Reviewer: Tracy A Christmas Affair (Ransom Canyon #6.5) by Jodi Thomas
Series: Ransom Canyon #6.5
Also in this series: Sunrise Crossing, Mistletoe Miracles (Ransom Canyon #7), Christmas in Winter Valley
Publication Date: October 1st 2017
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Pages: 90
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Maria Anne Davis was on her way to an exciting career as a chef in Dallas, until a terrible car accident left her blind. Ever resilient, Maria has reinvented her life on her own terms, starting a business out of her home kitchen, selling her jams and jellies to the local grocery.
Maria loves romance novels, and despite her bold spirit, she fears she’ll never have a big love affair like ones her heroines experience. That is, until she realizes how much she cares about the quiet Wes Whitman, the owner of the grocery.
Wes can’t keep Maria’s wildly popular jam on his shelves – just like he can’t keep the fierce, beautiful Maria out of his thoughts. But how could a firecracker like Maria come to love a shy, nervous man like him? Maybe all they need is a grand affair. Wes needs to convince Maria that some affairs last forever, though – just in time for Christmas.
Wes and Maria don’t talk or really interact when she brings her stock in. He pays her the money owed her and then she leaves. Wes would like nothing more than to talk to her – and more – but he’s just too shy. Maria ends up making the first move on Wes, which shocks and thrills him. Maria proposes an affair – something she wants as her Christmas present. Wes is happy to oblige but it seems like every time they turn around there are unintentional road blocks being thrown up. The more Wes thinks about the affair with Maria the more he realizes that he doesn’t want just an affair – he wants it all.
In this novella not only do we get the sweet but whirlwind romance of Wes and Maria but we also get a bit of a story about a 15-year-old boy, Travis Fuller. His parents are neglectful and social services has now put him into the care of his three great uncles in Crossroads, Texas. Travis doesn’t plan on being with his uncles any longer than he planned on being with his parents. As soon as he hits age 16 he plans on running away and plots constantly as to how he can do that.
By staying with his uncles Travis gets to see that people may be screwed up in different ways but they can still love each other. When Wes Whitman hires Travis as a stock boy in his grocery, Travis starts to see that life can be different from what he planned. Not only is Travis then making money instead having to steal things, but he starts to have a sense of worth. He starts to see life in a different way and I loved that. Thomas has such a way of wrapping my heart around her characters that I couldn’t help but start pulling for Travis from the first sentence of the book. I was so happy that by the end that he found a small sense of peace. He was a good kid and I liked his character a lot.
Maria and Wes were definitely not your typical couple but they were good together. I do wish they had talked more throughout the story but as it was a novella it still worked. Sometimes two people just know they’re meant to be together and that’s all there is to it. 🙂
Overall a lovely novella and one I recommend, even if you haven’t read all of the Ransom Canyon books.
Rating: 4 out of 5
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