books dec 13

Holiday Kisses

This Time Next Year by Allison Kent

Brenna Keating is on her way to her grandmothers. She swerves to avoid and deer and finds her car nose deep into a snow pile.

Dillion is on his horse making the rounds when he finds her car and drags her out by a window and brings her back to his place and dresses her ankle and puts her to bed under quilts.

As they sit and talk in front of the first, he's told her they will be snowed in for days as this is the storm of the century.

She finds out he knows a bit about doctoring and makes rounds to the local people on the mountain to see how they are doing and to bring them food or whatever they need. Others on the mountain supply those in need with food if need be.

After they shared a kiss he went out to the barn to work and she decided to make a Christmas tree and decorate it. And she was baking cookies when he came back in. One of the bonds I have with the character here is I also keep my big 20 lb. bag of flour in the freezer.

After they have finished in the bedroom he tells her what the dates on the fan blades mean, very touching and real.

Lots of surprises when she finally gets up from bed. He brings her to her grandmother's on the back of the horse.

The present he gave her was one he made by hand. What a treasure! Later that day he took her back to his cabin and drove her home with plans that her car would be repaired.

They made plans 'this time next year'.

A Rare Gift by Jaci Burton

Wyatt is about to bid on his ex-wife's younger sister Calliope day care center.

When he saw her she did a number to his head. She wasn't like her sister at all and he kept losing track of what she was saying. He better pay attention and get the job, so other contractors didn't get it, and get the job over and done with and get out of there.

She still had a crush on him and when she noticed his clipboard she thought she'd just swing by and drop it off for him, in person. She finally finds him at the bar and gives it to him, gets a beer and proceeds to learn from Joey Johnson how to play pool.

It's late at night and she's still in the building. He goes to find her and walk her out to find a lot of snow on the ground. He puts her in his truck and they go to her house. After a meal and a light kissing it's decided he will spend the night.

He backs away from her, not wanting to start rumors and getting people to gossip about her.

She confronts him and tells him her sister will be in town for the holidays and that he should talk to her and get some closure so they can move on. She sets up the meeting and he is furious with her for doing so....

It's Not Christmas Without You by HelenKay Dimon

Carrie took the job in DC and left her hometown and boyfriend of Hollowoy, WV. This year she's going to stay in town and just work through the holiday, not go back home.

Austin decides they have not broken up at all and if she can't come home he will go to her. He gets a job selling Christmas trees outside her apartment in DC after paying the registering fees.

Lucky his brother Spence got him out of his drunken mode and that's why he was on the trail of Carrie.

They are able to talk and she tells him her mother gave up all her dreams to raise her and her brother. She doesn't want her life to be the same cuz she can see how unhappy her mom is.

Spence is at the tree lot to also give him romantic advice for the month of December. She keeps coming back to the tree lot and still hasn't picked out a tree yet. By the time she did go back to the tree lot he had left the area to drive the first batch of trees back home. He was done, he knew her place was in DC.

Mistletoe and Margaritas by Shannon Stacey

Claire had lost her husband for over 2 years now and Justin was there

for her, always had been, late in getting to her first.

She does bookkeeping for a lot of small businesses in the area at her home.

He's a roofer and in the winter he plow roads in NH and she sometimes tags

along with him.

They end up at a party and she's had a few too many and they go back to her

house for the night. He can't get over that Brandon was his best friend

and he's now having sex with his friends wife-sure he's dead but he still feels

like it's wrong.

Will they ever be able to move on or just break it off?