Review: Sleigh Bells in the Snow by Sarah Morgan

Title: Sleigh Bells in the Snow   

Author: Sarah Morgan 

Series: O’Neil Brothers, #1 

Published: October 2013, Harlequin HQN  

Format: E-book; 384 pages 

Source: Netgalley  

USA Today bestselling author Sarah Morgan heats up the season with the O’Neil brothers in a brand-new holiday series!

Once
upon a time, Christmas was Kayla Green’s favorite time of year. Now all
the workaholic wants for Christmas is for it to be over—as fast as
possible! So when duty calls her to snowy Vermont to close a deal with a
new client, Kayla is grateful for an excuse to avoid the holidays for
another year.

Jackson O’Neil left a thriving business behind to
return home and salvage his family’s resort—it’s in his blood, and he
can’t let it fail. Now that he’s got marketing whiz Kayla Green working
with him to put Snow Crystal on the map, success is on the horizon. The
fact they strike enough sparks off each other to power all the Christmas
lights in Vermont is just an added bonus.

Kayla might be an
expert at her job, but she’s out of her depth with Jackson—he makes her
crave the happy-ever-after she once dreamed of, and it’s terrifying. As
the snowflakes continue to swirl, will the woman who doesn’t believe in
the magic of Christmas finally fall under its spell?

My thoughts: I just love finding new authors and new series – to me that’s a home run and that’s what this was for me!!! As someone who loves reading series, I love finding a series that I can connect with right off the bat – one that pulls me in with fun characters and a good story-line. That was this one and I am so glad I was able to get approval of this from Netgalley!

I loved the romance between Jackson and Kayla, but also loved how the story didn’t just focus on them, but on Jackson’s family as well. This book really set up the foundation for the series, so we were given introductions to all the characters, but I didn’t feel this detracted from the main story at all. It really is all about Jackson and Kayla and how Kayla is going to help Jackson save his family’s resort. 

The setting of this book and the time the story takes place – right around Christmas – just adds to the overall enjoyment of the book. I would so love to go to a place like Snow Crystal Resort and believe me, I’m not a huge outdoorsy, cold-weather person, but the way Sarah Morgan describes this place just makes you want to head up there to enjoy it all. Sitting by a warm fire while watching the snow fall; seeing frozen water falls; taking a walk and seeing everything frozen and quiet – it sounds like a winter wonderland!!!

As I mentioned before, we did get to meet the other characters and they were involved in some of the other story lines. Jackson’s brother Tyler is learning how to be a full-time dad and that is not without it’s own set of problems. Jackson’s mother is still learning how to go on living a full-life after losing her husband.

I’m quite excited to read the rest of this series and hope that we continue to see all the characters we’ve met. There were some hints towards the end of the book as to who the focus might be on and I’m curious to see if I’m right. Do you like knowing what’s coming next in an upcoming book in a series or do you prefer being surprised?

Books in this series:

1. Sleigh Bells in the Snow
2. Suddenly Last Summer – due out Jun 2014
3. Maybe This Christmas – due out Oct 2014