Title: Love and Christmas Cookies
Author: A.M. Heath
Series: Christmas in Garland, book 5
Major Themes: Romantic Comedy, Christmas, Classic Retellings
Synopsis: When Kate Leverett discovers that the business she’s been working for and hoping to buy has been all but sold to someone else, she has to figure out how to buy it herself—even if it means working with the competition temporarily to do so.
I’ve been reading A.M. Heath’s books for years now, and while I don’t tend to read straight-up romances from most authors, I’ve found that I do enjoy her version of romance. So when she contacted me recently, asking if I’d be interested in doing a little typo-spotting in Love and Christmas Cookies, I agreed wholeheartedly. I knew I’d enjoy it, and when I saw that it’s also a Pride and Prejudice retelling, I was even more excited—that might not be my favorite Jane Austen book, but it is the one I’m the most familiar with, so I couldn’t wait to see what this book was like!
Publisher’s description:
There’s only one rule in business: Do NOT fall in love with the competition!
After years of loyalty, Kate Leverett is outraged when the owner of the Cookie Tin plans to sell it out from underneath her. She now has two months to prove she deserves the shop and is not letting anyone stand in her way. Least of all her meddling stepmother or the handsome man waiting to take her place.
Wade Matthews leaves behind his aunt’s cupcake empire to build his own cookie chain. His plan hits a snag when he unintentionally dissolves a longstanding agreement. To right the wrong, he’s managing the store while the local sweetheart competes to steal it away from him.
Kate can’t get Wade to agree on anything, from marketing strategies to cookie designs. Time is running out and there may be more than ownership on the line.
Love and Christmas Cookies is a Pride and Prejudice retelling full of faith, family, romance, and TONS of Christmas cookies.
My thoughts:
As I expected, I loved the story. Heath takes a fun concept—a classic retelling—and plops it into an almost entirely new setting but with the same sorts of characters as the original. I had such a blast as I read, trying to sort out which character fit which person, and then predicting what was going to happen next (but there was always a twist, of course, with this being a contemporary novel!). At one point, I got quite worried that the Mr. Wickham character wouldn’t have the right motivations to make it work for this story, but thankfully, the author did eventually make his motivations clear, and it made perfect sense! It was also a lot of fun to despise the more dislikable characters—and know that it was justified, since I knew how it would turn out for them.
I also loved the cookie bakery setting. It made me want to make my own cookies, even though I know they’ll be nowhere near as creative as the ones described in the book!
If you enjoy romantic comedy and classic retellings, I’d highly recommend you check out Love and Christmas Cookies. Yes, it might be a lot more fluff than some stories, but it does have a fairly strong faith-based element (some of Wade’s observations about surrendering to God’s will were challenging to me). Overall, it’s a cozy, fast, fun read, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
I was given a complimentary copy of this book, and this is my honest opinion of it.
WARNING: Gee is used in ch. 2, 10, and 20; darndest is used in ch. 3; and “I swear” is used in ch. 9, 18, 25, and 29. There is lying in ch. 17 and 20, as well as an overarching lie through most of the book. Unmarried characters hug or otherwise touch in ch. 2, 5, 8, 12, 14 (a case where two people are alone together all afternoon), 15, 18 (together by themselves at his place; nothing happened, but not the brightest idea), 20, and 21; and kiss in ch. 9 (several times), 16, 19, 22, 24, 31 and the epilogue (the last is a married kiss). Several times, there are mentions that a woman dates multiple men, never settling down with one. In ch. 29, a character thinks about how she unwittingly dated a married man for a while—this is vaguely alluded to a couple of other times. Several times, characters attend a dance or dance together.
Age levels:
Reading Independently—Ages 15 and Above, Adults
Links to buy this book:
Amazon: Paperback | Kindle
AbeBooks: View Choices on AbeBooks.com
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