Synopsis

Her heart is wide open, but he’s nailed his shut.

Preschool teacher Harley Cole has always viewed life through rose-colored glasses. With a career she loves, friends she enjoys, and a home that is her haven, there’s only one thing missing—finding her soul mate. As the holidays approach, Harley is inspired to help her former high school crush rediscover his holiday joy. It’s just a good deed…until the feelings she thought were gone come rushing back.

Fire Chief Becker Lange returns home to River’s Edge with a heavy heart. His divorce has emotionally ravaged him, leaving him more confused than ever about what women want. So to protect himself from another failure, he closes his heart. And then Harley Cole makes him a flirty dare that she can help him overcome the holiday blues. Beck’s not sure he wants to, but Harley’s a hard woman to tell no.

Can the magic of Christmas and a sweet stray kitten bring these two lonely souls together?

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Review

This is the end of the Lange brothers trilogy. If you haven’t read the other books, The Valentine Wager or Falling for the Doctor, you’ll want to read these too. While not necessary to read in order, it will help since the characters move forward in each book.

We get to know Beck and Hayley in this new book. Beck’s life growing up wasn’t the easiest with an absentee father, but he helped his mom make the best of it for their family. He is back in town after a failed marriage which has set him back emotionally. Hayley has always had a crush on Beck and even dated his younger brother for a hot minute. I think Hayley looks at Beck as her project to try and cheer him up and see life in a new light.

This book was delightful and also a bit emotional. Hayley is dealing with her mother’s dementia, and Beck’s father comes back into the picture with a fatal illness. I could relate to Hayley and her struggles with her mother’s disease. Dementia is not a kind killer. But I loved that she made the best of the situation.

The relationship between Hayley and Beck isn’t always smooth as they both work out what they want from a relationship. Beck is more closed off than Hayley, but I enjoyed watching him blossom and realize that maybe life can be better when you are with the right person.

This was a great conclusion to the series, and we give it 4 paws up.

About the Author

Nan Reinhardt is a USA Today bestselling author of sweet romantic fiction for Tule Publishing. Her day job is working as a freelance copyeditor and proofreader. However, writing is Nan’s first and most enduring passion. She can’t remember a time in her life when she wasn’t writing—she wrote her first romance novel at the age of ten and is still writing, but now from the viewpoint of a wiser, slightly rumpled woman in her prime. Nan lives in the Midwest with her husband of 49 years, where they split their time between a house in the city and a cottage on a lake.

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