Review: A Fool’s Gold Christmas by Susan Mallery

Title: A Fool’s Gold Christmas  

Author: Susan Mallery 

Series: Fool’s Gold, #9.5 

Published: October 2013, Harlequin HQN  

Format: ARC e-copy, 336 pages  

Source: Netgalley  

A classic heartwarming tale for the holidays from New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery

The
cheer in Fool’s Gold, California, is bringing out the humbug in dancer
Evie Stryker. An injury has forced her to return home to her estranged
family. So she won’t add to the awkward scenario by falling for the
charms of her brother’s best friend, no matter how tempting he is. When
she’s recruited to stage the winter festival, she vows to do as
promised, then move on, anywhere but here.

Jaded lawyer Dante
Jefferson is getting used to the town he now calls home, but the
pounding of little dancers’ feet above his office is more than he can
take. When he confronts their gorgeous teacher, he’s unprepared for
their searing attraction. Evie is his best friend’s sister—off-limits
unless he’s willing to risk his heart. Dante has always believed that
love is dangerous, but that was before he had to reckon with the magic
of a certain small town, where miracles do seem to happen….

My thoughts: I love reading holiday-themed books – it just helps put me in the holiday spirit and this holiday-themed Fool’s Gold installment came at the perfect time. As I’ve been trying to catch up on this series this year – a goal I sadly realize is not going to come to fruition – at least I get to end up having read all about the Stryker family, who may just be my favorite Fool’s Gold family.

This book is Evie and Dante’s story – two people who would rather be anywhere else than in Fool’s Gold, the small, family-centric town, that not only loves it’s festivals but goes all out for the holidays. Deciding to stick together to get through the holidays, the two start spending lots of time together, but with each having separate plans of leaving Fool’s Gold within the year, they agreed a long-term relationship was off-limits. Little did they know their hearts had other plans!

I enjoyed this story. There’s a little bit of everything – a love story, a story of forgiveness (Evie and her family), the town once again rallies to help when Evie runs into issues putting the holiday show together – all the things I love about this series. Familiar characters make appearances and as usual there are some new faces as well. I’ve really loved getting to know the Stryker family and can’t wait to see what Susan Mallery has in store with the rest of this series.

I love reading holiday stories and love when authors add a holiday-themed book to their series. This one just seemed to fit perfectly on all levels – Evie’s story almost needed the holiday magic to make it that much more endearing. How do you feel about holiday-themed stories within series?

Books in this series:

      1.  Chasing Perfect                     8.  Summer Nights

      2.  Almost Perfect                      9.  All Summer Long

      2.5  Sister of the Bride             9.5  A Fool’s Gold Christmas

      3.  Finding Perfect                     9.75   Halfway There

      4.  Only Mine                               10.  Just One Kiss

      5.  Only Yours                             11.  Two of a Kind

      6.  Only His                                  12. Three Little Words                     

      6.1  Only Us                                 12.5  Christmas on 4th Street

      6.2  Almost Summer

      7.  Summer Days