Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor: A Novel Kindle Edition

If you look at all the review headlines, everyone is describing this book as sweet and there simply is no better description. The writing is excellent, the storyline fullproof and romantic and the ending leaves you with a smile. The only problem is, the writer is Lisa Kleypas and she typically delivers a little more kick to her readers. So, if you're not familiar with her writing, this is a sure thing, if you are familiar with her writing, you're probably addicted and will read it anyway. For me, I see both sides and will comment accordingly, but it seemed like a manuscript for a Hallmark made for TV movie and I wouldn't be surprised if the rights were already sold.When his sister Victoria is killed in a car crash, Mark Nolan finds himself the legal guardian to her 6 year old daughter, Holly. As a 30 something bachelor, he's unprepared for the responsibility, but with the help of his two brothers, Sam and Alex, he muddles through. Six months later, however, still shocked from the loss of her mother, Holly hasn't spoken a single word. She has, however, written a note to Santa asking for a new mom for Christmas.With this revelation, Mark decides that his best bet is to settle down and since he's seeing the perfect woman Shelby, he seriously contemplates making a commitment to her. One day, he takes Holly into a toy store run by Maggie Conroy. Maggie, who lost her husband two years earlier to cancer, learns of his predicament and understands Holly's sense of loss. While in the shop, Maggie shows Holly around the store and introduces her to magic and fairies and then tells her she needs a name for the fairy living in the store. Mark, being more of a straight shooter, disapproves of Maggie's overactive imagination and make believe, but he feels this incredible pull towards Maggie. Predictably, by the time Mark and Holly are ready to leave the store, Holly speaks for the first time, and gives the fairy a name. From there Mark wants to learn everything there is to know about Maggie and finds that he can't keep her off his mind. There are only two problems to this. Maggie isn't interested in anything but friendship and Mark is edging closer and closer to marriage with Shelby.The story is extremely short and can be read in about two hours. There's wonderful dialogue between the characters and some very comical moments of jealousy, romantic tension, and denial. All of the characters interact well with one another and move smoothly throughout the story quite predictably. For Lisa fans, there's no stubbornness, hot headed tempers, impatience, struggles or arugments that fan her wonderful lust filled stories. If you're looking for her usual burn up the pages passion, don't come looking for it here. This book is written for a much broader audience, especially the family channel. It's a heartwarming story, but it doesn't fill the craving for her fans. Regardless, it's an excellent read.

This is a super sweet story, I'm not usually one for magical aspects being added to books but Lisa adds it in so fluidly that it just added instead of retracting from the story. Loved this!

I would have given this book 4.5 stars (if I could figure out how the 1/2 star thingie works). It was really good. Because it was so brief I should have given it 3 stars. The 4 stars came because for a brief novella by Ms. Kleypas right at the holiday time... It was wonderful.Lisa Kleypas seems to dole out these novellas like bon bons. Just enough to get you hooked but not enought to make you a fat cow. That combined with the fact that we can only possibly expect 2 more books in this series (Sam and Alex's) makes me want to go grrrrrrrr. As usual, I don't feel the need to get all into the story but it was all well done. Unfortunately due to the brevity alot of the meat of relationship builiding (ie, constant, daily interactions) is fast forwarded a bit and the hook-up is good but too darn brief (sorta like a lunch time quickie that gets interrupted by mom). I find no compulsion to complain about the novella length because these publishing houses give us what we get and we still take it. I am glad I did not pay the publisher price on it (whew)!In any event, all the characters are wonderful, the men sufficiently Alpha, the heroine supremely likeable and I adored Holly. This was a great way to kick off my holidays and lets hope Ms. Kleypas rocks our socks off with the next installment sooner rather than later.

I read this book after I watched the Hallmark movie. I enjoyed it more than the movie although I come back to both year after year. A sweet predictable romance but I love it. I've read the rest of the series and they were enjoyable but not something I want to reread every year.

