Genre: Romantic
Comedy/Novella/Christmas
Description:
“A year ago, Annabelle fell in love at first sight with a mysterious
stranger. After a week of unforgettable passion, he walked out of her life. A
year of heartache, accompanied by the dirty tricks life can serve up, finds
Annabelle back in her hometown, determined to forget the man who still haunts
her dreams.
Who should walk into her grandmother’s Christmas party? Why the man
who seduced her, lied to her, and betrayed her! He has a new name and a new
identity, but his effect on her is as old as time.
Rick Lassiter wants to woo Annabelle back to him. Unfortunately, he
has two big problems: he can't explain the past and the sweet-tempered,
passionate woman he fell in love with has a will as strong as his and a desire
to make him pay for breaking her heart.”
Author:
“Joan Reeves is a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author of
Contemporary Romance. She began her career with New York traditional
publishers. When the Amazon Kindle came along, she happily embraced a new
career path as an independent author/publisher.
Joan lives her happily ever after with her hero, her husband, in the
Lone Star State. They have four kids who think they are adults and a ghost
dog--all the ingredients for a life full of love and warmed by laughter. She
lives the philosophy that is the premise of all of her romance novels: ‘It's
never too late to live happily ever after.’"
For more visit Ms. Reeves' website or Facebook page.
Appraisal:
Last year at a friend’s Christmas party in Houston, Annabelle Cooper
thought she had met the love of her life, but then he disappeared without a
word. Tired of grieving the lost relationship, she’s decides to move on and
never let a man hurt her like that again. Now back home in her grandmother’s
house, she has the job she has always wanted since she was a child: managing
editor of her grandparent’s newspaper in the Texas panhandle.
During the New Estacado
Gazette’s annual Christmas open house, in walks in the man who broke her
heart. The mayor introduces him as the town’s new police chief: Rick Lassiter.
Not the same name he was using in Houston last year. Annabelle tries to keep
her composure and pretends to trip, tossing her champagne in his face, and
grinding her four-inch heel into his foot. His gasp of pain is gratifying until
he wraps his arms around her, crushing her breasts to his rock-hard chest as he
crashes against a wall behind him. Big mistake on Annabelle’s part, because all
those feelings from last Christmas come flooding back.
Annabelle quickly devises a plan to get Rick to leave his position and
get out of town. It all horribly backfires on her and she falls for him again.
The passion between Annabelle and Rick is hot and genuine. All she wants now
are answers and he won’t or can’t give them to her. I loved the way the plot
moved along. As the town’s residents embrace Rick, Annabelle becomes willing to
accept the mystery surrounding Rick as well. The alternating points-of-view
helps develop both main characters well. However, Ms. Reeves maintains most of
Rick’s mysterious air until the end, which keeps the intrigue level high. When
Rick’s past catches up with him, tension rises and all bets are off. Last
Christmas is a captivating story I enjoyed all the way through.
I just have one nitpick about a character name, Eddie became Eddy once
during the story. Honestly, I see no excuse for that to ever happen. However,
Eddie is a minor character brought in to fill out Rick’s backstory and despite
this error I am only willing to take away half a star, because I loved the
story. Since neither BigAl nor Amazon accepts half stars, I guess we all know
that leaves me at a five-star rating.
FYI:
Added for
Reprise Review: This review is from LOVE, CHRISTMAS 1 – Box set of Holiday stories that will put a
song in your heart! Original review
ran November 21, 2016. **Originally written for "BigAl’s Books and
Pals" book blog. May have received a free review copy.**
Format/Typo
Issues:
Just one significant issue, which I mentioned in the body of my
review. My other issue was small, a sentence with extra words.
Rating:
***** Five Stars
Reviewed
by: ?wazithinkin
Approximate
word count: 20-25,000 words
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