Never underestimate the power of gourmet chocolate…

Pastry chef Kayla Hunter spent her childhood in The Candy Manor, a charming Victorian mansion that housed her grandparents’ chocolate business. After moving to the city to make her culinary mark, Kayla returns home to help with Hollybrook’s Christmas Eve Spectacular. But everything has changed. Her grandparents are retiring and selling their business and home, and this year they’ve left her in charge of holiday preparations with Hollybrook’s distractingly-handsome new lawyer.

Attorney Dominick Rowe left the hustle of the city and never looked back. Growing up with workaholic parents, he longed for the slow pace of a small town like Hollybrook. He’s happy to step up when his favorite clients ask him to work their beloved Christmas event. He’s less comfortable with Operation Mistletoe—their covert attempt to remind their granddaughter of how much she loves The Candy Manor and persuade her to move home. But when he meets Kayla and falls hard, his loyalties become divided.

Will their opposing hearts melt with holiday magic, or have Kayla’s grandparents stirred up too much trouble?

Title:  Home Sweet Christmas
Series:
Author:  Charlee James
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Published:  November 5, 2020
Publisher:  Tule Publishing
My Rating:  4 stars

If you’re in the mood for a fun Christmas Romance that is high on the emotional scale and low on the true drama side (for the most part), then you’ll love Home Sweet Christmas.

Kayla is a pastry chef for a large hotel.  While on one hand, she loves what she does, she isn’t so sure that she loves where she’s doing it anymore.  But that decision can be set aside as it’s time to return home to her grandparents’ Victorian home/shop where they create the most delicious chocolates full of Christmas cheer and then some for the annual festivities.  It’s time to go back home to Candy Manor.  And if Santa isn’t mistaken her future is right back home as well.

On the other hand, Dominick has been where Kayla is now.  The law has little to do with pastry or chocolates for that matter, yet they may have different professions but he also knew that feeling of the career no longer being what he’d first chased after.  Dominick is quite happy now, practicing law in a small town where people actually know you by name and not a distracted nod.  He’d made the choice for change and did not regret it one bit – Kayla still has to get to that point… but that decision is coming up fast.

Kayla’s grandparents are ready to retire, and they might just have something in mind to help her slow down and return home for good.  Dominick agreed to help his friends out but he didn’t expect to be charmed by their granddaughter to the point of wanting her to stay for his sake and their future as well.

Home Sweet Christmas is exactly the type of romance to curl up in front of a fireplace on a snowy afternoon – or anywhere, really.  I had such fun with Kayla’s and Dominick’s story.  There are just enough background job-related tensions to be the perfect balance for Kayla to see the differences between what is now and what could be in the future.  She hesitates but for the right reasons, to be certain she’s being fair to everyone involved, and to be sure that the love she’s willing to risk so much on is also just as important to Dominick.

There were bumps along the road to their happy ending – one of them being that Dominick was involved as her grandparents’ lawyer and couldn’t share certain things with her.  It was resolved, but I could certainly understand Kayla’s reaction.  I liked them as a couple, adored Kayla’s grandparents, and fell in love with this small town.  I hope we get to return again, soon.

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from Tule Publishing. That does not change what I think of this story.  It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book.*

Available for your favorite e-reader, mine is the Kindle.