Blog Tour Review & Giveaway - - Duke of Desire

Duke of Desire
By Elizabeth Hoyt
Maiden Lane Series - Book 12
Publisher: Grand Central
Release Date: October 17, 2017
Reviewed by PJ
 

A LADY OF LIGHT

Refined, kind, and intelligent, Lady Iris Jordan finds herself the unlikely target of a diabolical kidnapping.  Her captors are the notoriously evil Lords of Chaos.  When one of the masked-and-nude!-Lords spirits her away to his carriage, she shoots him…only to find she may have been a trifle hasty.

A DUKE IN DEEPEST DARKNESS

Cynical, scarred, and brooding, Raphael de Chartres, the Duke of Dyemore, has made it his personal mission to infiltrate the Lords of Chaos and destroy them.  Rescuing Lady Jordan was never in his plans.  But now with the Lords out to kill them both, he has but one choice: marry the lady in order to keep her safe.

CAUGHT IN A WEB OF DANGER…AND DESIRE

Much to Raphael’s irritation, Iris insists on being the sort of duchess who involves herself in his life—and bed.  Soon he’s drawn both to her quick wit and her fiery passion. But when Iris discovers that Raphael's past may be even more dangerous than the present, she falters.  Is their love strong enough to withstand not only the Lords of Chaos but also Raphael’s own demons? 

Duke of Desire is the twelfth and final full-length book in Elizabeth Hoyt's Maiden Lane series and, in my opinion, one of her best. As fans of this series would expect, this is not a light and fluffy tale. Raphael is one of Hoyt's most tortured heroes and one of my favorites. His backstory is complex, compelling, and heartbreaking. When he and Iris meet, he is a broken man with nothing to give, save his name and his protection. He is filled with rage, shame, and a cold determination to bring an end to the debauched evil of the Lords of Chaos once and for all.  

It will take a very strong woman, with equal determination, to break through the shell of ice that has hardened around Raphael's heart and soul in the past nineteen years. A woman of goodness and light, with the intelligence, the sensitivity, the tenacity, and the heart to not give up in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. Fortunately, Hoyt has created just such a woman in the character of Iris. Consider Raphael's thoughts on the night they marry:

"She was...different from other women in some way he still was unable to understand. She was more pure, more bright, more golden. She called to him on an animal level. Her song had seeped into his veins, his lungs, and his liver until he could no longer divide her from his marrow."  

There are many beautifully written passages in this book. Hoyt breathes life into these complex characters, creating a harrowing story with danger around every corner, a heart-wrenching emotional journey that affected me at a visceral level, and a hard-won triumph of love over evil that filled me with hope and joy. This is a story that is going to stay with me for a long time. 

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Have you been reading Elizabeth Hoyt's Maiden Lane series?

Do you have a favorite book or couple from the series?

DUKE OF DESIRE- Short Excerpt

Desperately she flung herself at the opposite seat and tugged it up. Thrust her hand in.

A pistol.

She cocked it, desperately praying that it was loaded.

She turned and aimed it at the door to the carriage just as the door swung open.

The Wolf loomed in the doorway—still nude—a lantern in one hand. She saw the eyes behind the mask flick to the pistol she held between her bound hands. He turned his head and said something in an incomprehensible language to someone outside.

Iris felt her breath sawing in and out of her chest.

He climbed into the carriage and closed the door, completely ignoring her and the pistol pointed at him. The Wolf hung the lantern on a hook and sat on the seat across from her.

Finally he glanced at her. “Put that down.”

His voice was calm. Quiet.

With just a hint of menace.

She backed into the opposite corner, as far away from him as possible, holding the pistol up. Level with his chest. Her heart was pounding so hard it nearly deafened her. “No.”

The carriage jolted into motion, making her stumble before she caught herself.

“T-tell them to stop the carriage,” she said, stuttering with terror despite her resolve. “Let me go now.”

“So that they can rape you to death out there?” He tilted his head to indicate the Lords. “No.”

“At the next village, then.”

“I think not.”

He reached for her and she knew she had no choice.

She shot him.

The blast blew him into the seat and threw her hands up and back, the pistol narrowly missing her nose.

