Christmas in Snowflake Canyon by RaeAnne Thayne

There's something insanely comforting about a holiday romance novel.  Really.  I don't know what it is but I love them, and I must not be the only one because there are quite a few out there.  Who wouldn't want to get a nice mug of cocoa (spiked of course), sit by the fire, and read a lovely book?  And this one fit the bill, albeit a little unconventionally at times.

After spending her credit cards to the max, Genevieve Beaumont is tricked into coming back to the States by her father who seeks to put her on a shorter leash.  He wants her to fix up her grandmothers house for sale and actually start taking some responsibility for her life.  However, plans go awry when she starts a bar fight over Christmas carols and ends up having to do community service with the dark, dashing, and wounded Dylan Caine.  Dylan is a war vet who lost his eye and arm to a blast and has come back Hope's Crossing to live a quiet life in the mountains.  So he is less than pleased when he has to do Community Service at a local charity for wounded warriors that his sister helped create.  And he is even more displeased at his growing attraction to Genevieve.

These are some flawed characters.  But in a realistic way.  You've got your wounded war vet, who pushes people away from him thinking they won't like him since he isn't "complete."  You've got your spoiled socialite who just wants to go back to France and shop her days away.  And you've got your supporting cast making sure that these two fall in with each other every chance that they get.  It's a good mix.  I actually did like Genevieve despite her materialistic tendencies. She wanted to do good, she just seemed a little lost.

The situations were pretty realistic too.  I mean, how much more realistic can community service and punishment get?  No romantic meeting on mountaintops for these two.  Just bar brawls.  Although there was one thing that troubled me about the bar scene, and this may just be showing my ignorance of how the law works.  Why is it that only Dylan and Genevieve got in trouble?  The ADA was the one who made the first physical contact.  I would think that they would have been charged for assault as well.  But oh well, we probably didn't want to see them doing community service anyway.  The writing is quite humorous.  There were a couple of lines in there that made me laugh out loud.  Especially the one at the front involving cookies.  It's great, look for it.  And there are no explicit sex scenes, but there is a lot of romance and cussing.  So it's not one of your "tame" romances. 

I really enjoyed this story and didn't even realize it was the sixth book in a series.  Obviously it can be read as a stand alone but I think I'll enjoy seeking out the first five books.

Christmas in Snowflake Canyon
Copyright 2013
362 pages

**This book was received as part of a Good Reads Giveaway**