A Very Merry Match--Includes a Bonus Novella

August 31, 2020
The unremarkable second romance in Curtis’s Sunshine Valley series (after Can’t Hurry Love) returns to small-town Sunshine, Colo., where the matchmaking women of the Sunshine Valley Widows Club have made it their mission to give Cupid a helping hand as Christmas approaches. This time they set their sights on member Edith Archer’s granddaughter, kindergarten teacher Mary Margaret, whose husband died a year earlier, leaving her with a mountain of debt she knew nothing about. Divorced Sunshine mayor Kevin Hadley, who has high-flying political ambitions, knows and admires Mary Margaret because his son, Tad, is in her class, and the more he sees of her the more he thinks she would make a suitable match—though her night job working as a burlesque dancer to pay off her husband’s debts might jeopardize his public image. Meanwhile, Kevin’s ex-wife waits in the wings, scheming to win him back. Curtis makes a believable case for Kevin and Mary Margaret to find a second chance at love, but their nosy neighbors rarely give them a moment alone. The humor occasionally falls flat and the Christmas season serves as little more than set dressing, but the sweet, chaste love story will please series fans. This is solid, if uninspired, fare. Agent: Pam Hopkins, Hopkins Literary.

September 1, 2020
The right new girlfriend can definitely help Mayor Kevin Hadley further his political aspirations, and he thinks he's found the perfect candidate in Sunshine's respectably sweet kindergarten teacher, Mary Margaret Sneed. However, because of the considerable debts Mary Margaret's late husband left behind, she desperately needs a way to supplement her income, and the part-time job she chooses soon has the whole town talking. The second sweetly satisfying addition to Curtis' Sunshine Valley series delivers just the right touch of cheery holiday warmth as well as a welcome laugh or two with its cozy small-town setting and marvelously memorable characters, including the town's irrepressible band of matchmaking widows.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)