Iris scrambled to her feet. The bullet was gone, but she could still use the pistol as a bludgeon.

The Wolf was sprawled across the seat, blood streaming from a gaping hole in his right shoulder. His mask had been knocked askew on his face.

She reached forward and snatched it off.

And then gasped.

The face that was revealed had once been as beautiful as an angel’s but was now horribly mutilated. A livid red scar ran from just below his hairline on the right side of his face, bisecting the eyebrow, somehow missing the eye itself but gouging a furrow into the lean cheek and catching the edge of his upper lip, making it twist. The scar ended in a missing divot of flesh in the line of the man’s severe jaw. He had inky black hair and, though they were closed now, Iris knew he had emotionless crystal-gray eyes.

She knew because she recognized him.

He was Raphael de Chartres, the Duke of Dyemore, and when she’d danced with him—once—three months ago at a ball, she’d thought he’d looked like Hades.

God of the underworld.

God of the dead.

She had no reason to change her opinion now.

Then he gasped, those frozen crystal eyes opened, and he glared at her. “You idiot woman. I’m trying to save you.”

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Elizabeth Hoyt is the New York Times bestselling author of over seventeen lush historical romances including the Maiden Lane series. Publishers Weekly has called her writing "mesmerizing." She also pens deliciously fun contemporary romances under the name Julia Harper. Elizabeth lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota, with three untrained dogs, a garden in constant need of weeding, and the long-suffering Mr. Hoyt.

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On Second Thought - - Snowdrift and Other Stories

Snowdrift and Other Stories

By Georgette Heyer

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca

Release Date: October 3, 2017

(originally published October 20, 2016, William Heinemann)
Reviewed by Janga 

 

Snowdrift and Other Stories includes the eleven short stories collected in Pistols for Two, the only collection of Georgette Heyer’s short stories published before this one, and three short stories uncovered by Heyer biographer Jennifer Kloester that were published in the 1930s: “Runaway Match” and “Incident on Bath Road,” published in 1936 in Woman’s Journal, and “Pursuit,” published in 1939 in The Queen’s Book of the Red Cross, a fundraiser collection.  By the time these stories were published, Heyer had already written all of her Georgian novels except Faro’s Daughter (1941), and Regency Buck (1935), the first of her twenty-four Regency-set romances that established a subgenre that remains the most popular form of historical romance these many decades later, albeit markedly different in some ways.

Part of the fun of reading these stories is Heyer’s characteristic wit and banter and the skill with which she creates a world now grown familiar to historical romance readers. Road trips, for example, have long been a popular trope in Romancelandia, and they abound in these stories. The opening story “Snowdrift,” for example, features Sir Julian Arden, a noted whip who aborts his effort to win a bet to rescue Miss Sophia Trent from a coach mishap caused by the snow and get her to her destination (Bath, where her miserly grandfather resides). Miss Trent is an innocent whose lack of artifice wins the hero’s heart. She has no idea who Beau Arden is, and he, who has grown “so bored that nothing kept his interest alive for more than a fleeting moment,” finds her honesty refreshing. She tells him that driving from London through the snow in his curricle is “nonsensical,” something none of the simpering misses or ambitious mamas chasing Arden would have dared do.

Kloester notes in her foreword to the collection that the seeds of some of Heyer’s novels can be found in these short stories. For the Heyer aficionado, recognizing the “seeds” and connecting them to the novels is also part of the fun of this collection. However, one does not have to have read Heyer’s thirty plus romance novels to recognize the plots and character types that she introduced. She created the prototypes, and other writers borrowed, imitated, and modified them. In “Snowdrift,” the hero’s athletic prowess (“a crack shot and a nonpareil amongst whips” and “his famous right,” with which he fells a dastard), his clothes (“a coat of superfine . . . from the hands of a master,” his buckskins of “impeccable cut,” and the “intricate style” of his cravat), and his reception once the miser knows who he is will call to mind too many heroes of historical romance to count. The heroine’s background (a profligate father dead at an early age, a kind, virtuous, penurious vicar as stepfather, and a houseful of hopeful half-siblings) and even the miserly grandfather with his unexpected change in status may recall other books.

