Welcome Back, Booklovers! It's officially my favorite time of year! And it's been hella busy lately! But I'm still reading. And right now I'm in the Christmas mood. So I love a small town romance and this series looked cute so I decided to give it a try. I don't remember reading the synopsis before I decided to read and didn't realize it goes so in depth explaining things I initially thought were secrets being revealed.
Nessa is now guardian to her half-sister Ivy after the young girl's parents have died. She's also still struggling to come to terms with the fact that the man she thought was her father wasn't actually her father. A trip to the town of Rose Bend prompted by the man she once thought of as dad has her searching for answers to her questions and hoping she and Ivy can mend the rift between them.
Rose Bend is the perfect cozy small town to visit if you love the holidays. Every day is a different Christmas related event for tourists. Ivy and Nessa aren't exactly used to all this holiday cheer. While staying at a B&B in town, Nessa meets Wolf, the son of the innkeeper who is instantly drawn to her and feels like it's his responsibility to help her heal.
So I was under the impression that this book would be a cute small town romance. And it does have some romance but the romance started getting lost for me in the plot about this family coming together that just required a lot more depth and would've best been played out over the course of a few months vs a couple of weeks. Nessa is also searching for her biological father and has feelings of abandonment she's working through from the man she thought was her dad.
Nessa and Wolf had great chemistry but the budding relationship between them was also bogged down but unnecessary drama with his ex-girlfriend and the overly perfect way he and his family were written. There just wasn't enough development on his end and he never had to learn to compromise in a relationship which is one of my pet peeves about Christmas stories. I don't like when the woman has to uproot her whole life for the small town man. Also it compares Wolf's family to the one in This is Us and seems to be trying to be that type of drama. He has a huge family that includes siblings that vary in ages some of whom are transracial adoptees.
Basically it's a slow burn romance with heavily sexual tension that also tries to be a hard hitting family drama and doesn't quite find the balance to make it flow easily. This book actually gave me a little whiplash because I was enjoying the steamy sex between them one minute the next minute she was connecting with her biological father in a rushed Christmas reunion.
Enjoyed the review.
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