On Tour with Prism Book Tours
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This Christmas
(The North Star Series #1)
By Laurie Winter
Contemporary Romantic Suspense
Paperback & ebook, 240Pages
October 20, 2020
Summary
'A beautiful story of loss and new love, set in a snow-capped mountain ski resort town.'
Celia Batista waited a long time for all three of her sons to be together for Christmas. But after one of her identical twins disappears without a trace, Celia must rely on Police Captain Luke Veldkamp for help. Despite Luke’s accusations that her other twin son is involved with organized crime, she falls for the handsome, Stetson wearing cop.
Luke Veldkamp is facing his first Christmas after the loss of his wife, working nonstop to avoid the holidays and his grief. His daughter, who’d moved home to care for her mom before her passing, pushes him to face his pain. Luke pushes back, telling her to return to college and regain her own life. If his own strife isn’t enough, the mission to locate the missing son of his beautiful neighbor grows more personal than any other case.
While Luke and Celia fight to keep their families from falling apart, they find comfort and strength in one another. And when love blooms between their children, Luke and Celia’s own relationship takes root and grows. But Celia is used to living on her own terms, and loving a man who has isolated his heart is a risk too great. Now, Luke must either confront his emotions or face a life without the woman he’s come to love.
My Review
THIS CHRISTMAS is a story of letting go of grief and learning to open your heart again. It's about family loyalty. It's also about fighting for new beginnings and love. An overall sweet story for romance lovers.
I really enjoyed the beginning of this story. Celia is all sass and temper mixed with some sweet. Luke is all stalwart and steady, but a man that is still grieving the loss of his wife. They both have had full lives and live, in part, for their kids and their jobs. They are already acquainted because Celia was very good friends with Luke's deceased wife and they live across the street from each other. It was a bit fun seeing them tiptoe around each other, but also the tense moments when they disagreed (they really are quite opposites), and the romantic tension that they can't help but feel. I liked both of them as well as their children, Alex and Kenna.
The story is steadily paced. The romance starts with unexpected attraction, moves to friendship, and then builds, which is my favorite way for it to happen. They're attracted to each other's looks, but also because they're different from each other and also different from their prior spouses. Luke needs a bit of liveliness and spark in his life, even though he doesn't know it. Celia could use a steady man to take care of her for once after being a single mom for years. There's also a secondary budding romance between their kids and the whole suspense plot with someone after one of Celia's sons for them to navigate.
There also were some things I had issues with in the story. The suspense and law enforcement details just didn't' work for me. I've read a lot of suspense and romantic suspense and this was missing that constant undertone of danger and plausible details. The characters also felt a bit unrealistic in how they acted in regards to this part of the story. Then there's the awkwardness of having two children romantically involved with the parents also involved, which was a bit weird to me. I think I would have probably enjoyed this more if it would have been a romcom or just a romance and where the focus was more on the two main characters. I think there was a level of depth missing because the story was trying to do too much or wasn't executed as well as it could have been.
In the end, was it what I wished for? This was a fun romance with quite a bit of promise. Some things didn't work for me, but I enjoyed reading it overall.
Content: Some innuendo and heat, but clean.
Source: I received a complimentary copy through Prism Book Tours, which did not require a positive review. All opinions are my own.
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