“Pistols for Two,” the title story in the older Heyer collection hardly qualifies as a romance in the usual sense. The heroine never actually appears in the story. Instead the primary characters are a pair of foolish young men hardly out of boyhood, lifelong friends who fall in love with the same young lady, formerly a reluctantly tolerated playmate. A misunderstanding leads Tom to challenge Jack, and the two of them, all injured pride and embarrassing fear, seem set to meet each other in a duel neither wants. The hero is “the London gentleman” who saves their pride while preventing the duel. It is sure to leave the reader with a smile and satisfied with just a hint of romance.

Each reader will have her favorites. I gave the book five stars, but I did not love all the stories equally. Among the stories from Pistols for Two, my favorite is “Hazard,” in which a dissolute brother stakes his sister in a dice game. Carlington, a drunken, reckless marquis, wins Helen Moreland, and she willingly leaves her brother. The heroine is pragmatic and controlled, at least on the surface, and accepts his news that the public announcement of his betrothal to another is taking place even as they speak. When Miss Fanny Wyse, Carlington’s fiancée appears at the inn where Carlington and Helen have sheltered, the story becomes farce. Heyer readers will recognize the similarity of characters such as Letty Grayson in The Masqueraders (1928) and Eustacie de Vaubon in The Talisman Ring (1936) to Miss Wyse’s age (nineteen), looks (“soulful brown eyes and a riot of dark curls”), and temperament (impetuous with a broad romantic streak and a taste for drama). I loved the twist of the elopement trope, the contrast between the hero and heroine, who are more alike than they appear, and the humor. And I love thinking of favorites by other authors like Jo Beverley who wrote stories that bear a faint imprint of this one.

I also rate “A Clandestine Affair” and “A Husband for Fanny” highly.  The former features a pair of lovers—the youthful, spirited Miss Lucy Tresilian and the handsome and sweet-natured, Arthur Rosely and Lucy’s aunt, Elinor Tresilian, “on the shady side of thirty” and Lord Iver, Arthur’s cousin, former guardian, and current trustee. Lord Iver opposes the match between Lucy and Arthur because he wants no link to the family of the woman who jilted him twelve years ago. When Elinor and Iver pursue their young relatives, whom they believe to be eloping, the story becomes a reunited-lovers tale. Elements of this story surface later in Bath Tangle (1955) and Black Sheep (1966). The interest of the “husband” in “A Husband for Fanny” in eighteen-year-old Fanny is strictly paternal, despite her mother’s fond hope. It is the lovely widow herself who has him thinking about matrimony. If you have read many traditional Regencies, you have encountered that plot.

 “Pursuit,” the first of the reclaimed stories is another tale of an older pair in pursuit of youthful, eloping lovers, the hero’s ward and the governess heroine’s charge. I confess that I was so enchanted by the opening sentence, a marvel of grammatical construction and which, with a name change, could have introduced quite a number of my keepers, that I was won over instantly.

           

The curricle, which was built on sporting lines, was drawn by a team of four magnificent greys, and the ribbons were being handled by one of the most noted whips of his day: a member of the Four Horse Club, of the Bensington, the winner of above a dozen races – in short, by the Earl of Shane, as anyone but the most complete country bumpkin, catching only the most fleeting glimpse of his handsome profile, with its bar of black brow, and masterful, aquiline nose, would have known immediately.

And then there is the governess heroine:

The earl’s companion was a governess, a lady, moreover, who would very soon attain her thirtieth year, and who was seated bolt-upright beside him, dressed in a sober round gown of French cambric under a green pelisse, and a bonnet of moss-straw tied over her smooth, brown ringlets. . . . Her eyes, which were a fine grey, and generally held a good deal of humour, stared stonily at the road ahead, and her mouth (too generous for beauty) was firmly compressed.

Only two pages in and I’m already in love with these characters and looking forward to watching them bristle and banter as they fall in love with each other. The story may be new to me, but I know it well because Heyer’s influence is pervasive in the genre.

