About the book: The second holiday love story in New York Times bestselling author Richard Paul Evans' Mistletoe Collection.
At thirty-two Kimberly Rossetti, a finance officer at a Lexus car dealership, has had her heart broken more times than she wants to remember. With two failed engagements, a divorce and again alone with no prospects, she hardly seems the type to dream of being a published romance author. Dreading another holiday alone, she signs up for The Mistletoe Retreat, a nine-day writing retreat in Savannah, Georgia. Deep inside Kimberly knows she's at a junction in her life and it's time to either fulfill her dream or let it go. The other reason she decides to attend the conference is because famed romance writer, H.T. Cowell, once the best selling romance writer in America, and the author whose books instilled in her the desire to be a writer, will be speaking in public for the first time in more than a decade.
In one of her breakout sessions Kimberly meets another aspiring writer, and one of the few men at the conference, Zeke, an intelligent man with a wry wit who seems as interested in Kimberly as he is in the retreat. As Kimberly begins to open up to him about her stories and dreams, she inadvertently reveals her own troubled past. As Zeke helps her to discover why her books fail to live up to their potential she begins to wonder if he's really talking more about her life than her literature. But as she grows closer to him, she realizes that Zeke has his own darkness, a past he's unwilling to talk about.
The theme of The Mistletoe Inn is that like literature, relationships must be lived with passion and vulnerability to succeed.
My review: I look forward to reading Richard Paul Evans' Christmas stories every year. He's an amazing author! His characters are always well-written. You almost feel as though they could walk off the pages of his books. This one is no exception. I loved Kimberly, she's been through a lot and doesn't feel as though she is a lovable person. She is kind of forced into going to a writer's retreat by her father, who is her only family left. She's been writing a book, and it was fun that the plot was actually the plot of Richard Paul Evans' Christmas book last year, The Mistletoe Promise, that just made the book a bit more fun.
I loved that she meets Zeke in her writing class, and the way that he sweeps her off of her feet. He is truly a gentleman, but Kim has had such bad experiences with men that she knows there's no way he is as good as he seems to be. But there's more to Zeke than meets the eye and you'll be surprised at how the ending of this one turns out!
I loved the plot and the setting. I could almost picture Vermont through Kim's eyes even though I've never been there. And I laughed at the description of the Denver airport and "Blucifer," the big blue horse with demon eyes that sits just outside of the airport. Reminded me of good memories of our trip there a few years ago. And of course, this is a clean book with plenty of romance!
I love the way that the books are formatted. The book is small, the chapters are short. I love that there's always a good stopping spot, and that the book is small enough to finish in one or two short sittings.
Read this great Christmas book, you'll have the spirit of Christmas in your life in no time!
I borrowed this book from my local library.Labels: Clean Romance, Richard Paul Evans
