Yeah!! Bring on the holiday books! It’s one of my favorite times of year and I love, love, love holiday stories. Susan Schild has written a new one and it’s a keeper – a feel-good story about a woman starting a “new life”.

Here’s the overview:

Christmas at the Lakeside Resort

Love and Adventures after 40

Forty-two year old Jenny Beckett is dreading the holidays. Her fiancé has just called off their Christmas wedding, and she’s been evicted from her darling chicken coop cottage. When her estranged father dies and leaves her eight rustic guest cabins on Heron Lake, Jenny seizes the chance to make a new life. She packs up her dogs, her miniature horse and her beat up Airstream trailer and moves to the lake.

Short on time and money, Jenny and her contractor, widower Luke, work feverishly to renovate the cabins in time for the festive holiday event she’s promised her very first guests. When an unexpected blizzard snows them in and jeopardizes the resort’s opening, Jenny and Luke work to save the event and, along the way, find true love… and the magic of Christmas.

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I just adored this character. She loves her dogs and has a miniature horse as a pet. She is intelligent and self-sufficient. She loves curling up with her book and a cup of tea while wearing her nightgown. And she finds love in this story.

I think because I met my husband after we were 35, I have a strong affinity for these types of romances, where the main character is capable and productive, but then finds someone who loves and appreciates her. I think it would appeal to those who enjoy a “clean” read or who enjoy Christian romances (though it’s not one). (To be honest, I’d rather my protagonist curl up with a library book then be out on the town having sex indiscriminately).

This looks like part one in a series, which should be fun to read, as Jenny runs her resort and has interactions with all the different people there. Of course there will be more of Luke as well! To be honest, these books remind me a bit of the Mitford series, which I absolutely love.

Thank you so much for my review mobi, Ms. Schild! I look forward to reading more of this series. And thank you for writing about adult woman who live simply, love their pets, find a partner at 40, and remind me of me!