Snowdrift and Other Stories invites the reader into an ordered world where laughter and love rule and where villains are defeated, even though few of them are truly evil. I find that immensely appealing in 2017. If you have read Pistols for Two, I think you will find the charm of the stories undiluted in a reread. If you have never read Heyer, these stories serve as a great introduction to one of the founders of popular historical romance. I highly recommend it. Now I’m off to reread more Heyer, starting with my favorite, Frederica.

Review - - Chasing Christmas Eve

Chasing Christmas Eve
By Jill Shalvis
Publisher: Avon
Release Date: September 26, 2017 
Reviewed by Janga

 

Colbie Albright is escaping from her life—from her mother and twin brothers who depend upon her for financial and emotional support, from a looming deadline and a severe case of writer’s block, and from the other complications her success as CE Crown, number one bestselling author of a YA action-adventure, dystopian series, has brought. After five years without a break, she needs to get away. When a late-season hurricane makes her dream of exchanging December in New York for Aruba or some other South Seas destination impossible, she impetuously boards a flight for San Francisco. A recommendation from a cab driver takes her to the Cow Hollow district and a certain legendary fountain. An encounter with a large, exuberant dog lands her in the fountain.

After trusting the wrong person, Spencer Baldwin finds himself on a list of San Francisco’s ten most eligible bachelors. The resulting media storm infringes on his privacy and is interfering with the uninterrupted time he needs to complete his latest project, getting medicines to people in inaccessible areas via drones. Taking a break to retrieve the phone he tossed in the fountain, he is drafted for dog walking duty by his friend, pet shop owner Willa Davis, (The Trouble with Mistletoe). When the dog knocks a tourist into the fountain, Spence goes to her aid. Guilt over her minor injuries comes second to an immediate fascination with her curvy body and her sense of humor that refuses to be dowsed even by her fountain experience. In fact, he is so attracted that he offers Colbie the use of an apartment in his Pacific Pier Building, against the advice of the building’s general manager and another “Friend of Spence,” the bossy Elle Wheaton (Accidentally on Purpose).

The more Spence and Colbie get to know one another, the greater their attraction to one another grows. They agree to an affair with an expiration date, Christmas Eve, the day Colbie has promised to be back in New York. But their relationship involves more than desire. They like each other, they talk to each other, and they are good together. The blocks they each have experienced in their professional lives yield to new creativity and productivity. However, they are keeping secrets from each other, and neither is willing to risk making the first move toward the forever they both want. When Colbie leaves, they both stand to lose.

When Jill Shalvis is at her best, nobody does funny, relatable characters with hidden vulnerabilities and stories that balance heart and heat better. Her Heartbreaker Bay books, albeit with some unevenness, have showcased her gifts. Readers have embraced the motley misfits who have become found family and eagerly awaited each new story. This fourth novel gets my vote for the best of series. I love geeky heroes, and my affection for writer heroines goes back to childhood when Jo March, Anne Shirley, and Betsy Ray, writers all, were as familiar and beloved as my real-life best friends. But Spence and Colbie have more going for them than the fact that theirs is a tale of a geek and a writer. They are likable, intelligent characters, a bit battered by life but loyal to those they love, passionate about their work, and possessing a keen sense of humor. Spence’s tribe all have parts to play in this story, and fans of the series will enjoy seeing favorite characters in their secondary roles. Colbie’s twenty-something brothers appear only briefly, but their appearance is long enough for them to give readers an aww moment. Finally, this is a Christmas book. It is not just a book set during the season but a book about giving in its most meaningful sense. The ending left me with a lovely holiday buzz.

If you are a Shalvis fan, I probably don’t need to remind you to add this one to your TBR shelf. If you are a fan of contemporary romance and haven’t read Shalvis, Chasing Christmas Eve is a great place to start. My recommendation for this one comes wrapped in sighs and smiles, with a tag that says, “Definitely open before Christmas.” And you can plan to start 2018 with Shalvis too. Joe and Kylie’s story, About That Kiss, releases January 23.

