Christmas on Mistletoe Lane by Annie RainsMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
“So.” Mr. Garrison clapped his hands together. “Congratulations, you two. Looks like you'll be business partners.”
Inheriting her grandmother's Bed and Breakfast in Sweetwater Springs, North Carolina is going to give Kaitlyn the opportunity she needs to get a fresh start. She's just been fired from her interior decorator job in New York because of a famous action movie star and she's ready for the change of pace. Unfortunately, she's just learned that she only inherited half.
Mitch has just gotten out of the Marines and waiting to start a security job in Virginia when the lawyer for the recently passed neighbor woman he used to help with odd jobs, tells him he needs to talk to him. After a car accident he feels responsible for, paralyzed a local teen, he's respected the wishes of the family that he not be in town, why he left at eighteen, so when he learns that he's inherited half of the B&B, he wants to sell.
Kaityln's meddling grandmother, though, made the stipulation that they must work together for two months or the inn goes to charity. Mitch has somehow let Katilyn talk him into staying for the two months and suddenly being a grumpy loner is losing its appeal.
He was temporary, and she wasn't looking for a relationship.
Christmas on Mistletoe Lane starts off the Sweetwater Springs series and readers get to know a whole cast of characters. I thought there was going to be some sweet tension between Kaitlyn and Mitch as they worked to repair the B&B but Kaitlyn redecorating and Mitch fixing, for the most part, happens off page and not much time is spent on it. I liked the set-up but Kaitlyn and Mitch's romance was more of the “I find you attractive.” “I find you attractive.” and then sleeping together but all those scenes were fade to black. So, instead of cute forced proximity tension, we get fade to black bedroom scenes and two ships passing in the night as Kaitlyn does some cooking, some genial dealing with people staying at the inn and Mitch worrying about his mother's health, wanting to get out of town before he runs into the guy that got paralyzed in the accident, and helping out at the police department.
And she absolutely was not going to kiss him again tonight.
Even though a lot of the story takes place at the B&B, I felt like the ambiance of this old Victorian home wasn't brought out enough. I mean, it was like 70% in when it was suddenly brought up that the house had a ballroom, how did I not know there was a ballroom! This could tie-in to me expecting a lighter, fun story of Kaitlyn and Mitch repairing the inn, instead of the more Kaitlyn dealing with some fear trauma over her sexual harassment and attempted assault by her former Hollywood actor client and what chased her out of NY and Mitch worried about his mother's health and still dealing with guilt over car accident.
“Where are we going?” she asked---not that she cared.
There was a sudden urgency in his movements as he pulled her towards the exit. “To settle this thing between us once and for all.”
Since Mitch grew-up in the town, it's through him that we get introduced to a couple male characters that will certainly star in future books in the series, Kaitlyn's bestfriend Josie from New York will probably show up later, too. The secondary characters were good, they introduced us to the town without feeling like they were clogging up the story. There was a little holiday flavor with some Christmas tree hunting, festival, and mistletoe but I was disappointed with how Christmas Eve and Day didn't really feature as those days came at the end of the book.
“I have traveled the world looking for a place where I could feel whole again. Never in a million years did I think that would be right back where I started.”
Kaitlyn was focused on more in the first half and Mitch got more focus in the second, separately they were pretty well defined characters, it was together and their romance that I felt was lacking. This is probably another personal gripe but putting an adorable puppy on the cover and then not having the puppy come into the picture until the last fifteen pages was pretty disappointing. Mitch breaking things off in a little bit of a fit of temper and then waiting until the last ten pages to make right and, in my opinion, not delivering the apology he needed to, instead simply going with an “I love you.” only, gave kind of a dull ending that even the epilogue couldn't bring up. This first in the series just didn't have the magical, light, sweet, or emotional tone or vibe I personal like in holiday reads, but, I did think the series baiting characters have potential to draw readers back to Sweetwater Springs for future romances.
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