Along Came Holly

Holly Winters grew up on a Christmas tree farm, the youngest of three children named Nick, Merry and Holly. She now runs the most determinedly festive shop on Main Street in Mistletoe, Idaho, a town that treats the holiday as a civic duty.

Next door, Declan Gallagher keeps the hardware store and has no use for tinsel. He is the last person anyone in town would recruit for a holiday display. Holly asks him anyway, and working side by side turns up a chemistry neither of them had planned on.

This is a contemporary small-town romance built on a grumpy and sunshine pairing, with Holly as the cheerful one and Declan as the scowler. The heat level is steamy, and the happy ending is guaranteed. Mistletoe is full of familiar faces who return from earlier books, so the town feels lived in.

Along Came Holly is the third and final book in the Mistletoe Romance series by Codi Hall. It reads on its own, though the earlier books about Nick and Merry set up the Winters family. Expect a warm, light, seasonal read with banter and a slow thaw between two neighbors.