Mark Nolan's free and easy bachelor existence comes to an abrupt halt when his sister dies in a car accident, leaving her daughter, Holly, for Mark to raise. Mark enlists the help of his brother Sam and the three of them settle into family life in quaint Friday Harbor, an island community just off the coast of Washington. As much as Sam and Mark adore Holly, things are a bit bumpy. Sam and Mark have no experience with kids and Holly, traumatized by her mother's death, refuses to speak.Maggie Collins is in her late twenties and lost her husband to cancer. She came to Friday Harbor for a fresh start and owns a toy shop in town. She has a rapport with Holly and Mark finds himself turning to her more and more for help with Holly and, if he's being honest with himself, because he is attracted to her.When the story starts out, neither Mark or Maggie is in the right place to begin a new relationship. Mark is involved with someone and Maggie doesn't feel ready to move on quite yet. They start off as friends and things progress from there, with a little nudge from Holly.This was a pleasant little Christmas story, but as romances go I have to say it was a bit of a letdown. At around 200 pages it's quite short for a full-length novel and for a good portion of the book Mark is involved with someone other than Maggie (no, there's no cheating). When they do finally get together everything is resolved so quickly that the ending feels very abrupt and a bit unsatisfactory. There's no time to savor any of the emotions because the story just sort of stops.Given the short format the character development was quite good, and I particularly liked the interactions between Mark and his two brothers. Mark and Sam's relationship with Holly was very sweet also. I liked the setting, though I did find something kind of odd. Whenever the author would write about a town or location it sounded like a press release from the local Chamber of Commerce! If a character steps into a town (any town) we hear about how it was founded, the political leanings, what the residents drive, what kind of restaurants there are, etc. Since this is my first book by Lisa Kleypas I don't know if that's just an author quirk or if this story just contained a whole lot of filler.Bottom Line: A cute Christmas story but light on the romance. Read it for the sweet relationship between Mark and his niece, but don't expect to be swept away by the love story.Little (if any) strong language and mild sexual content.

As an avid Lisa Kleypas reader, I had been awaiting this latest release with so much excitement. When I came to order I checked the reviews and found that it already had a few, and most were negative, so I was pretty worried.Don't worry, I wont give you any spoilers, but what I will say is it's not as bad as they all say.The book starts off well, at LK's usually middling pace. The characters are all established nicely, and I got the feeling LK has been to a place like Friday Harbour and liked it- the effort she put into describing everything made it incredibly vivid, like I was there. I could really see everything in my mind. Don't anyone say that romance authors can't write- LK is proof in this book alone.However- I have to warn you that if you're the sort of romance reader that likes at least 2 or 3 steamy scenes (let's face it, most of us do- it's pure escapism!), then this book wont leave you feeling satisfied. There is one at the very end, and its barely longer than a page. I feel LK went some way to redeeming herself with the sexually tense, romantic encounters that the two leading characters have throughout the book- it's not sex but they're definitely not bland interactions.Speaking of the leading characters, I actually really liked them. A lot of the time, even in LK's books, I find myself disliking at least one of the lead characters, at least a tiny bit. Some romance authors trip up by making their lead roles flawless both physically and morally. I start to get a little sick of the perfect Percy's and Pennys. But Mark and Maggie, the leads in this book, are flawed, sad, grieving and terrible at romance and commitment. They develop nicely through the book, although it felt a little sped up at times, what with the book being only just over 200 pages.Conclusion- a nice little compact read, with likeable characters and plenty of tension. If this had been developed into LK's usual 300-400 page book then I would have given 3 stars.

Not as steamy as her other books but beautifully written words that lead to a lovely story and the beginning of a new series about the Nolan brothers HEA

Yet again, the author delivered on this book about the second brother in the Nolan family. My heart went out to the little girl and the way they changed their lives to love and care for her. I know it's fiction, but somewhere in the world this must be happening to someone (yes I'm an eternal romantic, I confess) and I did shed a few tears of joy!

Very disappointed with this book. I thought it was going to be a squall to Christmas Eve at Friday Harbour but it is not it is the same book under another title. On the front cove in tiny print it says previously realised as Christmas Eve on Friday Harbour. I think this needs to be more prominent.

No fireworks, no complicated twists,n pages of STEAMY sex just a straight forward novelette about two people falling in love. Short enjoyable read.