Who doesn't love a Christmas book? And one written by RaeAnne Thayne? You know you have a winner on your hands.

We have a young, widowed mother Abigail Powell, she has suffered a lot and she is now moving to a different city to start fresh with a new job and trying to make this Christmas magical for her son. She is going to be looking after a friend's grandmother who is recuperating after falling ill. You know things are going to get fun when you add in a meddling Senior and look no further than Winnie. I don't think Abigail will know what hits her. Let's talk about the male MC, Ethan Lancaster - he is good at everything well apart from relationships apparently. He has things to work over after he has been jilted by his ex-fiancé and she left with a few choice words that has made him question if he knows how to love.

Ok who does not love the sound of this book:
1. It is a Christmas book,
2. Its set in a small town
3. It's a Romance Book
4. We have a meddling elder
5. Love Conquers all

This book was honestly easy to read, as all of RaeAnne Thayne's books do. I love the way she weaves these small-town romances and let me tell you I am a sucker for them. Definitely a heart-warming book and one to read this Christmas.

Two for one. You thought this was one love story but it is two. Or perhaps more.
Winnie hists them all in Holiday House, with 3 corgis, a cat, and 30 becrooms. And not a hotel. Just a home for many many xmas trees and collections - notably angels, nutcrackers and nativity scenes.
Sweet, cosy, and full of small town characters. Including a small child, a wifow and 2 siblings with complicated feelings about relationships.

I found this to be fairly festive and enjoyable, but not one that stood out to me, which I really think a Christmas book has to seen as I only read them for a few months of the year

I received a copy of the book from Netgalley to review. Thank you for the opportunity.
A sweet and romantic read, perfect to curl up with.
A good read.

This book has everything that you could possible want from a festive romance.
The setting was stunning, and the author does a fantastic job of bringing it to life for the reader allowing them to picture it vividly in their mind.
The characters were dreamy, and really made you feel totally invested in their story as it began to unfold.
I am a huge fan of a happily ever after, and this book really did deliver on that front for me. The romance progressed at the perfect pace throughout the book and really had you rooting for them.
A truly beautiful, heart warming read. I loved this book.

This book was really good, it was sweet, typically light and fluffy and thoroughly enjoyable. Would recommend.

Romance set around the Christmas season. Cynical hero falls for sweet,believing heroine and her son. Light hearted enjoyable read.

Following the death of her husband a couple of years ago nurse Abby is looking for a fresh start. With a new job and a move to Texas in the new year Abby agrees to help out friend Lucy over Christmas. Lucy’s grandmother has had a fall and needs some help before Lucy’s bother Ethan puts her into an assisted living residence. Abby agrees to spend Christmas in the small town of Silver Bells Colorado at the family’s grand house. Abby and young son Christopher get a frosty reception from Ethan, but it isn’t long before both seem to be thawing his exterior. Grandmother Winnie is surprisingly well considering her accident and calls on Abby to instead help her get the house ready for a number of charity Christmas tours she is hosting. As Christmas approaches both Ethan and Winnie find themselves more and more taken with Abby and Christopher.
However, they know their time with them will be short lived as they will be gone in the new year.

This book really was a great ball of festive fun. Firstly, it was just so Christmassy. Its set in a small town in Colorado at the Christmas so its oozing cosy town vibes. The snow is falling, and the Lancaster family Abby is working for are opening a new ski resort which she and Christopher get a chance to try. The book starts around Thanksgiving with Abby and the Lancaster’s hosting a big festive meal for their friends and family. We then follow Abby as she preps the house for Christmas and helps with the tours. There is also a gingerbread competition and Ethan takes her Christopher tubing. There is just a whole host of Christmas fun! It all came together to give this book such a warm cosy festive feel.

This book is also filled with a whole host of lovely characters. From sweet Abby, to her adorable son, to the slightly cautious Ethan who soon relaxes, to independent Winnie. Even the more side characters like Lucy and Jose were great…I wonder if they may be in for a story of their own? It was just a lovely cast of characters. The way the family opened their house to friends was just so sweet and added to that cosy small-town vibe.

