When she was young, Steffie Wyler always knew exactly what she wanted to do with her life: 1. Make ice cream. 2. Marry the coolest boy in town. 3. Live happily ever after. These days, Steffie is the proud owner of One Scoop or Two, a wildly popular ice cream parlor. But the cool guy left town right after high school, before they could scratch the surface of their mutual attraction to see what, if anything, lay beneath. Steffie’s made a great life for herself in St. Dennis, but true love has never come knocking.

Wade MacGregor left for college in Texas and remained there to start a successful business with his best friend, Robin Kennedy, but he’s always felt something was missing. Then life throws him a curveball: A third partner has robbed the company blind, and Robin has died—but not before entrusting Wade with a precious secret. Now back in St. Dennis, Wade’s determined to do whatever it takes to protect his friend’s legacy—and to figure out, once and for all, if the sparks that fly whenever he’s with Steffie are just temporary fireworks or the lights in the window leading him home.

I loved this first book in a brand new series of the Hudson Sisters. The premise is pretty good. A man. Fritz, has a wife on the west coast who is a Hollywood star. However, she's somewhat the type to only think of herself. If something comes up she's the first one to think "what will this do for me?". He also has two daughters, Des and Allie, with this woman (Nora).

A few years after marrying this woman, he meets and marries another woman (Suza) who lives on the east coast. He has one daughter with her, Cara. Neither woman or the daughters know about the other family. He does have a sister, Barney, who knows about both families and his lawyer and good friend, Pete, who knows about both. This goes on for years with Fritz traveling back and forth with neither family catching on. Until Fritz gets cancer. Pete is begging him to tell them - both wives are dead, only the daughters live on. Fritz is too cowardly to do it. He makes Pete to do it.

Not only that, but Fritz has a surprise. He wants his daughters to get to know each other. Fritz grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania where his family established a small town and pretty much owned and built everything. One of those things included an old time art deco movie house that has been boarded up for many years. He wants his daughters to restore it. They will not get any inheritance until they do. They must live in the small town of Hidden Falls, get to know each other and restore the theater.

This is all easier said than done.

Naturally one of the sisters is a witch with a b and the movie house has set empty for about 90 years. That's just the start of their problems.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first book of this series and look forward to reading many more. I found the characters wonderfully developed and really wanted to spend more time with them and hopefully I will get to. The author did a great job setting up the premise and the town, as well as the characters and I am ready to become one with the Hudsons!

Thanks Gallery,Threshold, Pocket Books for approving my request and to Net Galley for providing me with a free e-galley in exchange for an honest review.

Dallas MacGregor is living the Hollywood dream. At thirtysomething, she’s an award-winning actress beloved by the public and bound for even bigger success. But when her soon-to-be-ex-husband, producer Emilio Baird, is caught in a sex scandal, Dallas’s charmed life turns tabloid nightmare. Determined to shield her young son, Cody, from the ugly uproar, Dallas seeks refuge in sleepy St. Dennis, Maryland—the Chesapeake Bay town where her happiest childhood days were spent.

Reunited with her boisterous great-aunt, Dallas wants nothing more than to leave her Hollywood days behind. And when she crosses paths with local veterinarian Grant Wyler, her high school summer love, she finds he’s everything she remembers, and more—and that the spark is still there. But Dallas’s promising new life takes a troubling turn when the unimaginable happens and she finds herself living a mother’s worst nightmare—and Emilio storms into St. Dennis to save the day, along with his damaged career. Trapped in the unwanted glare of the limelight once again, Dallas discovers that it’s coolheaded Grant who is willing to risk everything to protect her and her son, and to secure the future they were always meant to share.

This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life.

This was a nice read. I picked this novella up because I was looking for a story that I could read in one sitting. Novellas are sometimes the perfect choice when life gets crazy and I know I am not going to get a lot of reading time. This is one of the better romance novellas that I have read in a long while. I did find out that the story is actually not a new one since it was actually written in 1997 and appeared in the anthology Upon a Midnight Clear.

This was a rather sweet story. Quinn is coming home to her parents ranch for Christmas. She writes and illustrates children's books so she is able to do her work from anywhere. She is really looking forward to spending the holiday with her family. Caleb is coming back to Billings for Christmas to stay with his sister in her cabin along with his 5 year old twin sons. Caleb and Quinn were teenage sweethearts who had been deeply in love. Caleb pursued a career in major league baseball and was married for a time. Quinn has basically remained single in the years since the pair split up. When Quinn finds herself stranded in a cabin with Caleb and his sons during a storm, it starts out very uncomfortable. The pair quickly adjust and wait out the storm.

There were no real surprises in this one. That's okay....I didn't need to be surprised. The main issue between the pair was basically a misunderstanding but I can see how each character would have made the assumptions that they did. I liked both Caleb and Quinn and I really liked them as a couple. There is just something about a second chance romance that I adore.

If you are looking for a story with a lot of steamy sex, this probably won't be the right one for you. The romance is sweet and heartfelt. The characters are old enough that this romance has a level of maturity that isn't always portrayed in romances. They have both made mistakes in their life and have learned from them. There was just a hint of magical realism thrown in to keep the story quite interesting.

I would recommend this novella to anyone looking for a nice holiday romance. Christmas doesn't take over the whole story but it does create a nice backdrop. I would definitely pick up another book written by Mariah Stewart.

I received an advance reader edition of this book from Gallery, Threshold, Pocket Books - Pocket Star via NetGalley for the purpose of providing an honest review.

Initial Thoughts
This was a nice novella. The romance was sweet, the kids were cute, and I found myself wanting to consume large amounts of Christmas cookies.

As the only child of a wealthy investment manager, Ellie Chapman has never known anything besides a life of perfect privilege. But her years of good fortune come to an abrupt end when her father is exposed for swindling billions of dollars from innocent investors in a massive Ponzi scheme. And just like that, Ellie loses everything: money, job, home—even her fiancé, who’s jailed as her father’s partner in crime. With no job prospects on the horizon, no cash, and her family name in tatters, Ellie has only one place to go.
 
Sleepy St. Dennis, Maryland, is hardly where Ellie intends to stay, however. Keeping her identity a secret, she plans to sell the house her late mother left her in the small town and use the proceeds to move on with her life. Unfortunately, her ticket to a new beginning is in dire need of a laundry list of pricey improvements, many of which she’ll have to do herself. And until the house on Bay View Road is fit to be sold, the sole place Ellie will be traveling is the hardware store. But as the many charms of St. Dennis—not to mention Cameron O’Connor, the handsome local contractor who has secrets of his own—begin to work their magic, what begins as a lesson in do-it-yourself renovations might just end up as Ellie’s very own rejuvenation.