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review 2022-01-30 04:47
CHRISTMAS EVE AT FRIDAY HARBOR by Lisa Kleypas
Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor - Lisa Kleypas

Mark gets custody of his niece, Holly, upon the death of her mother. Holly has quit talking. When they go into Maggie's toy store, Maggie shows Holly a fairy house, and tells Holly she does not know the fairy's name but when she does she'll paint in above the house's door, and a conch shell which she tells Holly she can hear the ocean. Mark is attracted to Maggie but he has a girlfriend, so he is not free to date Maggie. Their attraction is great and grows after sharing a ferry ride to the mainland. What will they do? What will happen with Holly?

 

I enjoyed this story. I liked how Maggie connected to both Mark and Holly. I liked how Holly knew Maggie was safe and she could be herself. I loved that Mark had principles and would not date Maggie while he had a girlfriend. I did not like the girlfriend, Shelby. She came across as shallow as did Mark in regards to their relationship. I am glad I got my HEA. I will have to track down the other books in this series.

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review 2018-11-26 16:44
Insert Pithy Title
Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor - Lisa Kleypas

This book was awful. My say something nice is that I liked the cover. That's all I really got here. I am realizing that my Achilles heel for romance reads are any books that deal with widows or widowers finding love again. Not to say that they should not in real life. I just hate how the authors set things up as a competition between old and new love. Why is it always treated as some terrible thing if someone found love before you met them? I would be happy that the other person experienced before even if it resulted in someone dying. I just found the hero (Mark) to be a hypocrite of the first order throughout this book. It didn't help that he was romancing the heroine (Maggie) even though he was dating someone else. Another Achilles heel for my romance reads. You can't have one person dating someone else when the heroine or hero comes into play. 

 

Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor is the first book in the Friday Harbor series. I am guessing the other books follow the Nolan brothers. Isn't it grand I have no intention of reading past this book so I have no way of knowing :-) Yeah for me. Mark Nolan is left in a tizzy when his sister dies in a car accident. She leaves behind 6 year old Holly and asks Mark to raise her since their parents were dumpster fire people, her one brother is immature (Sam), and the other one is a hard nosed businessman (Alex) with a wife who sounds like a pain in the ass. Mark manages to strong arm his brother Sam into helping to raise Hope. He also moves them both into Sam's home that is located on a vineyard. 

Fast forward several months later and Mark reads a letter that Holly wrote to Santa asking for him to send her a mother. So now Mark is all I must marry and provide Holly with a mother. Instead of doing what any other person would have done which is hold Holly, tell her you love her, and tell her stories about her mother. 

 

Mark sucked. He is dating someone at the start of this book who he is dismissive of almost the entire book. When he first meets Maggie at her store, he acts skeptical when she talks about fairies and magic to Holly. Yet he is still drawn to her and starts thinking about having sex with her. Maggie has been widowed two years, and loves that she was able to set up a children's toy store. Though she doesn't feel ready to move on from her husband, everyone else acts like two years is more than adequate for her to get out there and date again. Though she really should be avoiding Mark (who is dating someone by the way) she starts catching feelings for him too. 

The scenes between these two were lackluster. There was zero chemistry and reading about how attracted Mark was to Maggie drove me up the wall. It didn't help that Mark decides at one point that Sam should go and check out Maggie in case he wants to date her. Cause Maggie has no say in this at all. Gah. And then we get Mark saying that Maggie just needs to get over her husband being dead, cause it's been two years. When we do get to their love scene I laughed out loud by Maggie telling him to love her. Sorry, I am a Grinch today I guess. 

 

I also had a hard time with the fact that Holly is often mentioned, but never interacts unless it's for a plot point. For example, Holly gets sick, Sam lets Mark know while Mark is away visiting his girlfriend and instead of Mark spending time with her and her friends, insists on going home because Holly needs him. Of course girlfriend is made to look like a totally terrible person even though she points out that Sam is there and can handle things. 

 

The book goes round and round and I just didn't enjoy it. Things end in a HEA that just felt below average to me. I like to do a pretend game after I finished a terrible book about what happened to the characters. I am going to pretend that Maggie and Mark got married, had two more kids, raised Holly, and eventually Mark dies when Holly is 18. Then everyone encourages Maggie to start dating within two years. 

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text 2018-11-25 00:05
Reading progress update: I've read 100%.
Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor - Lisa Kleypas

Disliked so much. The hero sucked and the heroine liking the hero cause of reasons didn’t work for me. She’s a widow and he’s all well it’s been two years she needs to get back to dating. I usually love books with kids, but the niece Holly was a plot point that got ignored most of the time.

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review 2017-07-06 02:10
Dream Lake
Dream Lake (Friday Harbor) - Lisa Kleypas
Alex, the youngest Nolan sibling, is an alcoholic, divorced, and has Baggage. Zoe, raised by her grandmother, has Baggage related to her father (he's an asshole- shocker there, right?). Alex works in construction and is helping his brother restore his house. Zoe works for her cousin at her bed and breakfast as the chef. Alex is the only one who can see Tom. Zoe works magic with food.
I think this was my favorite thus far in this series. I liked the secondary story-line with the ghost, Emma. Alex and Zoe were a wonderful fit. 
I liked Justine and am looking forward to her story. 

RippedBodiceBingo: hint of magic square
 
 

 

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review 2015-12-26 00:03
Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor
Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor - Lisa Kleypas

I am ambivalent about this book. It's well written, I liked the characters. I didn't like that Mark was in a relationship with Shelby for over half the book. Mark does string Shelby along. Conveniently, Shelby does say something that I thought was inappropriate. What happened afterword felt too convenient. Granted, Mark doesn't actively pursue Maggie until Shelby is out of the picture.
I thought Maggie was hot and then cold, etc. Maggie and Mark's relationship happened fast. This would have been better if a bit longer. The story suffered because of the length.
I did like Sam and would like him to have a story. Hell, even Alex too.

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