This book is another one that I believe would make a great Hallmark Movie. It had all the ingredients to be the perfect festive treat and it was indeed. It was so fun, so Christmassy and perfect for the approaching festive season.

This is everything you could want in a Christmas novel! Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to enjoy it.

Synopsis

Abby is a young widow, her husband Kevin having been tragically killed at work two years earlier, who finds herself in the small Colardo town of Silver Bells to care for her best friends Grandma, Winnie. Winne lives in Holiday House the stunning backdrop to this story. Winnie's grandson Ethan is not impressed by Abby's arrival. Can Abby change his mind and enjoy her time in Silver Bells?

Review

I love Christmas books like this. Gorgeous setting, perfectly written characters and a good old fashioned love story. Winnie is my favourite. Funny and just enough of a match maker that it is fun to read. The love story itself is written at just the right pace so that you are not left wishing they would just get on with it! I may have shed a little tear of happiness at the end. A must read book to get you in the Christmas spirit.

A heartwarming romance just in time for the holiday season - in fact, we get two for the price of one!

Young widowed nurse Abby is persuaded by Lucy, her best friend from school to travel to Colorado just before Thanksgiving, to look after Lucy’s granny Winnie who has had a fall. Lucy fears that her brother Ethan will take this opportunity to put Winnie into a home, taking her away from the rambling old Victorian house she has spent 60 years in.

Abby is about to make a fresh start in Austin, TX, but can’t resist her friend’s urging, and it will provide a lovely white Christmas for her 5 year old son Christopher. Winnie turns out to be adorable and the house amazing; Ethan less so. However, as Abby takes on the Thanksgiving and Christmas preparations along with making sure the plans to open the house up for Christmas ours can go ahead, Ethan turns out to have a heart of gold alongside the instant attraction she feels for him in spite of her best intentions...

Meanwhile Lucy, determined never to fall in love because of the terrible example of her parents’ unsuccessful marriage, is doing her best not to acknowledge her feelings for Ethan’s best friend and right-hand man.

As Christmas approaches move to Austin gets closer, will Abby take a chance on
love?

This will be the perfect Christmas holiday read.

This was the most fabulous Christmas book I have read in a long time, I loved it so much that when I finished it I went back to the start and read it all again.

Abby Powell is getting her life back on track after losing her husband, she has her 5 year old son Christopher to consider. So when she finds herself in between jobs before I move to Austin she is more than happy to offer her services to her friend Lucy who is looking for someone to care for her grandmother Winnie after a fall until she can get back from Asia.

When Abby arrives she comes face to face with Lucy's brother Ethan who feels that Winnie should move to a more manageable property whereas Abby sees no reason that Winnie can't spend this festive season in her own beautiful home the Holiday House..

Winnie hasn't been completely straight in all this, she doesn't really need a carer but she does need someone to put up the Christmas decorations and in Holiday House that is a lot of decorations.

As Ethan and Abby grow closer Abby starts to heal her broken heart and tries to give her son the best snowy Christmas ever and Ethan can't help being part of that. How is this all going to work

I am not going to spoil the story but it was a fabulous read from start to finish and if I could give it six stars I would, I thought it was that good.

The characters were engaging and you could visualize everything that was going on. A great mound of Christmas cheer for an unusual year.

I’ve got to admit I’m a sucker for a cute cover and this one pulled me right in, but it had RaeAnne’s name on it too so I knew it was a sure thing, it didn’t let me down. Lots of emotion, romance and festive charm it s all in here, I adored Abby and Ethan, watching them grow closer, but all the characters are loveable in this and you get a second side romance in this, not saying who - you’ll have to read it ! Want a guaranteed smile and happy ending, pick this up, you will leave happier than you went in.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

I really enjoyed this book and if you are looking for a heart warming Christmas read then I would definitely give this one a go. Abby is looking for a fresh start for herself and her son, after losing her husband some years before, and is planning on moving across the country in the new year. In the meantime she is looking for a distraction over Christmas and to build memories with her son of happier times.

