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Heartbreaker Bay, Book 4

Colbie Albright is a bestselling author of a dystopian young adult series of books that are being turned into movies, but she writes under a pseudonym. When her publisher asks for a fourth book in the trilogy* to coincide with the movie premier, Colbie finds herself with a severe case of writers block. She decides to hop on a plane to somewhere warm and try and find her muse again.

(*No, that doesn’t add up but isn’t all that unusual! In real life, see Adriana Trigiani’s Big Stone Gap trilogy, I think there are at least 4 books, maybe 5?)

Colbie ends up in San Francisco, asks the cab driver to surprise her and she ends up visiting this famous fountain. Unfortunately, she ends up in the fountain when a large dog takes off and knocks her over. The dog’s walker, Spencer Baldwin, feels terrible and that is your meet-cute. He convinces her to come with him and provides her with laundry service, a place to stay, himself as a San Francisco tour guide and eventually, her lover.

Colbie isn’t exactly forthcoming about who she is and Spence assumes she is a struggling writer working on her first novel. Spence isn’t forthcoming about who he is either; he’s a tech millionaire workaholic with a history of bad romances. But there is such a strong attraction between them that they keep getting together, finding they have more and more in common. But Colbie has to get home by Christmas, and the fact she’s leaving let’s Spence feel comfortable with the short-term relationship. Until they both realize they want more…

If you are looking for a Christmas romance, this really isn’t it. The holiday aspects seem somewhat of an afterthought, but it is a fast, fun read. I thoroughly enjoy this series.

10/17  Stacy Alesi AKA the BookBitch™

CHASING CHRISTMAS EVE by Jill Shalvis. Avon (September 26, 2017). ISBN 978-0062697219. 272p.

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Macy Frost believes she is a direct descendant of Cupid, so it’s only natural that she started a matchmaking business with her two best friends.  But things don’t always go as planned as Macy learns after meeting Deacon Banks.

Deacon has moved to Charleston for a month to help his aunt, a retired TV big shot, settle in to her new town. Being from New York has some advantages here, for one thing Macy is enchanted with his accent, and he with hers. But his aunt wants him to meet someone and settle down, so he persuades Macy to set him up on some dates with the proviso that he is only in town for a fling and nothing more. That way he’ll make his aunt happy seeing him date, and he’ll be honest with the women he’s meeting.

Except Macy falls for Deacon, and he for her. Deacon persuades all the women she sets him up with to help him pursue Macy, and Macy finds herself more and more entrenched in a relationship with a client, a definite business no-no.

This is a fun read with a slightly steamy scene or two and I enjoyed it. I don’t know if I never noticed before but it seems to me that there are more and more holiday books every year, and that means I’ll have lots to pick from to get me through the holidays! This was a charming holiday story, and I really enjoyed it.

10/17 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

CHRISTMAS AT TWO LOVE LANE by Kieran Kramer. St. Martin’s Paperbacks (October 3, 2017). ISBN 978-1250111043.  352p.

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Yay! Debbie’s back with another terrific Christmas book. After her last super Christiany (is that a word? Spell check doesn’t think so) Any Dream Will Do, a standalone novel, I was a little nervous thinking that maybe that was the direction she was going to be going in all her books. But it wasn’t. The Macomber I love is back and she remains my favorite author of Christmas stories.

This book was a direct ripoff of “You’ve Got Mail,” one of my favorite movies ever (which in itself was a remake of “The Shop Around the Corner”) and believe me, I am not complaining about that. In fact, Macomber even mentions it, poking a bit of fun at herself and I loved that moment.

Merry Knight is a hard-working temp filling in for someone on leave for a year. Her time at the company is up on Dec. 23, and she’s been socking away the money so she can go back to college and finish up. She lives at home with her parents and her brother, who has some challenges and she has enormous patience with all of them.

Her boss, Jaysen, is a bit of a jerk. He is the type who reads the rule book and lives by the rules. No eating at your desk. No holiday decorations. And so on. She has a nameplate on her desk that says “Mary” and the HR department is not inclined to correct it as she is only a temp, so Jaysen thinks that is her name.

For an early birthday gift, Merry’s parents and her brother buy her a subscription to an online dating service. It’s really not something that she wants, but her brother and mother are so excited about it that she doesn’t have the heart to tell them. They set up an account for her, using her dog’s picture instead of her own.

Jaysen’s best friend is getting married. He met his fiancée on an online dating site, so Jaysen decides to check it out. He is drawn to the dog account and uses a picture of his old dog as well. “Jay” signs on and he and Merry start chatting online and they both are infatuated rather quickly. But when they arrange to meet, Merry sees who “Jay” really is and takes off, leaving him frustrated and both of them upset.

Meanwhile, Jaysen realizes he’s been acting like a jerk at work and starts trying harder to be more pleasant. He soon finds himself attracted to “Mary” and well, you can see where this is going. Let’s just say they find their happily ever after, but not before there are more roadblocks to overcome.

I suspect this will become another Hallmark Chrismas movie. Just a hunch though, we cut the cord and don’t have cable or the Hallmark channel anymore…which I would gladly pay for if Hallmark would get with the times and offer their channels to us cord cutters! But I digress.

Another fun Christmas story from the Queen of Christmas. Loved it!

10/17 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

MERRY AND BRIGHT by Debbie Macomber. Ballantine Books (October 3, 2017). ISBN 978-0399181221.  272p.

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