Throwback Thursday Review - - Heir to Sevenwaters

Heir to Sevenwaters
The Sevenwaters Series - Book 4
By Juliet Marillier
Published by: Penguin / Ace
Release Date: November 4, 2008
Reviewed by PJ 

For generations, the family of Sevenwaters has protected the Fair Folk who inhabit the vast and mysterious Otherworld that is only accessible through hidden portals in the deep forest on Sevenwaters land.   Their alliance has been beneficial to both, giving neither side reason to break the trust between them, but lately there have been rumblings of a darker presence among the Fair Folk and events soon unfold that will change everything between the two worlds.

Set in ancient Erin, this is the story of Clodagh, third of six daughters of Lady Aisling and Lord Sean of Sevenwaters.  Clodagh is the steady sort who excels in housekeeping and organization and is often a sounding board for her father, the chieftain.  As the story opens her twin sister is getting married and leaving but Clodagh has put her dreams of a husband and children on hold to care for her family and home as her mother struggles through a difficult pregnancy while anticipating the long-awaited birth of her seventh child, the potential heir to Sevenwaters.   When the weakened Lady Aisling gives birth to a boy but cannot care for him she places him in the capable hands of her responsible daughter, Clodagh, knowing no harm will come to him in her care.  But when Clodagh’s attention is diverted for an instant the baby disappears and in his place she finds an ugly changeling made of leaves and twigs that only she can see breathe and hear cry.  The abduction sends her mother into a downward spiral and her father turns cold and suspicious of the daughter he once trusted implicitly, the daughter who was seen kissing a young, visiting warrior at the exact time her brother was being kidnapped.  Unwilling to listen to Clodagh’s suspicions of otherworldly involvement her father focuses all of his attention on the political rivals he is certain have stolen his son and on the young warrior who has conveniently disappeared.  When no one will listen to her Clodagh realizes that it is up to her to rescue her baby brother from the shadowy beings she is certain have taken him.  She sets aside her fears and embarks upon a journey into the mysterious Otherworld to exchange the changeling for her brother, reluctantly allowing the young warrior, who seems to know more about the frightening and dangerous place than a human should, to accompany her.

Marillier’s lushly descriptive writing brings to life a shadowy and perilous Fair Folk realm inhabited by strange creatures and ruled by a handsome but unscrupulous fey prince with no conscience and a very big secret.  The Otherworld and its inhabitants could easily have stolen the spotlight during this part of the story, but the author has deftly painted them as a mystical backdrop with an important supporting cast while allowing the heroine of the story, her quest and the deepening relationship with her hero to take center stage.  (I really liked these two young people and quickly became fully invested in their struggle to find a way to be together.)  Tested at every turn and against insurmountable odds, this ordinary girl with no special powers who has always relied on others to protect her gradually discovers that with the courage of selfless love, the impossible becomes possible and a brave young woman can not only rescue herself but her family and her beloved as well.

This is the fourth book in the Sevenwaters series, coming six years after publication of book #3, but my introduction to the works of Juliet Marillier.  While characters from the three previous books in the series either made appearances or were referenced in this book, reading Heir to Sevenwaters first in no way diminished my enjoyment of the story.  In fact, I enjoyed this book so much that I have already begun looking for the first three books: Daughter of the Forest, Son of the Shadows, and Child of the Prophecy. 

Update: If you're looking for lushly written, historical fantasy, I highly recommend Juliet Marillier. You will happily lose yourself in the mystical worlds of her creation.

The Sevenwaters Series (in order)

Daughter of the Forest

Son of the Shadows

Child of the Prophecy

Heir to Sevenwaters

Seer of Sevenwaters

Flame of Sevenwaters

Marillier's current series is set in Medieval Ireland, one of my favorite eras and places. Three books in the Blackthorn and Grim series have been published to date:

Dreamers Pool

Tower of Thorns

Den of Wolves

Do you enjoy fantasy novels? 

Do you have favorite titles or authors you would recommend?

Have you read Juliet Marillier's books yet?

