Iron Canuck Reviews & More: Review Tour: The Christmas Bride by Christy McKee with an excerpt, a giveaway, and my review

The Christmas Bride

by Christy McKee

GENRE: Second chance holiday romance

BLURB:

She’s ruled by her emotions. He’s determined to prove his feelings are real. Is snow-covered Vermont a perfect place for a second chance at forever?

Emma Kimball is struggling to keep tradition alive. Drowning in debt from her late mother’s medical bills, she escapes to spend December in her childhood’s beloved small-town inn. And the last complication she needs is for her handsome ex to crash her wintery wonderland.

Dr. Jake Cutter almost has it all. Nine years after their painful breakup, he’s bent on chasing a Yuletide miracle to win back the woman he loves. So even knowing that she’s skittish to reconnect, he's willing to do the work to thaw her heart.

Scared she'll wreck her future and end up with someone just like her overly controlling father, a wary Emma resists the allure of her old flame’s attempts to reconcile. But as Jake worries about once again messing up the best thing ever, he refuses to stop hoping he's been good enough to earn a kiss underneath the mistletoe.

Can an unexpected holiday reunion turn out to be the greatest gift of all?

The Christmas Bride is a heartwarming contemporary romance. If you like complex characters, idyllic seasonal settings, and jingle-bell charm, then you’ll adore Christy McKee’s tale of forgiveness and fate.

Buy The Christmas Bride to unwrap happily ever after today!

EXCERPT:

He’d been looking for close to thirty minutes—his throat was raw from yelling. The feeling in his fingers was gone. Adrenalin powered through his body. He punched redial for the hundredth time. There. He strained to hear. Was it his imagination? No. Finally… “Jingle Bells,” off to his left. Even though he could hear the ring, the visibility was poor.

His eyes teared constantly from the frigid cold, and he repeatedly blinked to clear his vision. Then he saw her, utterly still, beneath a white blanket of snow covering her like a shroud. The hair lifted from the back of his neck. Terror grabbed him by the throat.

Barely remembering to put the car in park, he bailed out of the car. He pounded across the snow, each breath scorching his lungs. He tore off his gloves, dropped to a crouch beside her, and brushed the snow from her face. Placing two fingers on her slender neck, he held his breath. Then, his chin sagged to his chest in relief. Emma’s pulse beat below his fingertips. Weak, yet it was still there.

“Emmie, Emmie, stay with me, baby.” Crouched beside her, without moving her head or neck, he turned on his phone light to examine her.

His gut turned to jelly. A puddle of red soaked the snow beneath the back of her head. The wound was probably superficial, he told himself, even though those could gush like a son of a gun.

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

People always ask me why I became a writer. I think a writer was always inside me. When I was ten, I started a neighborhood newspaper with a kid's printing press my parents got for my birthday. It was my first gig as a news reporter. After college, as a broadcast major, I was primed and ready for TV news, which satisfied me for a few years, but it wasn't enough.

Sometimes what you are looking for is right in front of you, but you're so busy trying to find yourself you walk right past it. Growing up, I devoured historicals, but contemporary romance became my sweet spot when I started writing. Second chance romances and enemies to lovers are my favorite tropes.

I live with my husband and black Lab, Brody, in coastal North Carolina. We love to go to the beach in all seasons. Brody delights in chasing waves, and our three little grandchildren enjoy shell collecting. I love movies, reading, and exploring seaside villages and am always up for a travel adventure.

Several years later, during a summer break from Stephens College, I was hired as an intern at The Associated Press–a real prize for a broadcast major. Yes, I was in the big leagues now and though I warned myself to keep my "creativity" under wraps– some things you just can't control. This time I got into really hot water by mis-quoting a source. What I'd done was simply re-arrange a few words in a direct quote to make it flow better. Evidently my "re-arranging" altered the source's meaning, and he was furious and out for blood; someone's head had to roll. The red-faced bureau chief fired me on the spot, muttering something about me trying my hand at fiction. Lesson finally learned: don't screw with the facts!

After working in TV news for a few years, I moved into commercial production, then freelance writing. Fewer and fewer facts and more creativity. Finally, I was on to something; working my way towards fiction where I could whip up my own batch of facts and no one could call me out.

Four years ticked by, and I finally landed—where I should have started, years ago—on the green square clearly marked "fiction writer." What was I thinking all those years? Now, with my feet firmly planted—we are NOT moving again—I'm a full-time writer of contemporary romance. With the support of my family and my two office assistants—Gracie, a black Lab and Lambeau, a yellow Lab named after Lambeau Field, home of the Green Bay Packers—I spend my days in a world of my own creation where the only facts that matter are the ones I invent. Hopefully, my readers will enjoy my stories as much as I love writing them!

Come visit me at www.christymckee.com

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GIVEAWAY

Christy McKee will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/28e4345f4427/

My Review - 4 1/2 of 5 stars -

4 1/2 stars for me. I really enjoyed this reunion holiday story. Emma was sure she knew what she wanted in life, but she found out on this annual trip that those plans were dead ends. I loved her strength, single-mindedness which got her into more trouble, and her love for those around her. Jake's plans for the future had been changed before running into Emma again. Knowing that he had continued to hope for Emma to be part of his future had me in his corner. There were plenty of smiles as well as a few tears as I turned the pages.