So, you're looking for a suggestion of what to put on your TBR next? Perhaps you're ready for a holiday read being that the season is almost here? Fabulous! Then sit back and relax because today's featured title might be just the ticket for you! It comes to us via author Daryl Wood Gerber. You may recognize the name if you read Cozy Mysteries as that's he usual genre, but this time around she's indulged a bit of Holiday Romance. Ladies and gents, today's ebook of choice is...
by
Daryl Wood Gerber
About the book...
Hope Lyons had to sell her bakery in Portland, so she moved back to Hope Valley with her two children and has been working as a waitress to get herself on track. When her children win KPRL’s Christmas vacation contest and Steve Waldren, the sports anchor, arrives to award the prize, Hope knows it will ultimately cost her money and turns it down. To save his own career, Steve must change her mind. Will they find their way to love? It might take a holiday miracle.
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This was a book that came my way earlier in the year, and I actually started reading it way back then, but other obligations cropped up along the way, so it had to be put on the proverbial backburner to read as I could. The good news...the story is memorable, and the characters have a life of their own, so once I picked it up again, there was no lag time. I didn't have to back track in order to feel like I was in the right mindset, or jiving with the timeline; everything simply fell into place.
Hope was such a resilient young woman, taking life by the horns and doing what needed to be done in order to care for her two children. To say she was dealt a bad hand would be negligent, because she had a hand in creating the life she had, however, the fall from happy home to divorced single parent was certainly not her doing. The fallout from a good marriage turned bad came in may shapes and forms, thanks to the piece of work that up and left with pretty much everything, but you can't keep a good woman, and a great mom, down. Hope put her big girl pants on and carried on, if not for her sake, but the sake of her children. Times were very tough, but she scraped and scrapped, and did what needed doing in order to provide the basics...shelter, food, clothes, and love. The last one came in such a great abundance that when it came to a moment of good luck, she couldn't fully trust it, or the person's intent delivering the prize. I don't blame her, she was thinking of more than the moment, and in truth prizes often come with other expenses than the ones it actually covers, but having to tell her kids no every time something twisted and turned it away from the bright and shiny holiday it seemed to be, was too much. So, she carried the burden herself, suffered through the heartache...and in the end, found not only her place in this town she called home, but a kindred spirit waiting to be recognized, accepted, and loved as well.
I loved the town, the main characters, and the townspeople. Hope and her kids were a team through and through. Watching her struggle through the tough times was heartache inducing, but knowing there had to be something more out there for her left you filled with hope. Steve and his brother were quite the pair, and their relationship really warmed your heart. It didn't matter his challenges with communicating with the world, together they made it work because they really listened to one another with their minds AND their hearts. I appreciated his diligence as well, even when things really turned south, because it showed the goodness behind his character. While the idea of the BIG PRIZE was great, and the fallbacks realistic, I will say that, for me, there may have been one too many turn aways, but in the end, things still reached that moment of warmth filled with that glow of happiness we all look for.
All in all, it was a story that reminds us there are good people in the world and happily-ever-afters do exist, if only we're willing to put the effort in to reach it. Take a trip to Hope Valley and discover some of the magic the season offers, while perhaps gathering a view ideas of how you can put more good out into the world this holiday and thereafter!
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About the author...
Daryl Wood Gerber is the Agatha Award-winning, nationally bestselling author of of The Fairy Garden Mysteries, featuring a fairy garden shop owner in charming Carmel, California, The French Bistro Mysteries, featuring a former chef who is now an up-and-coming bistro owner in Napa Valley, and The Cookbook Nook Mysteries, featuring an admitted foodie and owner of a cookbook store in picturesque coastal California. Under the pen name Avery Aames, Daryl writes the Agatha Award-winning, nationally bestselling The Cheese Shop Mysteries set in fictional Providence, Ohio. Daryl also writes suspense novels, including the Aspen Adams books and standalones, which have garnered terrific reviews.
Prior to her career as a novelist, Daryl wrote screenplays and created the format for the popular TV sitcom Out of this World. A fun tidbit for mystery buffs, Daryl was also an actress and co-starred on Murder, She Wrote, as well as other TV shows. Daryl is originally from the Bay Area and graduated from Stanford University. She loves to cook, read, golf, swim, and garden. She also likes adventure and has been known to jump out of a perfectly good airplane.
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Special thanks to author Daryl Wood Gerber for the chance to share this title with you and for the ecopy for review! (THANKS!) For more information on this title, or the author, feel free to click through the links provided above. This title celebrates its BOOK BIRTHDAY TOMORROW November 14th, 2023, so mark your calendar or pre order your copy today!
Until next time, remember...if it looks good, READ IT!
Gina, you gleaned every ounce of what I put into this story. Thank you for a wonderful review. I'm so glad you enjoyed it. And thanks for posting the review for your readers. ~ Daryl
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