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My Review:Title: The Christmas Secret
Author: Jeannie Watt
Series: Marvells of Montana #2, Secrets of Cherry Lake #7
Published by: Tule Publishing
Release Date: November 5, 2015
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 112
Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Holiday
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2019 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER With Friends
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks
My rating:
Blurb:Trapped in a cabin in a raging blizzard with the one man on earth who could turn her world upside down…this Christmas holiday was not playing out at all the way Lil Reynolds had planned. Not even close.
When Lil’s former fiancé chose to marry on Christmas Eve—the day he and Lil had planned to marry one year ago—she knew she had to get out of town for the holidays. Heading to the isolated family cabin seemed like the perfect solution, until the blizzard came…and a man showed up at her door in the heart of the storm. Casey Lanigan. Her ex-fiancé’s brother. A man with whom she shared a secret summer romance many years ago. A man who’d betrayed her trust. A man who, despite everything, still made her heart beat a little harder…
So much for a Lanigan-free holiday.
2.5 stars — This one was very mediocre for me. I didn’t connect with the characters, they fell flat for me. And honestly the story felt shallow and surface-like, if that makes any sense.
I had a hard time empathizing with Lil’s motivations from when she was younger and broke it off…and I had a hard time with how she hung on to some of those things. I sort of got how her father’s behavior affected her, but it just…wasn’t enough? Or something. I don’t know. I was annoyed with the bitchy way she interacted with Casey as well.
I enjoyed Casey a bit more…I felt his hurt, I understood his reactions. I still didn’t connect with him that strongly, but definitely moreso than Lil.
As for the romance? The antagonism lasted a bit long, so it made it hard to dive into their chemistry. In the end I just wasn’t that invested in them.
I prefer characters with a bit more fire and pizzazz…I prefer romance with more emotion… And on top of those things, parts of the story were repetitive. Like Casey would think something about his dealings with his father…and then in the next chapter he would say the same thing as though he hadn’t already thought it. It happened more than once.
So yeah. Bummer. Ah well, I think that’s the risk with these Christmas stories sometimes…
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