Review - - Holiday Spice

Holiday Spice

By Samantha Chase

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca

Release Date: October 3, 2017

Reviewed by Janga 

  

Samantha Chase wraps up her Shaughnessy series with the story of the youngest sibling and the only girl in the large, tightly-knit family. Unable to find a job in an art gallery or on the staff of an art magazine, her preferred careers, Darcy Shaughnessy is visiting her rock star brother Riley and his journalist wife Savannah (This Is Our Song) in California for some time with her newest niece. When Savannah, immersed in new motherhood, asks her to fill in and assist artist Ben Tanner to complete a book about his art, Darcy agrees. Getting to the reclusive artist’s remote cabin in Washington proves to be more daunting than Darcy expected, but her first impression of Ben is a positive one. This job may turn out to be fun.

Ben and Savannah became friends when she interviewed him before her marriage to Riley Shaughnessy, and she is one of the few people Ben trusts. He is not thrilled with the idea of a stranger doing the job he had expected Savannah to do, but he decides to accept her assurance that Darcy is perfect for the job. He is even more willing after meeting Darcy. The two have an immediate rapport. That changes when Darcy jumps to the conclusion that Ben’s repeated praise of Savannah is rooted in his romantic feelings for her. The collaboration that began with such promise grows strained as Darcy noticeably cools her response to Ben.

An early snow storm interferes with Darcy’s plan for a quick departure. Snowed in together in Ben’s cabin, the two quickly clear up the misunderstanding, clearing the way for their initial attraction to grow into something more substantial. The hours of seclusion encourage emotional as well as physical intimacy, and neither is ready to see the relationship end when the roads are cleared. But Darcy needs to return to North Carolina and resume her search for a permanent job, and Ben needs the solitude of his Washington studio to complete work for which people are waiting. However, they are convinced they can make a long-distance relationship work. But the oppositions that heightened their attraction when they were alone create problems when distance and the presence of others magnify those differences. They love each other, but will love be enough to bridge their different worlds?

The final book in Chase’s Shaughnessy Brothers series is an opposites-attract tale that takes an unusually realistic look at the problems personality differences can create. Darcy and Ben have a basic compatibility. There is a mutual attraction, of course, but they also share an interest in art. Ben’s medium is wood, and his creations are described in enough detail to make the reader long to see them.  Darcy’s strengths lie in organization and administration. They recognize and respect each other’s gifts. They fall in love. As long as only the two of them are involved, passion, liking, respect and love offer the promise of forever, but no one can live in such isolated bliss for long. Not only are Darcy and Ben’s lives based a continent apart, but hers is family-centric and his is strictly solo.

Darcy, with a doting father and five protective older brothers, is spoiled. She expects things to go her way. When they don’t, she runs away. A gregarious extrovert, she has the social skills and confidence typical of the youngest child, but she also has insecurities. She is the only one of the six Shaughnessy siblings who has no memories of her mother. Nevertheless, her lack of memories is a factor in the woman she becomes just as much as her brothers’ particular memories of their mother help to shape them as men.  Ben has the introvert’s usual need for quietness and his own company, and in him these tendencies are exacerbated by his response to the death of his parents. He loves his brothers, but he maintains both a physical and emotional distance from them. He rejects projects that would advance his career if they impinge on his solitude. He likes Darcy’s family, but he has no understanding of all the ways Shaughnessy family members are entangled in one another’s lives—or why they like it that way. Darcy finds it just as incomprehensible that he can go months with no contact with his brothers.

Fittingly enough, it is her brother Owen (A Sky Full of Stars), the Shaughnessy closest to Ben in temperament, who has the best advice for Darcy at her darkest moment.

You can’t change who you are any more than Ben can change who he is. You are impulsive and excitable and passionate about the things you want and believe in. He’s a private and intellectual person who is passionate about the things he wants and believes in. You have to find the right balance, and it’s not something that just happens, Darcy. It takes work.

There are many things to like in this book other than this bit of pragmatism. The Shaughnessys and their increasing tribe are a warm, wonderful family. This is a Christmas book, and Chase juxtaposes the Shaughnessy family-centered holiday, rich in cherished traditions, with the Tanners’ redefining of their holiday as they acknowledge the grief they have associated with the season for most of their lives. The result is a book that is both heartwarming and thought-provoking. As for the romance, readers get their HEA, but with a dash of realism in the mix. Readers who have followed the series will likely be pleased with this conclusion. Readers who have not read the earlier books but like contemporary romance with meaningful family dynamics, an H/H relationship that mirrors real life conflict, and a light touch with spice (despite the title) should also appreciate it. It can be read as a standalone, but I am such a Shaughnessy fan that I can’t imagine not wanting to read all six books.

