2.5 stars ( )

This is a sweet story of innocent love. The book is beautifully written and loaded with lovable characters. I had to chuckle over the antics of the Butterflies. (You will have to read it yourself to find out who they are.) It is a Hallmark series book so, of course, it is a happily-ever-after story. But, you know, sometimes you just need a magical story like this one.

Now I am looking forward to reading Janice Lynn’s first book, “Wrapped Up in Christmas” so I can visit with these characters again. ( )

#FirstLine - “I’ll pay somebody fifty bucks to take my place, “ Cole Aaron offered his fellow firefighters at the Pine Hill Fire Department.

This book was everything I needed it to be on Christmas Eve. It was sweet, had amazing characters and a setting you wish you could escape into. I loved that there was a lot of heart wrapped into the story, as well at patriotism, humor, small town relationship and romance. It was beautifully written and allowed the reader to be pulled in and watch the story unfold. I felt like I was inside a Hallmark movie and I loved every minute of it. A must read for Christmas lovers like myself! Highly recommend!!! ( )

A Christmas story about a woman whose virtue is joy. She meets a veteran who copes with PTSD and at first, he doesn’t want anything to do with her. But they work together on a toy drive and get to know each other better.

I don’t necessarily mind cliches in books. They’re comforting and cozy, which is definitely something I like in a Christmas story. But I do need a little more.

I had trouble getting into the book. I liked the parts with the main female character and the cat. They were humorous.

What I didn’t love was how PTSD was portrayed. I understand they could not delve into it deeply, because that wouldn’t be very cozy, but it didn’t feel very real. I struggled with how pushy Sophie was. I cringed when she would talk to Cole. All I could think was how, if I were him, my baggage would cause me to turn tail and run. He waffled a bit, but I didn’t find his turnaround, while expected, to be believable.

A word on the narrators -- there were two, a male and a female. I didn’t care for the switching between the two. Since they weren’t reading in the first person, I didn’t find the two different narrators to be necessary.

The woman’s voice was fine. The man doing the narration was fine too, until he spoke a woman’s line. Then he adopted an affectation to his voice that reminded me of a man mimicking a woman to be funny.

Is it strange to say the story was wrapped up *too* neatly in a bow? I feel like I may not be the target reader for this book, and thus don’t appreciate it as much as someone else might.

Pros: A pleasant enough Christmas story. Good female narrator.

Cons: Didn’t care for the male narrator. The story was too on-the-nose and didn’t hold my interest enough.

Star rating: 2.5, rounded up to three

I love Christmas stories and it is my tradition to try to ONLY read them through the holidays. I received this one from NetGalley as one of their first audiobooks to review. It was everything you would expect. A pretty setting, a sweet family, and a town with holiday traditions and of course that extra magic that seems to happen to people who meet during the season. It was a great story. As a side note...and because NetGalley asks for an honest review, in the audio the man's voice is dreamy but the female threw me off each time she spoke. It was fine when she was reading but when she spoke she sounded like a grade-schooler and even seemed to lack intelligence that was not true if you went by who she was the rest of the time. That's why I gave the story 4 stars, but it wasn't really the story it was the female reader. ( )