With a plea for help from her friend Lucy, Abby agrees to go an nurse Winnie until her friend can return back from her travels. However when she arrives she meets Ethan, Lucy’s enigmatic brother, and it is clear that he doesn’t want her there. After meeting Winnie, Abby gets to work and it becomes clear that whilst Ethan might not think Winnie staying at home is the best option the two women in his life disagree.

Abby soon realises that Winnie doesn’t need medical care but a helping hand around the place as she prepares to open Holiday House for a week of Christmas tours. As the magnitude of the task starts to dawn, Abby and Ethan become closer. Both have their own reasons for being wary about the growing feelings between them but with the magic of Christmas and Holiday House its hard to resist.

This book mainly centres around Abby and Ethan but there is also another love story between Lucy and Jose which doesn’t feature on any of the book blurb which I think is a shame as you are basically getting two for the price of one. There is not as much depth to this story but I was definitely routing for them to work things out as the story went on. I think because this was an unexpected thread in the book, I almost felt a bit more invested in the outcome. The ending for Abby and Ethan was a given as the story is about them and it’s a guaranteed happy ending. With for Lucy and Jose I wasn’t sure if this was a lead into another book that would be coming out or whether I would get to see them come together at the end.

I enjoyed it so much that I went on to read another book by this author Coming Home for Christmas of which there was a preview at the end of Holiday House.

Posted to goodreads

Abigail and her son Christopher are heading to Colorado for the next few weeks to help out her best friend's grandmother. Winnie had a fall and needs some assistance and who better to help than a nurse like Abby. With free time before she moves from Phoenix to Austen, she agrees to help out until Lucy is able to return home for Christmas.

Ethan (Lucy's brother) doesn't feel its safe for Winnie to recuperate at home, however, the women in his family have a habit of getting their own way. A year ago his fiancée ended things just before their wedding, telling him that he was incapable of love. Given his parents' history, he finds that easy to believe, until Abby and Christopher appear at Holiday House to help his grandmother.

Lucy has been travelling the world and running away from commitment (and love) since she finished college. Making the most of flings, however, she find most happiness from her longstanding friendship with Jose (Ethan's friend and employee). A trip to visit her a few months ago in Thailand had him asking for more from their relationship but she doesn't feel capable to give him what he needs.

The magic of Holiday House, Christmas festivities and the snow-filled mountains has all four characters questioning whether they are being held back by fear,

This is the first book I have read by this author and it didn't disappoint. If you are looking for a story that has all the feels of Christmas as well as falling in love then this is for you.

Set in the perfect Christmas setting, it is full of snow, friendship and love.

It takes you on a journey with the characters and you find yourself hoping that they can work it out and get their own happily ever after once Christmas is over!

This is a lovely festive treat of a book. All the Christmas ingredients appear, to make this an enjoyable and heartwarming read.

Thank you to NetGalley and to the publisher for allowing me an advanced peek at this in exchange for an honest review.

Christmas at hoiliday house
By raeanne Thayer
Pub date oct 13 2020
May contain spoilers
This is amazing Christmas book such good feel winter wonderland book
Abbie is a nurse and her husband died and she left with her three old son Christopher. She decides on a fresh start a better life her best friend Lucy ask her if she help out and mind her grandmother who had a nasty fall over the hoilidays tI’ll new year so Abby agreed she was looking forward two going two silver bells. The mansion was like a perfect postcard amazing and massive. She loved Lucy grandmother she got on great and Christopher loved her as well. They had amazing thanks giving they made loads of cookies grilled cheese gingerbread houses Abby was starting two really like the place Lucy grandmother asked if she could decorate the Mansion for her and this is wear she meets Ethan she met Ethan before it’s not the first time they met he shows her round the house the different Christmas rooms my favourite was the trains and the novelty sets rooms and all the Christmas trees they’d had two decorate I would have loved two Scene those trees. Ethan took Christopher skiing and read Christmas stories two him Ethan really like him had if he was his. I loved how the romance blossom from friends two lovers Ethan was abby first live and Abby couldn’t believe she could love again and fall in love with the house and silver bells all the characters were lovely people on this book they were strong characters I loved the grandmother character how organised she was and wanted everything two go smoother and how she loved thanksgiving and Christmas and wanted all her family there and she wanted Abby and Ethan all along two get together the grandmother was a lovely character. This was a perfect romance I enjoyed the skiing plot and the Christmas rooms sounded amazing I would haves loved two sceane. How many Christmas ornaments there were. This was such amazing read I gave it five stars.

