Summer of Love Week 6: The Christmas Village by Annie Rains

Each week Stephanie, Lenore and I will be featuring a Summer of Love review on our blogs.  If you missed Stephanie’s post from Monday, check it out at Once Upon a Chapter.  If you missed Lenore’s post from Tuesday, check it out at Celebrity Readers.

Happy Thursday y’all! It is week 6 of our Summer of Love challenge and the next to last day of our Christmas in July feature. The Christmas Village is a coming soon, holiday romance from Annie Rains. I really loved this book. If you enjoy sweet, second chance romance and small town shenanigans, I highly recommend it. Check out the rest of our week six spots:

• On Monday, Stephanie reviewed Redemption Bay by RaeAnne Thayne.
• On Tuesday, Lenore featured small town/quirky romances and reviewed Bayou Beauty by Lexi Blake.
• Tomorrow, we will be on Celebrity Readers discussing episodes 5 and 6 of Love & Decay by Rachel Higginson.

Week 7 begins Monday on Once Upon a Chapter.

I received this book via Netgalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of this review.

The Christmas Village by Annie Rains
Series: Somerset Lake #2
Published by Forever on 2021-10-12
Length: 352 pages
Reviewing eARC from Netgalley
Rating:
Reading Challenges: #NGEW2021, 2021 New Release Challenge, 2021 Summer of Love, COYER 2021

USA Today bestselling author Annie Rains delivers a tender trade paperback romance that will appeal to readers with its warmth and bestselling themes!

Lucy Hannigan has inherited her mother's bulldog, Bella, and her childhood home, the only pink house on Gingerbread Lane. With the holidays coming up, the pressure is on to decorate the house for the annual lights competition and maintain her parent's winning streak. But Lucy already has her hands full as a midwife and a new landlord-to her ex-fiance.

When Miles Bruno is suddenly asked to move out of his rental home, he's grateful to Lucy for taking him on as a tenant. But their broken-off engagement doesn't make it easy to live next door. Sparks still fly between them, and he'd give anything to get back in Lucy's good graces. But to do that will take much more than just tree trimming and house decorating and contest winning. Will one wildly grand romantic gesture on Christmas Eve finally soften her heart?

Sometimes first love deserves a second chance at forever. In Annie Rains‘s new holiday romance, Lucy and Miles receive just that. The Christmas Village is a sweet, heart-achingly beautiful tale of two people falling in love for a second time. 

It’s been one year since Lucy Hannigan’s mother passed away, and with the holiday season looming and her mother’s debts almost paid off, Lucy is feeling both lighter and sadder than she’s been. The absence of her mother at the holiday season when it happened to be something she loved haunts Lucy. She wants to skip the entire season and stay locked away in her home. However, with the news that she is 12 months behind on her HOA payments, something she didn’t know about when she inherited her childhood home, Lucy is also looking for a way to earn a little extra cash and keep her home. 

Rains does a wonderful job of portraying grief through Lucy. I ached for her. There are days where she thinks she has moved past her grief and can be happy, and then a reminder of her mother sends her spiraling again. I loved Lucy. She has a job she loves, friends who love her back, but she is lonely in the big house her mother left her. All of her family is gone, and the man she thought was her forever isn’t around either. It’s just her and Bella, her mother’s dog who I also love. 

Miles Bruno is a deputy at the Somerset Sheriff’s department, and the man responsible for breaking Lucy’s heart all those years ago. It’s clear from his first few pages that he is still in love with Lucy which begs the question of why he broke off their engagement to begin with. This man is by no means perfect, but I think that adds to his charm. He quickly won me over. When his landlord forces him out of his home, Miles is left with two options: move in with his mom or rent the garage apartment from Lucy. 

I loved reading their relationship unfold. Their chemistry and banter drive the story, and I couldn’t wait to read more of their interactions. Miles wants to help Lucy keep her home so he offers to help her win the “Merriest Lawn” contest. The decorating and being in close proximity spark new and old feelings alike, and the two will be forced to confront their past if they are to have a future. 

Overall I really enjoyed The Christmas Village. This is the second book in Annie Rains‘s series Somerset Lake. Each book is a standalone and can be read in any order. I haven’t read book one yet, but I love the little town she’s set in coastal North Carolina so I will be reading it soon 😉 If you enjoy sweet holiday romance, I highly recommend it!

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