Snow Kissed

A tender-hearted novel of women’s fiction about broken hearts mended by love during the Christmas season.

Strong women who face and overcome obstacles--familial and romantic--have come to define the heartwarming novels of Rae Anne Thayne (The Lost Book of First Loves, 15 Summers Later).

 

In Snow Kissed, she returns readers to Shelter Springs, a picturesque mountain town near Boise, Idaho. At the heart of this story--the third in the series after Christmas at the Shelter Inn and The December Market--is divorced, single mother, Holly Goodwin Moore, who is raising her neurodivergent daughter, Lydia, on her own while running the local flower shop. Holly was once enamored of all-things-Christmas, but since her divorce and the looming wedding of a family member of her ex’s--Lydia is excited to serve as flower girl--Holly is dreading seeing her ex, his new wife, and their new baby at the holiday wedding.

 

A meet-cute case of mistaken identity at the flower shop changes those feelings. Holly crosses paths with Ryan Caldwell, the uncle of 13-year-old, Audrey, who helps out at the flower shop. Ryan, on leave from his career as a Navy pilot, returns to Shelter Springs to help his infirm, troubled sister with Audrey for the holidays. Ryan carries as many scars from the past as does Holly. And as the two get to know each other, Holly asks Ryan a favor: will he agree to be her pretend ‘plus-one’ at the wedding? As their relationship grows, so do a host of complications that ultimately test their willingness to risk love again.

 

Readers familiar with the Shelter Springs books--and those new to the town and its inhabitants--will savor this moving and tender-hearted story about wounded hearts mended by love.

 

Snow Kissed by RaeAnne Thayne

Canary Street Press (Harlequin/HarperCollinsPublishers), $18.99 paperback, 978335013170, 320 pages

Publishing Date: October 7, 2025

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.org, link HERE

 

Learn more about author RaeAnne Thayne HERE

The Little Italian Hotel

 

A tender, hopeful story about a woman who, after her marriage comes undone, sets off on an inspiring Italian holiday with four strangers.

Five strangers are brought together on an Italian holiday in The Little Italian Hotel, a sweetly immersive novel brimming with the hope of new beginnings by Phaedra Patrick.

 

To celebrate 25-years of marriage, Ginny Splinter--a 49-year-old,  problem-solving, British radio talk show host--surprises her husband, Adrian, by planning an upscale trip to Italy for just the two of them. But when she presents the gift, Adrian announces that he doesn’t want to go on a vacation. He wants a divorce. Shaken and jarred, heartsick Ginny decides, on a lark, to invite four loyal listeners, at random, to accompany her on the trip instead. This is accomplished by her swapping out the pricy luxury accommodations she’d planned for her and Adrian in Vigornuovo, a small Italian village in Bologna, (10, 48) in exchange for more modest lodgings for she and her guests. The five strangers--ranging in age from 27 to 80--meet for the first time, where they all set off, touring Venice and Florence. The sights of Italy may be wonders to behold, but the life stories of the strangers--each on the cusp of change in his and her own life--prove equally enriching amidst the journey.

 

Patrick (The Messy Lives of Book People) is a beautiful writer of optimistic stories that probe the true meaning of life and the human quest to find happiness and fulfillment. In The Little Italian Hotel, she once again mines the bittersweet landscape of the human heart with great tenderness, insight, and wisdom.

 

 

The Little Italian Hotel by Phaedra Patrick

Park Row (Harlequin/Harper Collins), $18.99 original paperback, 9780778387121, 320 pages, Publishing Date: June 6, 2023

To order this book on INDIEBOUND/Bookshop.Org, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (June 6, 2023), link HERE

The Holiday Swap

In this delightful romantic comedy, twin baker sisters secretly swap lives and hilariously discover their true selves by experiencing how the other lives.

Identical twins--20-something sisters who are both successful bakers--switch lives in The Holiday Swap, a fun and quick-witted first novel by Maggie Knox (pseudonym for authors Karma Brown and Marissa Stapley).

 

The story launches days before Christmas in sunny California. Charlie Goodwin, a noted Paris-trained pastry chef, is embroiled in a network reality baking show. Her program--Sweet & Salty, produced for two seasons in Los Angeles and cohosted by Chef Austin Nash--is facing the threat of replacement with another show slated to feature only one chef. Charlie and Austin, who leaves Charlie feeling more "bah-humbug than merry and bright," embark as judges on a 12-days-to-Christmas countdown, where 12 amateur bakers compete for a $25,000 prize.

After a shelving unit tips over, giving Charlie a concussion that strips her of the ability to taste and smell, she is ordered to take it easy. But how can she possibly rest with her show and job on the brink of peril? Afraid to tell anyone of her sensory malfunctions, Charlie secretly enlists the help of her lifelong confidante, her identical twin, Cass, who steps in to save Charlie in her hour of need, agreeing to swap lives temporarily--and covertly. 

 

Knox assembles a memorable cast and whips up inventive switched-lives scenarios filled with a host of mishaps that double the fun. Delightfully romantic plot twists further sweeten this lighthearted, feel-good story with a message that is sure to make rom-com readers hunger for whatever Knox decides to dish up next.

 

The Holiday Swap by Karma Brown and Marissa Stapley

G.P. Putnam Sons Books (Penguin Books), $17.00 paperback, 97805933307398, 352 pages

Publication Date: August 10, 2021

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

 

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (October 8, 2021), link HERE

 

To read the longer form of this review as published on Shelf Awareness for the Book Trade (September 3, 2021), link HERE

Winter Storms: Book Three in the Winter Series

Winter Storms concludes a warm-hearted trilogy about a complicated Nantucket family whose loyalties and love run deep.

The Quinns of Nantucket reunite again in the final installment of the Winter Street series. As in Winter Street and Winter Stroll, Elin Hilderbrand juggles an ensemble cast in a holiday setting. This time, however, the plot is structured amid four seasons, culminating at Christmas. 

Winter Storms launches in the spring. Family patriarch Kelley Quinn--a twice-married father of four adult children and the owner of the Winter Street Inn in Nantucket--is battling prostate cancer. He offers the inn for the wedding of his first wife, Margaret--a TV journalist and mother to three of the children--who has decided to remarry. Before the family convenes for the summer nuptials, Margaret and daughter Ava take a trip together, which complicates Ava's continued romantic woes. Patrick--the oldest child, having served prison time for insider trading--resumes life with his stressed, over-achieving wife, a closeted prescription drug addict. Kevin--the dithering middle child--opens a beachfront food venue that changes the dynamic with his long-term girlfriend. Throughout the seasons, Bart--a soldier stationed in Afghanistan, the son of Kelley and his second wife--remains missing in action. 

As each of the Quinn children comes to terms with personal dilemmas, Kelley reflects on his life. And when a nor'easter threatens to disrupt big celebratory plans for Christmas, the tightknit Quinns demonstrate what they mean to each other. Hilderbrand's trilogy reaches a well-resolved conclusion infused with a perfect mix of love, tears and joy.

**A quote from my review (above) was selected as a featured headline in an ad for this novel in The New York Times Book Review**

Winter Storms: Winter Street Book Three by Elin Hilderbrand

Little, Brown and Company, $26.00, Hardcover, 9780316261173, 256 pp

Publication Date: October 4, 2016

To order this book on INDIEBOUND, link HERE

NOTE: This review is a reprint and is being posted with the permission of Shelf Awareness. To read this review on Shelf Awareness: Reader's Edition (October 11, 2016), link HERE