Guest Review: Any Given Christmas by Candis Terry

Judith’s review of Any Given Christmas (Sugar Shack #2) by Candis Terry

Dean Silverthorne’s mother may be dead, but she still has matchmaking to do.

When an injury dashes NFL Quarterback Dean Silverthorne’s Super Bowl dreams, he heads back to Deer Lick, Montana with a chip on his wounded shoulder, more determined than ever to get back in the game. He loves his kooky family, but this trip home is going to be a very brief Christmas visit.

His game plan doesn’t include an instant attraction to Emma Hart, a feisty kindergarten teacher who seems to be the only person in Deer Lick not interested in the hometown hero. Or his dearly departed mom popping up with mistletoe in hand and meddling on the mind. Now Dean can’t help but wonder if there’s more to love than life between the goal posts.

Christmas may have come and gone for 2011, but the very readable and enjoyable stories built around that holiday are still with us and still calling out to anyone who loves a good love story. Now, as the Super Bowl approaches, it is appropriate to review a story about an NFL quarterback who is at the top of his game with the arm candy he attracts and has been at the top of the heap for 12 years–that is, until a career ending tackle occurred in the Thanksgiving game against the Denver Broncos had severely injured his weak shoulder. Now he is back in Deer Lick, Montana, attending his youngest sister’s wedding to the newest candidate for sheriff and the love of her life. He is still the hometown hero, and in Dean’s inner being he is still convinced that he will heal and be as good as new for Spring training and summer football camp.

Now I know the blurb talks about Dean’s dead mother who is a matchmaker, but in truth, Lettie Silverthorpe was much more of a “I’ve come back to finish up some unfinished business” kind of ghost. And she particularly liked to visit whenever one of her kids was driving her 20 year old rust-bucket Buick. The back seat was still filled with all her “stuff” and her kids couldn’t seem to figure how to part with all the bits and pieces she had carted around in her “office on wheels.” Now Dean is visited by a mother who had been dead for about five months and who was terribly troubled about her son, his understanding of himself apart from his identity as a sports superstar which was seriously in jeopardy along with his refusal to look at anything in the future apart from playing football. Dean’s way of insuring that he never has a troubled marriage is to never marry. Supermodels and actresses aren’t hanging around him to get a husband. They want his public to pay attention to them as well.

Fate seems to play a hand in many circumstances and so I would seem for Dean. One of his sister’s bridesmaids catches his eye in a big way–certainly not hard and boney like some of his supermodel gals. She has curves in all the right place and she’s soft like women should be. She wants absolutely nothing to do with him and the factor that seems to turn her off the most is that Dean simply doesn’t remember her. As things go with Emma, that’s just about the cardinal sin–being forgotten.

There is so much in this story that is noteworthy and there is most definitely not sufficient room to discuss all of it here. Suffice it to say that some of the characters that made an impressive appearance in Second Chance at the Sugar Shack are once again a part of the context in this tale and bring the warmth and human connections of this community to bear upon the story. This is also a look at the thoughts and struggles of a superstar athlete when real life begins to make itself felt. One very important positive about Dean: he has a heart for children and he deeply respects women. His parents loved each other to distraction and he knows that such is the kind of relationship he wants if he ever does find a woman who can tempt him to settle down. He wants to use his wealth to help people, and under all the glitz and putting football first in his life, Dean is a stand-up guy in so many ways.

I really enjoyed this book–no, that isn’t exactly true. I loved this book and felt that I had become a silent presence in the town of Deer Lick, Montana, and a part of the lives of its citizens. I am looking forward to the third book in the series which will feature the middle sibling–a hard punching prosecutor in Chicago who may have the upper hand in her professional life, but I bet her mom will be having conversations with her in the back of the old Buick when it comes to the mess of a personal life. This may have a holiday theme, but it is a marvelous read for any time of the year. You owe it to yourself to read it.

I give it a rating of 4.75 out of 5

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.

This book is available from Avon Impulse. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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