Hope Under Mistletoe

Title: HOPE UNDER MISTLETOE

Author: Jessica R. Patch          

Publisher: Bales Publishing

February 2015

ASIN: B00U0IQRO0

Genre: Contemporary Christmas novella

A rowdy bar owner. A widowed pastor’s wife. And Christmas hope that brings them together.

After widower Eden Snow’s church almost burns to the ground, she’s compelled to find a temporary place to hold services and Christmas cantata practices.

Has-been hockey player, Knox Everhart, has a reputation for being fast on the ice and with women. Except Eden. She’s always been a fascinating mystery to him, which is why he agrees to let her use the back room of his bar—with one rule: No converting his customers.

But when Eden brings the church to the bar, it offers something the bottle can’t. Hope. And he finds himself falling in love with a woman and a Savior he feels unworthy to pursue.

HOPE UNDER MISTLETOE is a contemporary Christmas novella. I love Christmas novellas (almost any genre) and contemporary romance, so when this book was offered for a limited time, free, I jumped. The premise sounded interesting, the story was well-written, but… I didn’t fall in love with the characters. And it was rather predictable. Eden was your basic, run-of-the-mill good girl. Knox (I liked his name) was about as bad as they come. It was a “missionary romance” – as in she’s saved, he’s not. And I’m sorry, but Knox was violent when he kissed her. Shoving her, throwing her, yanking her…. Really? Caveman behavior?

A bit more realism than most traditionally published books. Topics most won’t touch. I did like the strong message of hope. And I liked the ending.

Fans of Ms. Patch will enjoy reading this story. Her bio says that her debut novel is coming out with Love Inspired in 2016, but on Amazon she has two novellas out.

3.5 stars. Available in ebook. 88 pages.

I purchased this book on Amazon and was not required to write a review.