The Christmas Proposal (A Montana Christmas Romance Book 1) by Cheryl Wright
When a transfer to the tiny town of Winston Montana, presents itself, Noah Gleeson jumps on it. This is a chance to heal his broken heart and put tragedy behind him. When he meets Mandy Scott. The fiery redhead gets under his skin far too quickly, which should have set alarm bells ringing. Against his better judgment, he agrees to become Mandy’s pretend boyfriend for her family’s annual Christmas party. Mandy has never taken a date to the party, but this year will different, purely to keep her parents off her back.
Can Noah continue to see Mandy without tearing his heart apart? And what will Mandy do when their pretense becomes a reality?
Author’s Promise: This is a heartwarming Christmas novella with a happily ever after ending and no cliffhangers. It is a clean and wholesome story with nothing more than hugs, kisses, and holding hands.
Diane Andersen’s Review: 5-Stars
The Christmas Proposal by Cheryl Wright
When it comes to Christmas and holiday stories, I’m as excited about filling my head with visions of wintertime tales of romance and revelry as much as I am looking forward to trimming the tree, baking cookies and enjoying all those other seasonal traditions.
Reading stories set during the holidays is my favorite way to decompress and distress away from the holiday fray of family, friends and too much holly, jolly cheer. As one might imagine, the prospect of reviewing a novel titled, The Christmas Proposal was like finding an early Christmas sweet treat left by a Secret Santa. In fact, this book would make a great holiday gift for the sentimental romantic reader on one’s list. It’s never too early to be thinking about next year’s Christmas shopping list, you know!
Mandy is a frustrated career girl who loves her job, her independence and single life if it were not for her overprotective matchmaking family prodding her to find a boyfriend and settle down. With the holidays looming ahead, Mandy is not keen on hearing another round of “helpful” advice from her mother and father, not to mention the comparisons between her single self and her much-married siblings with kids in tow.
Unwittingly, Mandy falls into the well-meaning devices of her new boss, Noah, who edged her out of the job promotion she craved. If that wasn’t bad enough, he is drop dead gorgeous and a perfect gentleman too! When he steps in to defend her from a harassing coworker, Noah later gets her to open up about her other troubles and in gallant fashion, offers to circumvent her overzealous family by pretending to be her new boyfriend.
From there the plot steams predictably to its cozy Hallmark ending. But that is nothing to hold against this lighthearted and brief novella. It’s a Christmas romance that pulls out all the right stops to tug at the heartstrings and bring together the perfect ambiance of small-town Montana at Christmastide. Even as the ending eased to its final conflict free wrap up, I savored every word of this story with family gathered around the tree and the equally lovely epilogue that takes readers further past the holiday season to an even brighter future ahead.
My only complaint might be it could have taken a bit more time to develop and not wind so easily to the conclusion with a few contrived situations that could have been handled more organically to the plot. For readers of sweet holiday romances and fans of sentimental Hallmark movies, this is one to definitely check out. For the price and the size, it’s a bite-size feel-good holiday treat to savor and enjoy.
Sherry Terry’s Review: 3.9-Stars
I like the cover. I think it fits the story perfectly and lets me know exactly what I’m getting. A Christmas Proposal is a nice little read to get you in the holiday spirit or help you relax from all the hoopla of the season.
I did like the main characters Mandi and Noah, and I thought Cheryl did a good job of getting them together and fall in love. This is a feel-good story.
However, this book needs an edit. There are punctuation errors and repeated words that frustrated me as an editor, so I had a hard time finishing it. And, there is a misspelled word in the blurb. I do not think this will interfere with the pleasure of an average reader, this is my personal opinion. Overall, I did enjoy the story.
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