food fight
Melody Monroe is so ready for Cookie Daze. Every year at Christmas, her little Colorado town goes crazy for Christmas cookies and celebrates them with a week of family activities and deliciousness. And she is determined to celebrate this year, since her twin boys are growing up and wanting to spend time with their friends. Melody is determined to make this year memorable for them, before they go off to middle school.
A widow and entrepreneur, Melody designs and sells her own fashions in a downtown boutique. Her sister helps at the boutique, and her parents help out when they can, but Melody is still a busy mom, and one who finds herself in the principal’s office too often, usually for running late in the mornings. Jonathan Braxton is a stern man that Melody thinks is too handsome to be a principal, but he runs the school fairly. And he usually wins the Christmas cookie competition in the yearly Cookie Daze. But when Melody finds out that the whole cookie week is in jeopardy because the chair of the committee had quit suddenly, she leaps into action.
Melody offers to take over the cookie committee, to make sure her boys get all those fun activities that brings the family closer. She recruits family and friends for the committee and starts to make sure all the plans are in place. There’s just one problem. Melody can’t bake. But she’s willing to give it a shot, and even agrees to be in the cookie competition against Mr. Braxton. She balks, though, when he suggests they bake their cookies live before the audience. She knows her cookies can’t stand up to his, and she’s trying to think of a way to gracefully bow out, but her twin boys chime in with trash talk, and somehow Melody not only agrees to take part in the competition, she ends up making a bet with Jonathan about who will win.
As they work together on the committee, and Jonathan even comes over to her house one night to help her with her cookie recipes, Melody realizes that the principal is actually a very kind man. She starts to feel her heart opening up again. But will her boys be able to accept someone new into their lives? Will the community? And maybe most importantly, will Melody?
The Christmas Cookie Wars is a sweet rom com about a single mother trying to keep old family traditions going while considering opening her heart to someone new. There is lots of fun Christmas cookie fun and family traditions to celebrate, along with a gentle romance reminiscent of those holiday movies about small towns and finding love again.
I liked these characters a lot. I thought they brought a lot of life to the page and made me feel nostalgic for those yearly family traditions. There aren’t a lot of surprises in this story, but it’s heart-warming and perfect for a snowy night under a comfy blanket with a mug filled with hot chocolate and (obviously) a plate of cookies. Very enjoyable.
Egalleys for The Christmas Cookie Wars were provided by G.P. Putnam’s Sons through NetGalley, with many thanks.
