All I Want for Christmas Is You

August 26, 2019
Liasson concludes her Angel Falls small-town contemporary series (after The Way You Love Me) on a high note, without relying on clichéd Christmas miracles to deliver the happily ever after. Coffee shop owner and baker Kaitlyn Barnes has been like a bonus daughter to the Langdon family since childhood. But for a long time, her feelings for fireman Rafe Langdon haven’t felt like friendship or brotherly love. After a tipsy evening leads to hot sex, Kaitlyn hopes a romance will develop, but Rafe keeps distance between them. When Kaitlyn discovers she is pregnant (despite using contraception), she decides to have the baby, asking Rafe to opt in or out of fatherhood. Still pained by the decade-earlier death of his fiancé and their unborn child, Rafe takes a minute to get on board, but it’s not long before he and Kaitlyn are together, ensuring a happy Christmas season. The other fruitful Langdons, a meddling grandma, and a mischievous new puppy round out the story. Nodding to the secondary plot involving a recipe contest, Liaisson also gives readers a tempting chocolate cookie recipe at the end. This is a scrumptious holiday treat. This edition contains a separate novel by Annie Rains not seen by PW. Agent: Jill Marsal, Marsal Lyon Literary.

October 15, 2019
A longtime crush is complicated by a surprise pregnancy in Liasson's (The Way You Love Me, 2019, etc.) small-town holiday romance. Kaitlyn Barnes has a lot going on with running her coffee shop, looking after her teenage niece, and now dealing with an unplanned pregnancy. After a one-night affair with Rafe Langdon, the man she's loved for years, Kaitlyn is surprised to learn she's pregnant, though she's on two forms of birth control and never thought she'd have a baby at her age: 31. Kaitlyn vacillates between shock over the pregnancy and thinking about just how attractive Rafe is; both points are hammered home to an annoying degree. Rafe is painted as the town charmer, but his flirtatious mask hides a painful history: He still carries a significant amount of grief over the loss of his fiancee and their unborn child after a fatal car accident. Though he's known Kaitlyn all his life, Rafe is wary of love, marriage, and fatherhood; he isn't sure he can take another loss. Readers who enjoy small-town romances will find all the usual suspects: quaint shops, meddling yet good-natured townspeople, and twee holiday cheer. However, the way womanhood is intrinsically linked to motherhood here gives the book a sour taste. It's an antiquated message set in a town that feels untouched by diversity or the modern world, given that women are getting pregnant well past age 31 these days. The friends-to-lovers romance is serviceable. Kaitlyn and Rafe are likable main characters, though reading about the minutiae of their day-to-day responsibilities grows tiresome. As a contemporary holiday romance, this is fine, but the book's deeper message is rather hurtful. A cookie-cutter contemporary that's oddly obsessed with motherhood.

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