With her career as a Los Angeles event planner imploding after a tabloid blowup, Morgan Ross isn’t headed home for the holidays so much as in strategic retreat. Breathtaking mountain vistas, quirky townsfolk, and charming small businesses aside, her hometown of Fern Falls is built of one heartbreak on top of another . . .
Take her one-time best friend turned crush, Rachel Reed. The memory of their perfect, doomed first kiss is still fresh as new-fallen snow. Way fresher than the freezing mud Morgan ends up sprawled in on her very first day back, only to be hauled out via Rachel’s sexy new lumberjane muscles acquired from running her family tree farm.
When Morgan discovers that the Reeds’ struggling tree farm is the only thing standing between Fern Falls and corporate greed destroying the whole town’s livelihood, she decides she can put heartbreak aside to save the farm by planning her best fundraiser yet. She has all the inspiration for a spectacular event: delicious vanilla lattes, acoustic guitars under majestic pines, a cozy barn surrounded by brilliant stars. But she and Rachel will ABSOLUTELY NOT have a heartwarming holiday happy ending. That would be as unprofessional as it is unlikely. Right?
Release Date: Aug 30, 2022
Series: Fern Falls
Book: 1
Heat Level: Hot
Publisher: Penguin Group
Imprint: Berkley
Price: $9.99
Kai’s debut is holiday story with lots of heart, and a good debut.
At first, I was skeptical. This book took me longer than normal, over a week, to read. Mainly because the heroine, Morgan Ross, was a little difficult to relate to. I didn’t quite catch up to her voice. But, like a true give a book a chance I pushed past chapter one and Chapter two onward is really where Morgan snapped me up.
Add in a scandal, that puts Morgan’s chances of a promotion on the line and her only shot at redemption involves returning to the small town of Fern Falls that she left behind. Though it’s not just a town, it’s her friends and the one woman who always made her heart race, Rachel Reed. Boom, got me like a fish well-hooked.
Small town romance, at Christmastime… my catnip. Not only did I get a walking disaster in the form of Morgan, who gets to eat some serious crow when she crashes back in Fern Falls. Legit, woman drives her car right into a pine tree farm sign. Add in a slew of secondary characters, like bakery owner Ben, Rachel’s older brother Adam, and a sexy, charity-driven bartender Tanner. There’s nothing I don’t like about Fern Falls and would love to visit the town straight away.
Rachel is a female lumberjack and boy howdy did I love Kai’s take on this type of character. From flannel, to rough and tough. Gruff, yet kind and sweet. Rachel is fabulous. She’s got lots to unpack and since this book is a single POV, I was often left longing for Rachel’s inner thoughts that I didn’t get unless Morgan was clued into something.
Now there’s more plot here than just a rekindling romance between once-upon-a-time-best-friends. There’s Rachel’s tree farm to save and Morgan’s career trajectory. There are a couple of antagonists and the past plays a decent-sized role in Morgan and Rachel’s quest to be together. All in all, this story had plenty going for it, but where it missed the mark for me was those early chapters, and there were times when I found myself skimming pages instead of being gripped to the point I needed every word etched in my brain.
Overall, this is a decent debut. I hope it will yield more Fern Falls stories because that baker, Ben is at the top of the list of characters I want to read next. For folks who enjoy Jill Shalvis or Maisey Yates.
~ Landra
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