NANCY NAIGLE
Stats: Mass market paperback, St. Martin’s Paperbacks, 9/28/21.
How acquired: Bought.
First line: Vanessa slid her hand along the slick wooden banister as she climbed the stairs.
(Goodreads synopsis below.)
My thoughts: My third Naigle book and I loved it as much as the first two.
A bit of the stereotypical girl from the big city forced to go to a small town where she doesn't fit in but falls in love with the town and one of the locals, but not gonna lie, I'm a sucker for that trope, if you can call it a trope. In this instance, Vanessa works for a large company in Chicago, the company bought a fruitcake factory in Fraser Hills, North Carolina, and now Vanessa has been sent to the town to shut down the factory in preparation for the warehouse space to used for an athletic company. I've been grabbing her books whenever I come across them so I have six more in my TBR. A job that has never bothered her before, but this time she finds herself getting friendly with the locals, including Buck, an older man who gives her some business advice and provides his guesthouse for Vanessa and her cousin over the Christmas holiday, Misty, a sixteen year old who works in the fruitcake factory's retail store and has lots of ideas to improve the business, and Mike, who breeds and trains Percheron horses. Oh, and Scooter, an adorable Lab puppy. The ending is of course predictable for the most part, but it's the journey to that ending that matters, and it was a wonderful journey.
I've been collecting Naigle books whenever I come across them, and have six more in my TBR, and I anticipate several more wonderful journeys!
Synopsis from Goodreads:
Vanessa Larkin was supposed to be spending Christmas in Paris, France on a business trip. Instead, she’s been assigned to Fraser Hills, North Carolina—home of the Best Fruitcake in the USA—to convert her company’s property into warehouse space and shut down Porter’s, the fruitcake factory.
Mike Marshall’s family founded Porter’s. For decades, the factory served as the lifeblood of the community until his grandfather sold the business to a Chicago corporation. The sale cost the town its independence—and the Marshalls their family ties. A horse farmer, Mike was never involved with his grandfather’s company, but news of the factory’s closing means losing another piece of the town’s legacy. And as a widower raising a teenage daughter, he’s suffered enough losses in one lifetime.
Far from the skyscrapers and rapid pace of the city, Vanessa finds herself enjoying the easygoing rhythms of rural living. With Mike as her guide, she learns to appreciate the simple pleasures found in shared holiday festivities among friends. Fraser Hills is a town she is growing to love—and Mike is someone she is falling in love with. Can a Christmas miracle give her newfound friends and home a gift they’ll cherish for many New Years to come?
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