A Season Of You

Cloud Bay, Book #2

Emma Douglas

ISBN13: 9781250111005

http://www.emmadouglasbooks.com

Brought to you by OBS Reviewer jerjen

Synopsis:  

It’s Christmastime in the quaint island town of Cloud Bay, where love is always in season… Will Fraser has believed in love at first sight since the day he first laid eyes on Mina Harper five years ago. There was only one problem: She was happily married. Then, when Mina’s husband was killed by a drunk driver, Will figured she’d want nothing to do with a guy who owns a whiskey distillery. So he’s kept his feelings locked away, knowing that not even a Christmas miracle would be enough to melt Mina’s heart. . . Mina believes her days of true love are behind her. Since losing her husband she’s kept to herself, content to do her own painting and stay out of the limelight that comes with her famous family. But when, after a freak accident, Will comes to her rescue, Mina can’t quite get him out of her mind. As curiosity turns into a fling during Cloud Bay’s first Christmas Festival, she finds it harder to convince herself that her feelings for Will are just mistletoe-inspired. Could Mina be ready to lay the past to rest and finally admit that what she really wants for Christmas–and forever–is Will?  (Goodreads)

Review:  

Mina Harper has not had an easy life and she has lost two people that meant a lot to her: her father, an alcoholic rock star and her husband , who was killed by a drunk driver.  She has had a hard time getting over their deaths and getting her life back on track.  Painting has helped her quite a bit, she finds she can lose herself into whatever she is painting and for at least a little while, she can forget.  She also finds solace in working with the local Search and Rescue team, with her dog, Stewie.  Her life is full but she cannot completely get over the losses that she suffered.

Will Fraser liked Mina for a long time.  But he could not do anything about it because she was happily married.  And then when her husband died, he had to give her time to grieve.  And an even bigger problem keeping them apart is the fact that he is an owner of a bar.  With the two people she loved having died from alcohol related  causes, he figures a bar owner is the last person she is going to want to spend time with.  But when an accident brings them together, he cannot help but hope he can break through her defenses and get her to see the man instead of the bar owner.  But it will be a tough uphill battle.

The characters are well rounded and well developed. Mina is a person who has been hurt very deeply by the losses in her life.  She does not know how to move forward from those losses.  Will is a patient man and he knows that Mina is worth waiting for.  But his patience will be stretched to the limit.   I enjoyed reading about how Will kept chipping away at Mina’s defenses, although at times i wanted to tell him to just forget it.  There were a lot of interesting secondary characters and I enjoyed how they helped the book along.  And of course I loved Stewie.  

The writing style flows smoothly and the book is an easy read.  At times I felt like it could have been paced a little faster, but that is only my opinion and others may not feel that way.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a well written women’s contemporary.  Although it involves Christmas activities, it is not a light-hearted Christmas book.  But that was okay with me.