A Cliche Christmas

I know it's too early for Christmas. I hate seeing red and green in the stores before Halloween. But this year, I must make an exception for a truly delightful Christmas novella, just released this month. The timing is actually perfect for those of you who are waiting for the Hallmark Channel to change their programming over to the sappy, tear-jerking, perfect Christmas movie marathon that is November and December.  

You see, the main character in this book is Georgia Cole, and she is the Hollywood Christmas Queen. She writes the awesome sappy movies everyone loves to watch, but she’s never experienced a magical Christmas moment in her life. This year she’s tricked into going home for Christmas and she runs right into the man she never wanted to see again.

Beyond the snowy Christmas setting, the foibles of a budding romance, and the quirky grandmother, I absolutely love the dialogue. Georgia banters with Weston and the sparks fly. I even laughed out loud a few times. Georgia’s voice is hysterically funny and easily relatable. I read the book months ago, and I still love the characters because they were so crisply drawn.

This story really does paint a picture-perfect town. But Nicole Deese populates it with real people dealing with real problems, from the girl who falls into the snow, soaking her jeans, to the little girl battling cancer, to the senior citizens trying to organize a holiday bazaar.

Deese is a true talent. She writes clean romance that satisfies, but leaves you hoping she has another seventy-two books available right now. I hope you’ll give her a try . . . but I’m warning you. She has not written seventy-two books. Yet. She does have at least three more for sale…

Nicole Deese is a lover of fiction. When she isn’t writing, she can be found fantasizing about “reading escapes,” which look a lot like kid-free, laundry-free, and cooking-free vacations.

Her debut novel, an Inspirational Contemporary Romance, All for Anna, has hit multiple milestones since its release in January 2013, including a 4.7 star rating on Amazon and more than 120,000 downloads on Kindle. She has since completed the Letting Go series and is over-the-moon excited about her new release, A Cliché Christmas, published by Waterfall Press, an Amazon Publishing imprint. A Cliché Christmas is available at Walmart stores nationwide and on Amazon.com.
Nicole Deese is represented by Jessica Kirkland of The Blythe Daniel Agency, and lives in Frisco, Texas, with her husband, Tim, and her two rowdy boys, Preston and Lincoln.

Do you watch the sappy Christmas movies? (and I say that fully admitting that I am addicted!) Which one is your favorite?

It Had to Be You

It Had To Be You . . .

Aside from the fact that I love this song (Are you singing along in your head?) I wanted to talk about a recent novel by Susan May Warren. She’s written an emotional, wintry, frolicking good tale by the same name.

For a northern girl living in the south, this book spoke to me in the deep places which long to wrap a wool scarf around my neck, layer leggings under my pants, pull on wool knee socks, and boots and mittens and a yeti hat. I sometimes wish I could step into sub-zero air again, and feel the metal in my earrings freezing so fast my ear lobes ache. Reading this book took me there. And the temps have been in the nineties all week in Carolina country.

Aside from my love for the setting - Minneapolis - where I lived for the first four years of my marriage . . . the characters rang true. I love that the heroine had a real problem that didn’t feel canned, like one of the same basic problems faced by many heroines out there. (Desperate for love, heartbroken, needs money, etc . . .) The issues were more subtle, but written so well, it’s no surprise the author runs a side business (ha!) called My Book Therapy. She clearly knows what she’s doing. Ahem. I’ve learned reams from her. I'm still learning from her.

Back to the story . . . I loved the setting and the problems. And the hero was . . . wait for it . . . a professional hockey player. Yoo-betcha! In Minnesota-speak, that means “You better believe it!” and “Hooray!” all in one. There’s nothing more Minnesotan than hockey (except maybe wild rice hot dish, but that’s another post altogether). And it was very interesting to take a peek into that professional world with all its pressure to perform . . . very different from your typical stay-at-home-mom/writer life in North Carolina. 

Even if you don’t care anything about hockey, this story carries the reader on a stream of emotional adrenaline. You will grow to care deeply about Eden and Ethan and the J-Hammer. You will love J-Hammer.

For me, It Had To Be You provided a perfect escape from the heat with a fun premise, interesting characters, and a setting very dear to my heart. In fact, my next novel is set in Minneapolis too! J I hope you’ll give it a try.

Are you northern through and through? Or is your blood so thin you need a sweater in seventy degree weather? Do you like to read wintry books in summer? Summery books in winter?

Leave us a comment for a chance to win this week’s giveaway.

Jennifer Fromke is represented by Susan Brower of the Natasha Kern Agency.