Harlie: You’ve got to love a friends to lovers, childhood sweethearts, second chance romance. This book has it all in spades. 🙂
Hero #1
Luke Dawson
Age 34
6’0 185 lbs
Blond hair, blue eyes
Architect-owns Dawson Contracting
Has been in love with his high school sweetheart-Victoria Mason forever. This holiday season, fate brings her home to Brookhollow and Luke is determined to make to remember how great life in the small town…life with him could be.
Favorite ‘Luke Moment’ in The Trouble With Mistletoe:
Shivering as a blast of cold rustled the thin football jersey, Victoria said, “No, Luke, wait.”
He kept walking.
“I love you.”
He paused, then continued walking.
“Didn’t you hear me?” she asked, running the few feet to catch up to him and grabbing his arm.
“Yes, I heard you.” He removed her hand from his arm.
Her heart sank. “And?” Did she dare hope he still wanted her, too?
“That’s it?”
“Yes.” That was huge.
Luke shrugged. “So? I’ve loved you since the second grade and look where it’s gotten us. I wasn’t the one who left Brookhollow two weeks before our wedding. I’ve always love you enough to put us first. You were the one who chose your career—twice.”
“If that’s true why didn’t you fight for us?” Victoria demanded. “I may have left Brookhollow, but you didn’t try to stop me.” She rubbed her chilled arms for heat.
“Would it have worked?” he challenged her.
She hesitated. “I don’t know.”
“I do,” Luke said, moving toward her. “You see, I’ve finally learned that there’s no point chasing something already gone. Even if you’d stayed, your dream was New York.”
Harlie: I have to admit this is the one book that I haven’t read. *hangs head in shame*
Hero #2
Ethan Bishop
Age 28
6’ 0 180 lbs
Brown hair, Brown eyes
Firefighter
He has been friends with Bailey Sheppard for so long that it is impossible to see her as anything but his cool chick, best friend, but when Bailey decides that she wants more than friendship from Ethan, he starts to see his friend in a whole new light…
Favorite ‘Ethan Moment’ in What A Girl Wants:
Moving toward her, he took the box from her and covered her hands with his. His grip tightened when she tried to pull away. “Bailey, for the first time in my life, I’m feeling something real, something exciting. I haven’t been able to sleep or eat. My stomach turned at the mere notion of you with Adams…or anyone else for that matter.” He paused. “Look at me, please.” His voice was gentle as he lifted her chin. He rested his forehead against hers. “I’m falling for you, Bailey, and my biggest regret is not having realized how perfect, how beautiful, how strong and compassionate you are before now…when it’s too late.”
Pushing him away, Bailey backed up until her back hit the wooden shelf. She shook her head, avoiding his eyes. “No, Ethan, I’m sorry. I don’t know what you think was happening between us….”
“Stop. You’re a terrible liar.” What was she saying? That she didn’t have feelings for him? That was crap and they both knew it.
Touching her cheek, he wiped a tear away, but another fell in its place. “I’m sorry.” The words were so empty, so meaningless. But they were all he had.
Her smile looked forced when her pained eyes met his. “You get her back. It was what you wanted.”
“You think this is what I wanted?” She couldn’t be more wrong.
“Please go now,” she whispered, moving past him.
“Bailey, what do we do now?”
“The same thing we’ve always done.”
“Can you do that?” he choked out.
“Maybe not today…or tomorrow, but eventually. Like you, I have no other choice. Bye, Ethan.”
Harlie here: Logan was so funny. Leigh was his perfect match and I loved watching them fall in love. Plus, reading his novel through Leigh’s eyes…awesome. A must read…
Hero #4-Logan Walters
Age 39
5’9 175 lbs
Best-selling NY Times Mystery Author
He is in Brookhollow to finish his novel, the last thing he expected was to fall in love with the woman next door to his B & B.