Review - - The Christmas Room

The Christmas Room

By Catherine Anderson

Publisher: Berkley

Release Date: September 26, 2017
Reviewed by Janga

 

Cam McClendon fulfills a dream when he buys land in Mystic Creek, Montana, and moves there with his teenage son, Caleb, and his widowed mother, Maddie, a famous mystery writer. Shortly afterwards, he meets Kirsten Conacher, daughter of a local rancher, and is instantly smitten. Kirsten is as interested in Cam as he is in her, but her father has proved that there is bite to his bark by ruining the reputation and careers of other men who pursued his daughter. Having lost his wife to ovarian cancer, Sam Conacher is determined that he will not lose his daughter. With only himself and his Mexican foreman to depend on, he needs her help running the vast ranch that will one day be hers. And he needs her emotionally, especially since the bitterness and hot temper that consumed him after his wife’s death have alienated his friends and neighbors and the men who once worked for him. Kirsten resents her father for treating her as if she were sixteen rather than a decade older, but because she loves him and remembers the man he used to be, she tolerates his behavior. Reluctant to quarrel with her father and aware of Cam’s vulnerability to Sam’s brand of retaliation, she persuades Cam that they should meet secretly.

Cam, an upfront type, is unhappy with the clandestine nature of their relationship, and when it becomes clear that what is between him and Kirsty is more than physical attraction, he introduces her to his family and insists upon confronting her father. Cam and Kirsty are unaware that his son and her father have both, separately, seen them together. Caleb’s response is benevolent, but Sam’s is not. Brooding over the “white trash” stranger who has dared touch his daughter increases his rage and ensures that the meeting between him and Cam is a violent one. Cam, who refuses to retaliate against Sam’s attack, is battered but undeterred from his courtship. Kirsten, furious with her father, finally stands up to him, threatening to leave if he continues to interfere in her life. Maddie McClendon has no hesitation in standing up to Sam either, and their verbal battles are intense.

When Cam saves Kirsten from being crushed by a bull and is seriously injured himself, Sam changes his opinion. Even more radical is his change toward Maddie. He goes from burning her books to longing for her touch. But a secret Maddie has kept places their romance in jeopardy. It will take the spirit of the Christmas season to change a stubborn heart and bring happily-ever-afters all around.

The family dynamics are interesting. I’ve seen enough of controlling parents to find the relationship between Kirsten and her father believable, and the three-generation McClendon family, all devoted to one another, is endearing. But Sam’s redemption is so quick that it left this reader’s head spinning. I found Cam, a single father who assumed responsibility for his son when he was still a teenager, an interesting character, but Kirsten’s character was too thinly developed for me to see her as a satisfactory heroine. Caleb is a sweet boy but too close to perfect. Perhaps after more than three decades of teaching young people in their teens and early twenties and with seven teens in the family (thirteen to eighteen this year), I am too aware that the best of them have faults to believe in this one. Anderson devotes as much attention to the romance between the older couple as she does to Cam and Kirsten’s relationship. Sam and Maddie’s relationship also had more depth and more compelling conflict.

The best part of this book is that it succeeds in capturing the meaning of the holiday. The scene from which the book takes its title has a genuine sweetness, and it effectively demonstrates that the best gifts cost more than dollars can measure. The gift becomes even more effective as the celebration in the Christmas room widens to encompass the community and give peace on earth, good will to all a welcome immediacy.

I have several Anderson titles on my keeper shelves. At her best, she is excellent. However, this is not her best work. I did enjoy Sam and Maddie’s romance. I would have enjoyed it more if either Sam or Cam had been given a different name. That monosyllabic rhyme made me laugh at inappropriate moments.  I do give the novel extra points for its Christmassy feel. If you are addicted to Christmas romances or are looking for romances that feature love after fifty, you may find that the strengths of The Christmas Room outweigh its flaws.