Top 5 things you don’t know about Sawyer Anderson:
- Sawyer has been best friends with Jack Flaherty since they were twelve. An only child, Sawyer thinks of the Flaherty family as his own—including Jack’s baby sister Jill.
- Sawyer was an NHL superstar. He played for the Colorado Flurries for ten years before a dirty hit and severe concussion ended his career.
- Sawyer owns the local sports bar in the small town of Christmas, Colorado—the Penalty Box, and coaches the competitive midget hockey team.
- Sawyer has a soft spot for single mothers. His mother raised him on her own.
- When Jack was MIA for seventeen months, Sawyer fell in love with his best friend’s wife. Even though he didn’t act on his feelings, Sawyer nearly lost Jack’s friendship. He’ll never put their friendship at risk again.
AUTHOR INFORMATION:
Debbie Mason is the bestselling author of the Christmas, Colorado series. Her books have been praised for their “likable characters, clever dialogue and juicy plots” (RT Book Reviews). She also writes historical paranormals as Debbie Mazzuca. Her MacLeod series has received several nominations for best paranormal as well as a Holt Medallion Award of Merit. When she isn’t writing or reading, Debbie enjoys spending time with her very own real-life hero, their four wonderful children, an adorable grandbaby, and a yappy Yorkie named Bella.
Title: Happy Ever After in Christmas
Author: Debbie Mason ”
Series: Christmas, Colorado #7
On Sale: June 28, 2016
Formats: Mass Market & eBook
Price: $5.99 USD
It’s beginning to look a lot like love . . .
As her thirtieth birthday approaches, deputy Jill Flaherty decides it’s time to live a little. When she walks into Sawyer Anderson’s bar in her sexiest dress, she’s not thinking that he’s her brother’s best friend or about the many women he dated during his years as a pro hockey player. All she’s thinking is that it’s finally time to confess to her longtime crush how she truly feels.
Sawyer is done being a player on and off the ice. Yet no one in the small town of Christmas seems to believe he’s ready to settle down, not Jill, and certainly not Jack, who is determined to keep Sawyer from breaking his little sister’s heart. But as Sawyer and Jill’s relationship heats up, can he prove that he’s her happy ever after?
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Review:
I picked this one up because of two things: 1) Sawyer’s an ex-NHL player and 2) best friend’s little sister troupe. Hockey players are my catnip, and I love the angst that BFLS stories can bring. On the second, this story did not disappoint, though that part of the conflict was resolved fairly early in the story and gave way for a whole lot of other angsty stuff. Maybe a bit too much? I’m still not sure how I feel about some of the directions this story went in.
On the hockey front, I did really like the scene early on where Jill was strong-armed into playing in the championship game against Sawyer and Jack’s team. I’m not sure it’s really plausible to do so well in your first game ever, but it was entertaining nonetheless.
I also loved Sawyer’s sabotaging of Jill’s dates. Very amusing…unless you’re Jill, of course. 😉
Some of the other plot diversions? Birth control mishaps, nursing home mysteries, ex-husband drama, former relationship angst, kidnapping, shoot-outs, predatory coworkers…the list goes on and on. I was starting to wonder what wasn’t going to happen to these two before we got to “the end”!
Not having read the rest of the series, having so many secondary characters involved in/invested in the story’s outcome did get a bit overwhelming at times. It was easy to keep track of Jack and Grace (Jill’s brother/SIL) and Brandi and Trent (Sawyer’s coworker and her son) but everyone else tended to blend together and leave me with a feeling of “now who is this person again…?” for at least a paragraph or two each time they show up. For series regulars, though, I have a feeling this story will be right up their alley–everyone’s in it, and it seems to wrap everything up nicely.
I enjoyed the HEA, and was beyond glad when we finally got to that point. It felt like a long and rambling journey at times, but ultimately all’s well that ends well, right?
Rating: 3 stars / C+
I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.
THE FULL SERIES:
The Trouble With Christmas, #1
Christmas in July, #2
It Happened at Christmas, #3
Wedding Bells at Christmas, #4
Snowbound at Christmas, #5
Kiss Me In Christmas, #6
Happy Ever After in Christmas, #7
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