I’ve long been a fan of Sarah Estep since I discovered her debut novel three years ago (you can check out the review for Keyed Up here) and her latest, a small-town, girl next door holiday romance is just as charming and delightful as you would expect from her. 

This is the book version of a Hallmark holiday movie…if that movie had multiple sexy times scenes, including a very steamy interlude in a tree house. It has all the hallmarks (sorry, I could not resist) of those cute little movies, complete with a small, charming town where everyone seems to know everyone else, cutesy holiday scenes like a holiday market and drinking hot chocolate and baking Christmas cookies and playing in the snow. 

Flight attendant Ivy fled her Wisconsin hometown a decade ago after humiliating herself by proclaiming her long-standing crush on her next door neighbor, Austin, except it became a situation of mistaken identity where she actually revealed her feelings for Austin to his big brother, Grant, who bluntly informed her that her feelings were doomed to stay unrequited. She went away to college, became a flight attendant, and through perseverance and hard work, has somehow managed to keep herself away from Coeur-de-Lac, Wisconsin for 10 long years. 

Except, now, her parents have begged her to come home and help them pack up because they want to sell the house and retire to be closer to their only daughter. 

So, Ivy finds herself back in her small town and running into her old crush, Austin, now a mildly famous tv actor, and his older brother Grant, who is on the cusp of taking over his father’s construction business. 

It doesn’t take very long for Ivy to realize that her long-unrequited childhood crush on Austin has not stood the test of time, especially given that their first (and only) date is kind of a disastrous dud. But his older brother, Grant, is quite another story. 

Initially, she holds a whole lot of resentment and anger towards Grant for his cold, unfeeling words from a decade ago, but the beauty of this book is that it’s dual POV and so we don’t have to guess at Grant’s feelings towards Ivy or the reasons he said what he said all those years ago that caused Ivy to run out of town. 

Both characters are written as flawed but with a lot of growth, especially Grant. Sarah Estep has a real knack for writing her male characters and also for writing male friendships. You almost get two romances for the price of one because Grant’s best friend Tony, and Ivy’s best friend and fellow flight attendant Brad, also end up falling for each other over the course of this book even as they both also spend time schooling their respective besties on the art of romance and flirting. 

There’s also an underlying plotline between Grant and his father, and their relationship becoming super antagonistic. I was glad to see that Grant finally got to have his say because every single interaction between Grant and his father was really annoying. 

I’m not sure if this book is the start of a series featuring other characters in this charming little midwestern town or just a one-off  but I certainly wouldn’t mind revisiting it in future offerings from this author. 

All in all, this was charming and sweet and sexy and funny, the perfect little contemporary holiday romance. I did read it via audio and I can also say that the dual narration was fantastic. It’s billed as an advent audiobook and every few chapters, therere’s the sound of bells ringing to indicate you should stop listening for the day. Don’t tell Santa but I obviously didn’t listen to the audio cues and blew through the audio book in four days. Oops. 

Grade: A

Content Notes: antagonistic parental relationship, medical issues, hospital scenes