Favorite ‘Logan Moment’ in Falling for Leigh:
“Okay, so the first line of dialogue is, ‘Don’t go down there.’”
“Wait,” she (Leigh) interrupted.
“What?”
“Who’s saying this?”
“The detective.”
She frowned and pursed her lips.
“What?”
She hesitated, then shook her head. This was his book. “Nothing,” she said, typing in the dialogue.
Logan held a hand out to stop her. “No, really, what?” He frowned, studying the words on the page.
Leigh sighed. “Okay, it’s just that it doesn’t make sense.”
“What doesn’t make sense?”
“That the detective would say, ‘Don’t go down there.’ It’s kind of like telling a child, ‘Don’t look
in the cupboard for a cookie.’ Of course they’re going to do it now, even if they hadn’t planned to.”
“Exactly,” Logan said with a nod.
“You want the bad guy to go downstairs? But in the next scene, that doesn’t work in the detective’s favor.”
“Not in that scene, but eventually it will.” Logan reached for his notes and flipped ahead. “See,
here.” He pointed to a scribbled paragraph, written diagonally across a length of cash register
receipt.
“Is this from the grocery store?” Leigh picked it up and turned it over.
“Yes.” Logan took it from her and turned it back, scribbled side up. “See here, when the detective sneaks out of the basement through the door leading to the root cellar…”
“Where did the root cellar come from?” Leigh frowned.
“Chapter one—you didn’t read it.”
“Oh. Okay.”
“Can we continue now? Me doing the writing—you typing?” Logan asked with amusement.
Harlie here: In my opinion, the most tortured of the heroes. I really felt for him and also for Melody. My heart was so close to breaking reading their story but in the end… 🙂
Hero #3-Brad Monroe
Age-34
6’2 190 lbs
Blonde hair, one green eye, one blue eye
Country Music Star
Going home for the holidays for the first time since the death of his best friend, Brad is determined to get in and out of Brookhollow as quickly as possible, causing the least amount of emotional damage to Patrick’s widow-Melody Myers, but when he finds himself falling in love with her…things get a little complicated…
Favorite ‘Brad Moment’ in The Mistletoe Melody:
“SO, SHOULD I DRIVE you back to Luke’s for your rental car?” Melody asked as Brad climbed into the passenger side of the minivan. While he’d been in the clinic, she’d dropped the boys back home with the babysitter and changed for her evening shift at the Green Gator.
“Um…no, I shouldn’t drive while I’m on these prescription painkillers,” he said, putting on his seat belt.
“Back to the tree lot, then?” She turned the van out onto the street.
Brad eyed her. “You changed.” He turned and glanced into the backseat. “Where are the boys?”
“I drove them back to my place. I have to work at the Gator tonight. So, home?”
He hesitated. “How busy will it be there tonight?”
“At your house?” How would she know? She suspected the farm might be a little busy…
“At the Gator.”
“Oh, completely dead,” she said. The nasty weather and driving conditions tended to keep families at home this time of year. “Maybe a couple of staff parties…” She glanced at him. “But surely yourhead hurts too much for even the slightest noise.”
“Have you been to my house this time of year?” He laughed. “Ow.” He rubbed the back of his
head.
He had a point. “Okay, the Green Gator it is.”
He sniffed the air and scanned the van. Giving her a puzzled look, he leaned closer and smelled her hair.
“What are you doing, weirdo?” she asked, moving away from him. She hadn’t had time to shower.
The last thing she wanted was him sniffing her.
“I smell gingerbread cookies again,” he said.
“I don’t know…” Then she realized. Her new holiday-scented lotion. “Oh, it’s my body lotion. It’s ginger spice.”
“That delicious smell is coming from your skin?” he asked, intrigued.
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I like series if I have all the books in hand. I LOATHE cliffhangers.
fun characters
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don’t like serials and only read series if standalone
I started out reading series specifically because it was a chance to see characters from previous books interact with each other and kinda keep the story going.