Book: Celebration at Christmas Cove
Genre: Romance (Christmas)
Rating: 5/5 Stars
Release Date: October 26, 2021
First off, thank you to Netgalley and Berkley for sending me a copy of Celebration at Christmas Cove! As someone who is Christmas obsessed and is constantly watching Hallmark Christmas movies this book checked off all of my boxes!
Real quickly, before I get into my rating, here is a look at the book summary a little bit on the author Carrie Jansen!
Summary:
CELEBRATION AT CHRISTMAS COVE (Berkley Trade Paperback Original; October 26, 2021) tells the heartwarming story of a grieving woman who can’t wait to leave a wintry New England island, and a widower who would do anything to stay.
Travel magazine writer Celeste Bell is in a terrible mood. Not only was her flight to the Caribbean diverted to a Massachusetts island, now it looks like she’ll have to spend Christmas there. Single and still mourning the loss her mother a year earlier, Celeste is desperate to avoid any emotional entanglements and all holiday festivities. She just doesn’t feel like celebrating.
But that’s exactly what community center executive director Nathan White and his young daughter, Abigail, want to do. Nathan is entirely focused on making sure that his daughter has a happy Christmas, especially with the knowledge that if he can’t raise money for the community center soon, it will close and they’ll have to leave the island. When he meets Celeste, Nathan begins to feel a connection and wonders if he’s brave enough to risk his heart once more.
Thawing their frozen hearts and saving the community center will require a Christmas miracle. But tis the season…
Carrie Jansen:
Earned an MFA in creative writing and published many poems and short stories before becoming a novelist. An avid bodyboarder and beach walker, she spends as much of the year as she can on Cape Cod, where she draws inspiration for her contemporary romances. She also writes Amish romance novels under her pseudonym, Carrie Lighte. Learn more online atcarriejansen.com.
Review:
Like I said above, I am what you might call a Christmas enthusiast. I start planning and watching Christmas movies before we even reach the end of October. When I got the email via Berkley that I was being gifted an e-ARC of a Christmas book through Netgalley I literally squealed out loud! The summary of the book immediately pulled me in and the rest is history. I loved this book and I know if you love Christmas and romance you will love it too!
The thing that sold this story for me almost instantly was the island of Sea Spray! Anything set in New England or the East Coast during the Holiday season automatically gives me White Christmas vibes and I am all about that. Sea Spray and “Christmas” Cove are exactly what you would hope for in a small island Christmas setting. The thing I always love most about these small town settings is the sense of community among the people who live there. Whenever you read a book that has a tight knit community you can’t help but feel safe and warm. You can feel the love that these people have for each other and to be able to write that kind of feeling is a true gift!
Now, where would a Christmas book be without a dash of romance? This book has the absolute sweetest romance and as I read it I could practically picture their love story playing out in a Christmas movie. Celeste, the typical career driven heroine, falls for Nathan, the small town guy, and I couldn’t have loved it more! I loved that it was almost like an enemies to friends to lovers kind of story. Though the currents of romance ran throughout the book, I appreciated that it was a slow burn and the author really made her characters work for that romance. The grand gesture moment at the end put it over the top for me and I couldn’t help but let my heart soar for them!
Finally, I absolutely loved Jansen’s supporting characters. She does an amazing job of showing Nathan and Celeste’s points of view as she switches between their voices, but it’s the book’s supporting characters that really make it so special. While Nathan’s family is lovely in and of itself, Arthur is a real gem and jumps off the page as the adorable elderly man you can’t help but love. What is so wonderful about Arthur is not just how adorable he is, but his character arc. His growth and dimension as the book progresses literally made me cry and I found myself reading for more Arthur passages by the end.
So – whether you are looking to gift a Christmas book to that Christmas fanatic in your life or you’re looking for a sweet Christmas romance for yourself this season, this book is it! If you’re a Hallmark Christmas enthusiast or not, your heart will soar by the end and I can’t recommend it enough!
Happy reading!
Joyfully Jacquie 