The Desert Flowers - Mistletoe and Holly

The three Desert Flowers – Willow, Ivy and Rose – work with Willow’s mother Juanita to open a charitable food kitchen before Christmas as a way of honoring the memory of their late employer and mentor Alec Thurston. They hire Ivy Barrett as the kitchen lead, and she brings her young son Benjy with her to live in the apartment above the kitchen. Ivy & Benjy have experienced some rough times, but Ivy is determined to improve their circumstances without filling Benjy’s head with fantasies of Christmas and Santa Claus. Juanita and the Flowers plan to give them a Christmas they’ll never forget, including an invitation to a beautiful Christmas wedding.

This is the fourth in the Desert Sage Inn series and it’s as warm and delightful a read as the previous books. (The book is a quick read since it’s about one third the length of the previous books.) I find it’s best to read the preceding books to get the most out of this story. While the author provides some back story on the characters from the previous books, their stories are so complex and beautiful that reading them in order makes each book more enjoyable. Every time I get a new book in the series, I always re-read the earlier books, both for background and for pure pleasure. The books all include romance but as a secondary plot. The focus in this book is on setting up a food kitchen and on Ivy and Benjy’s lives. The non-Flowers characters (Ivy, Benjy, Maribelle, Jake, Isaac, Rosita) cry out to complete their stories, so I’m hoping there will be more books in the series.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wild Quail Publishing for the Advanced Reader Copy. The opinion is my own.

Juanita and friends open open the food kitchen in memory of Alex and hire a young woman, Ivy, to head up the kitchen Along with her son, Benjy, Ivy finds a different life with love at the kitchen, which in turn changes their lives and the lives of others around them.

This is the first book I have read in this series and it is the perfect the way to set and start holiday. It awaken your holiday spirit and makes you ready to take on whatever you can do to help someone else see the joy in the season.