Mistletoe Miracles
A small-town Texas Christmas story, where hearts are lost, love is found, and family always brings you back home.
Griffin Holloway is desperate: the Maverick Ranch has been in his family for generations, but lately, it’s a money pit. He’d sooner marry one of his horses than sell the ranch. Marriage, though, could be a solution. If he can woo a wealthy bride, he might save the ranch—just in time for Christmas.Jaxon O’Grady likes his solitude just fine, thank you very much. But when a car accident brings the unexpected to his door, he realizes just how much one person can need another.
Crossroads is the perfect place for Jamie Johnson: avoiding nosy questions about why she’s single, she’s happy to keep to her lakeside home. So she’s baffled when she gets the strangest Christmas present of all, in the form of a Mr. Johnson, asleep on her sofa. Who is he, and why does everyone think he’s her husband?
In this uplifting novel, three unlikely couples discover just what Crossroads, Texas, can offer: romance, belonging, and plenty of Christmas spirit.
My Review
I have read several books in this series. While, Christmas is still a few months away, I was in the holiday mood to start reading Christmas style books. This book put me in the right holiday spirit.
In the beginning I did have a little trouble with the three interlocking characters' stories. This only transpired for the first couple of chapters. After, this it was easy to keep the different characters' stories separate for the most part. They still interacted with one another.
Right away, I was drawn to Jaxon's story. This is because he finds company in the form of a dog. I am a dog lover, so he instantly won me over. Although, the other character's stories were just as heart warming. There is Griffin and Sunlan. They may have started out as "pretending" to love each other; same as Jamie and Wyatt but in the end; both couples discovered the true meaning of love.
Ms. Thomas sure brings the Christmas joy and pure delight with her latest offering in the Ransom Canyon series, Mistletoe Miracles!
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Excerpt 2:
Deep within the shadows of hills too rough to be broken by a road sat one lone cabin at the edge of Shallow River. Local history claimed that a hundred and fifty years ago, cattle drives crossed in the shade of these hills after midnight, hoping to move unnoticed by outlaws.
In the ’20s, the story went, several ranchers had been sitting around playing poker. The hour was late and most of their pockets were lean, so they played one last hand. The loser had to claim ownership of Midnight Crossing. Since three of the eight men were from the O’Grady clan, the odds were against them avoiding ownership of the worthless land.
Nearly a century later, Jaxson O’Grady never cared about any legend, or poker, for that matter. He was the fifth O’Grady to move onto the worthless five-mile-square of land called Midnight Crossing. The rocky plot was bordered on one side by the Double K, Kirkland land, and on another by Maverick Ranch, owned by three Holloway brothers. Neither neighbor had ever offered to buy O’Grady’s land.
Now and then, in a family as big as the O’Gradys, a loner would be born who didn’t want to run with the pack. That man would lay claim to the cabin on Shallow River and live there until he either died or finally decided he’d rather join society than be driven insane by the winds that whipped through the rugged rock formations.
The old cabin had stood empty for more than twenty years when Jax claimed it, along with his right to loneliness. He’d been broken, and the family backed away, giving him time to heal.
He loved the spring and summers, but as fall turned into winter his second year alone, Jaxson reconsidered his choices. The wind howled down from the black hills, keeping him awake most nights. The river froze over for days, ending any hope of fishing.
Jax grew restless on cold nights, but he couldn’t go back among people, not yet. He never longed for company. Only peace. Summer’s calm cool nights gave him that. So he decided to stick out another winter, waiting for spring. Maybe then he could look people in the eyes. Maybe he’d forget, even for a while, what he’d done.
Over the months he’d been on Shallow River, his body had healed but he grew thin, as fear and regret ate away from inside. There were times when a man wasn’t fit for company, and Jax had decided he was living in one of those times.
No modern-day outlaws haunted the dark hills behind his cabin. No one crossed his piece of land except a cousin now and then checking on him. All Jaxson’s
demons roamed in the dark corners of his mind. They whispered of what he should have done in the one moment when he hadn’t reacted.
Tonight, he faced November winds as he walked the edge of the river and let the noise of the water drown out his thoughts. Later, he’d run the hills until his muscles burned so he’d be able to collapse in dreamless sleep. When it grew too cold to run, he’d work with the pine and mahogany stacked in his workshop and pretend all was normal in his life…and in his mind. He’d spend late hours studying for online classes he’d taken without any direction of a degree.
At thirty-six, Jax felt like he was an old man inside. He couldn’t remember ever being young. He might look straight and tall, but he feared if he turned around too quickly, he’d catch sight of his shadow, all twisted and deformed.
He had nothing to live for, and worse, nothing to die for.
On rainy nights like tonight, he put on a black slicker and moved into the shadows. He walked the edge of sanity, tempting crazy, but not stepping off the cliff.
As he did almost every evening lately, he climbed an easy two miles to the north edge of his property and sat on a mound high enough to see the ribbon of a two-lane highway a mile away. Part of him wondered where all the people were going, racing along like fireflies low to the ground. Part of him didn’t care. He just liked following the lights on a road shiny with rain.
Jodi Thomas’ TLC Book Tours TOUR STOPS:
Monday, September 24th: Books & SpoonsTuesday, September 25th: Stranded in Chaos
Wednesday, September 26th: @_ebl_inc_
Thursday, September 27th: omg.kacie.reads and @omg.kacie.reads
Monday, October 1st: Moonlight Rendezvous
Tuesday, October 2nd: Thoughts on This ‘n That
Wednesday, October 3rd: A Night’s Dream of Books
Thursday, October 4th: @remarkablylisa
Monday, October 8th: The Romance Dish
Tuesday, October 9th: What is That Book About – excerpt
Thursday, October 11th: Written Love Reviews
Monday, October 15th: Cheryl’s Book Nook – review and excerpt
Wednesday, October 17th: A Holland Reads – excerpt
Monday, October 22nd: Evermore Books
Wednesday, October 24th: From the TBR Pile
Thursday, October 25th: Books & Bindings
Friday, October 26th: Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers
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