MUST LOVE MISTLETOE

Author: Christie Ridgway ISBN: 0061140201 12/2006 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: AVON

Little Miss Scrooge is about to run smack into the Ghost of Christmas Past—and he's tall, dark, and unbelievably handsome! Bailey Sullivan can't stand Christmas, even though her family's business is a store specializing in the perfect holiday. But now her hometown's chief supplier of rooftop Rudolphs and treetop angels is in danger of going under—it's up to Bailey to save the shop. She has it all planned: She'll arrive on December 1 and be gone by Christmas. Plus there's always spiked eggnog to ease the pain. But "Humbug" Bailey's not the only one home for the holidays. Finn Jacobson—legendary local bad boy-turned-Secret Service agent and Bailey's long-lost high-school sweetheart—is once again the boy next door. Only this time he's all grown up, and the sparks are flying faster and hotter than ever! Bailey believes in true love about as much as she believes in Santa Claus. But as the holiday draws closer, she's starting to think about one thing she'd like to find under her tree ...

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

MUST LOVE MISTLETOE and I got off on the wrong foot. I'm used to reading hundreds of pages of candy cane-sweet Christmas anthologies and short stories and category romances at this time of year, and this really isn't a story in the same vein. It's set during December, and it's set around a business called The Perfect Christmas, but it's not a Christmas story per se, at least not the kind I've always loved to read.

This is a full-on reunion romance, with issues and subplots and steamy sex. Which is all great, and it's a good read, just not one of those frothy Christmas stories. What we have is Bailey Sullivan, named for a Christmas character, who is 28 and still in full-escape from her growing up. Except her mother's second marriage has failed, and she's shut down to the extent that Bailey has to come rescue the family business or see it destroyed. And next door is living her teenage true-love, who has suffered a terrible on-the-job injury and is drinking way too much and nursing his terminally-ill grandmother. Bailey dumped him without explanation and left at 18. Now she has to deal with the consequences, along with other baggage in her life. It's all a little heavy for me at this time of year, not that it's a dark book.

You'll enjoy it if you know what you are getting into!

Heather Hiestand