whole series (preferably from the beginning.) Reading just one of the books, in my opinion, can make the relationship feel shallow and rushed in its completion–thus making the happily ever after feel a bit far-fetched.
That said, there were real moments of connection between the hero and heroine in this book–and Arlo is a wonderful hero. He is struggling with the regret of having not made peace with his best friend, Isaac, who died tragically, and he is spending time with Isaac’s sister-in-law, Carrie, who is now the mother to her niece, Aviva. Carrie is struggling with the very real grief of losing a close family member and friend–and the responsibility of taking on a toddler, whose mother asked Carrie to be the one to help Aviva learn about her Jewish heritage. I choked up many times reading some of the scenes where Carrie is struggling with her grief and fear; and Arlo was wonderful throughout it all. My issue is that as someone who has experienced her share of grief, it can be a bit of a gamble of falling in love and then agreeing to marry someone when you’re going through the grieving process (i.e. it’s only been a month or so.) Again, this could be because I am a bit of a commitment-phobe and don’t like committing to a Netflix ongoing service after only a month of “dating”, let alone committing to another person. No matter how wonderful they were. So for me, I can’t suspend the belief of love at first sight, I guess you could say. For others, this may easily be a 5 star rating.
That said–the food Carrie cooks in this book–I want to eat all the food…and try all the recipes. Which basically puts me on the level of Arlo (i.e. don’t stand in the way of him and food.) If anything could have tipped another star from me, it would have been some recipes in the back of the book.
