Title: Christmas in Harmony Harbor
Series: Harmony Harbor
By: Debbie Mason
ISBN: 1538731711 (ISBN13: 9781538731710)
Author’s Website: http://authordebbiemason.com/index.html
Brought to you by OBS reviewer Andra
Summary:
Evangeline Christmas will do anything to save her year-round Christmas store, Holiday House, when high-powered real-estate developer Caine Elliot uses his money and influence to push through his competing property next door. When her last desperate attempt to stop him fails, she gambles everything on a proposition she prays the handsome, blue-eyed player can’t refuse.
Caine agrees to Evie’s bargain because how hard can it be to fulfill three wishes on the Angel Tree at Holiday House? The wishes have him reliving the Christmases of his past and taking part in the holiday festivities of Christmas present. But just when he begins to believe Evie might be his Christmas future, dark secrets from his past are revealed.
Will the last wish on the Angel Tree be enough to give Caine and Evie the happy ending they deserve? (Goodreads)
Review:
Christmas in Harmony Harbor is the 9th book in the Harmony Harbor series by Debbie Mason. This is the 6th book in this series that I have read. This is the last book in the series (big tears slowly slide down my cheek… but we as readers knew this series had to come to an end eventually ☹). And what a conclusion Christmas in Harmony Harbor is to the series.
Christmas in Harmony Harbor is the story surrounding Evangeline Christmas (Evie) and Caine Elliot (real-estate developer). Evie is in a bind, she must come up with a plan to save her year-round Christmas store, Holiday House. Caine comes to town with a plan to obtain and to build a large office tower and this project needs the land that Holiday House is on to accommodate the parking spaces required by a long-forgotten bylaw for this development. And let’s not forget, Ms. Mason is known for her romance SO this a fairly formulaic “hate-to-love” story – and you do NOT hear me complaining as this is where Ms. Mason excels. I was completely taken away while reading this story.
So we have angst between Evie and Caine. We also have further complications as Caine is trying to make his grandmother (Emily Green Elliot) happy… but Emily is not an easy woman to appease and she has a larger than life hate for all things Gallagher. So Caine is doing what he can to pacify her, but that seems to be at odds with what is best for the greater good of Harmony Harbor.
As a last ditch effort – Evangeline makes a bet with Caine that if he fulfills three wishes from her shop’s “Angel Tree,” she would consider allowing him to buy her property and close up shop. So this is where the fun begins. I won’t go into much detail as half the enjoyment of reading the book are through these wishes.
Colleen Gallagher (a ghost) is ever present, as is Simon (a black cat – who essentially does Colleen’s bidding, as best as a cat can as he is the only one that can hear and see Colleen). I love these characters and have throughout the series. Colleen, in fact has a suspicion about the true identity of Simon – “she’d become convinced he was actually the family’s patriarch, William Gallagher”. Time will tell as you read the book.
Throughout the book we see that Caine is reminded of what Christmas means: a time of giving, enjoying life by appreciating the little small things in life, peace and goodwill towards others. We see his evolution from hard and calculating businessman to the man that truly lets his heart shine through. And this is accomplished through the completion of the “three Angel Tree wishes”.
There is of course a number of subplots involving many of the residents of Harmony Harbor, which I also found very entertaining. It was like revisiting old friends. There was even one part that was actually a bit terrifying for Evie (and this reader). In the end, one or more HEA’s may have been had. The series wraps up nicely but in all honesty – it left me wanting more of this family!
