Belle Stanhope had plans. Good plans. Practical plans.
None of them involved Hudson Carver.
The florist with the crooked smile had become a distraction she neither wanted nor could avoid. Which was inconvenient, considering the Pretty River Inn and the upcoming bachelor auction left little room for distractions.
For years, Hudson had been content with the life he'd built beneath Christmas Mountain. His flower shop, his workshop, and the friends who had become family were more than he'd ever expected. Then he met Belle Stanhope.
As Christmas approaches, the carousel's calliope sings off-key, and the old magic he'd left behind stirs once more. The life he'd built and the life he wants are no longer the same.
In Forest Falls, wishes have a way of finding the people who need them most.
Christmas Mountain lives up to it’s name. A place where Christmas truly lives and breathes, where winter delights frolic in snowfall, and people travel from far and wide to make their wishes admit the magical festivities.
Belle Stanhope lives within the mystical place. People travel to stay in the Pretty River Inn, and she spends her working day there. The snow covered paths are familiar, and the smells of cedar and hot chocolate remind her of home. But there is something different this year. And his flower shop is a necessity with the upcoming gala, the Midnight Frolic.
Hudson had found his place in Christmas Mountain, somewhere that had started feeling a little too familiar, a little too much like home. He didn’t belong, and yet, there was something about Belle that caught his attention. He found his gaze being drawn to her, his thoughts pondering, and his heart had begun to question just where home truly was.
This is truly a novel full of festive whimsy, one that absolutely captures your heart and sets you firmly within the Christmas spirit. This is the kind of novel that begs to be read in front of a roaring fire, curled up in a big armchair, with a blanket and a hot chocolate. This novel brings forth the very nature of Christmastime, and lets you enjoy the warm feeling of togetherness that is steeped within the pages.
The budding relationship between Belle and Hudson is set firmly at the forefront of the story. They both find themselves equally drawn to each other, constantly aware of the other’s presence, but there are boundaries that refuse to be crossed. It is clear that the entire town is aware of the building tension between the two, with amusing but pointed comments commonplace, but there is something stopping them from taking that next step. Whether simply hesitation, or something more mystical, there seems to be a force pulling them together, and yet holding them at arms length from one another. Belle and Hudson have a wonderful relationship outside of the potentials, and their care for each other is both incredibly clear, and heartwarming. It is very easy to see why so many people around them are so obviously rooting for them to take that next step.
The mystical nature of this novel only adds to the whimsical feeling of Christmas, but also adds a level of unease to the story. The off-key notes of the carousel, a horse missing from it’s display that seems to hold an unspoken truth to it, and a general feeling of something not quite being right brings forth an aspect of the unknown into a town wherein everything else seems so utterly right. Few know the reasoning, but for those that do, the feeling is ominous and unsettling. This is a novel of feeling, one that truly makes the reader feel the emotion behind the story, and as you settle into a novel of cosy Christmastime, the idea that something may be wrong settles like a cold chill into your bones.
This is quite an easy read, it is incredibly humorous at times, and certainly falls well within the category of ‘books to read to get in the mood for Christmas’. This is absolutely the perfect novel to read in the lead up to the colder months, and one that will absolutely win a place in your heart. I couldn’t help but highlight a few lines within the story, for the sheer amusement they brought me. They are as follows:
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were thinking it aggressively.”
“I desperately require coffee and possibly emotional pastries.”
If those lines don’t convince you to read this book, I don’t know what will. If you are after a delight of a festive novel, with an underlying sense of unease, mystical qualities, and a hint of true love at Christmas, this is absolutely the book you need to be reading.
I began my writing career in the pre-dawn of a winter morning while my husband snored like a train. We could call my husband the catalyst. If it weren’t for him, I would never have gone to the kitchen to make a pot of coffee, feed the cat, and sit on the loveseat in front of the fire. It was there, in those moments of wondrous quiet, that I did something I had never thought possible. I opened my laptop, and while the coffee went cold, I wrote a story. My husband had no idea that these sojourns to the loveseat in front of the fire would become a daily occurrence, that writing would become an obsession, but the cat knew. She knows everything.
I write stories that make you laugh, make you cry, and make you love. Thank you, friends, for reading!
In the beginning, there was an empty page.
I am a writer who lives in Muskoka, Canada, with a husband who snores, a hungry cat, and an almost perfect canine––he’s an adorable little shit.
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