Christmas at Holiday House - RaeAnne Thayne

This was a very enjoyable read from another new (to me) author. I am a massive fan of Sarah Morgan books and this was definitely giving me those same vibes. It was set in a perfect Winter Wonderland with snow galore.

Abby wants to have give her son an amazing Christmas in the picturesque Silver Bells (Colorado) but this is not the only outcome as she also discovers an amazing new romance (with Ethan) and friendship (with Winnie - who is just a lovely amazing character). As a huge Christmas fan I particularly enjoyed the decorating of all the Christmas rooms in Holiday House including the Nutcracker room!

Many thanks to NetGalley and publishers for giving me the chance to read this book in return for an honest review!

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for an early review copy.

This lovely book is everything that you want to read in a Christmas story.

In a small town, In a Christmassy-setting with a lot of snow. ☃️

The thing I loved most about this particular book was that it had everything, quirky characters, full Christmas fun and goodies, all the things that lead upto the big day. Not to mention romance, and this book had not one but two.,

It was lovely to see that it was not easy for these characters to open their hearts and learn to love again. How the hearts became vulnerable, finding that thing inside them to take a leap of faith on both love and happiness.

I’d recommend this perfect book for the holidays. A perfect Christmas Read.

A lovely, uplifting story. Abby is a nurse, whose husband Kevin, a doctor, had been shot and killed by a patient just before Christmas two years earlier, leaving her with a three year old son, Christopher. Now she realised that for Christopher’s sake she had to start living again, and she couldn’t do that in Phoenix where her friends all still felt sorry for her. So she had resigned from the hospital and found a new job in a hospital in Austin Texas, and a new apartment near to a good school for Christopher. She was due to start in the new year. Just before Thanksgiving she received a panic phone call from her friend Lucy, who was working at a school in Thailand. Her grandmother had fallen down the stairs and broken her wrist, and desperately needed nursing help until Lucy could get home. Of course Abby agreed to help, and she and Christopher were soon on the long journey from Phoenix Arizona to Silver Bells Colorado.

Of course, nothing is ever as simple as it first seems. Lucy’s brother Ethan had unexpectedly returned home and wanted his grandmother Winnie to move into sheltered accommodation, he thought the big old house was too much for her even before the accident. Abby is soon thinking that maybe she shouldn’t have come! She soon finds out that Winnie needs very little nursing, and she has no intention of listening to her grandson. Winnie is a force to be reckoned with, she has plenty of other things for Abby to do! Lucy and Ethan are the product of a broken home, both their parents have been married many times, neither of them think it is possible for them to have a normal, loving relationship with anyone - that they will be like their parents.. So when Ethan finds himself attracted to Abby he is alarmed!

The story takes place over just a few weeks, from a couple of days before thanksgiving to Christmas Eve. Christopher has an amazing time building memories, he sees snow for the first time, goes tubing, learns to ski, makes a snowman, lots of memories. He makes a lot of friends ... and wants to stay there for ever. Abby wants to do what is best for him, but doesn’t want his heart broken by getting too close to everyone then leaving, and she thinks that they must leave. Lucy is also suffering angst over her relationship with José, because she is so afraid of commitment. Life in Silver Bells is complicated for these lost people. It takes until Christmas Eve for all the wires to be unravelled and these lonely people to make the right decisions!

A lovely Christmas story, well worth reading.