A Winter Wedding by Brenda Novak

Since we moved from snowy Sweden to warmish California, I’ve had a thing about winter. Every year, when November rolls around, I start thinking about sledding and ice skating and evenings by a cozy fire, watching the snow fall outside. And because this is my fantasy, I ignore all memories of shoveling the sidewalk, scraping the ice off the car and losing the feeling in my fingertips.

So what does a California girl do to get that winter feeling? Read winter/holiday romances, of course!

A reader suggested Brenda Novak’s Christmas-themed stories, so when I saw A Winter Wedding on sale for $.99, it seemed like the perfect book to start my winter reading kick.

Novak’s fictional Whiskey Creek is exactly what a small town romance setting should be. It has a cozy downtown with quaint small businesses and time-tested traditions, such as the town’s Victorian Days Christmas celebration. It’s populated with quirky, often nosy characters who know everyone else’s business. This book is the first book I’ve read in her series, but Novak did a good job of introducing me to already-established characters without bogging down the story with past plotlines.

Why does this book work? What I liked best was the steady pace Novak used to unfold the romance itself. Kyle and Lourdes are together on most of the pages (except for their predictable split towards the very end), and we watch them have fun and grow to like and understand each other. Even when the budding couple is not together, we follow action that directly affects their relationship.

Like any small town romance, A Winter Wedding didn’t have surprising plot twists or melodrama in the romance. The story gave me exactly what I was looking for when I picked up my e-reader yesterday evening: a cozy winter escape, with a little heat and a slow-growing, satisfying relationship. If this is what you’re looking for, Brenda Novak does it well!