you bet it's a christmas romance

Bella Ross is a hardcore business woman. She is looking to get a promotion, and she will do anything to make that happen. So when her boss offers her the chance at a big promotion and a move to a new city, Bella agrees to do whatever it takes. If she doesn’t, the promotion might go to her ex-boyfriend, who had played dirty trying to get his last promotion, and Bella won’t let him win again. This is her turn.

Her boss explains that all she has to do is complete a simple real estate transaction. There is a small shop in a small town that they want to buy, and the owner wants to sell. All Bella has to do is to show up and negotiate the terms of the contract. But she didn’t realize she’d have to take on Father Christmas. Or his handsome son.

Jesse Harrison grew up in Maple Falls, more specifically in his family’s Christmas shop, Always Noelle. He loved growing up there, celebrating grand holidays every year (and sometimes throughout the year, as tourists would travel especially to Maple Falls to see their store). He never wanted to leave, until his parents were unexpectedly killed. He chose not to take over the family shop, and while he felt guilty about that, he had to do it as an act of self-preservation.

But that left his grandfather to run Almost Noelle. And while he loved his grandfather and hated to see him working so hard, Jesse was working hard as an electrician to make enough money to keep the two of them going. But when he realized just how much trouble the shop is in, Jesse agrees, reluctantly, with his grandfather’s choice to sell the shop. Jesse wants to make sure he gets a fair price though enough to get his grandfather out of debt, and when Bella showed up from L.A. with a lowball contract, he balked.

In trying to reach an agreement on the price of the store, Bella made a wager with Jesse and his grandfather. The Maple Falls Holiday Games were coming up, and if she was on the winning team, they would accept her original offer for Almost Noelle. If Jesse’s team won, she’d still get the building, but the selling price goes way up. Jesse agrees, knowing he’d won the previous year and had a good chance of winning again. And the games start out fun, in the spirit of Christmas joy and competition.

But things get complicated. Bella feels bad about lying to her teammates about why she’s in town. Jesse finds himself softening toward Bella. But his ex-girlfriend doesn’t take kindly to his flirting with Bella. And Bella is in trouble with her boss back in L.A. for making the wager in the first place. But the longer she spends in Maple Falls, the more she finds herself wanting to help the town, and to keep the store and its legacy alive. What she needs is to find a holiday miracle to save her job and save Always Noelle, but is a miracle of that magnitude even possible?

The Christmas Wager is a holiday movie in book form. It has all the elements, from the charming small town with holiday spirit to the powerful corporation saying bah, humbug to the joy to the mortal enemies finding themselves drawn to each other as the days go by. There are handmade ornaments, baking competitions, snowman building, and a roster of favorite holiday movies. It’s holiday cheer in a novel, with a stocking full of happily ever after.

I really enjoyed The Christmas Wager. Author Holly Cassidy brings the sweet town of Maple Falls to life with warmth, humor, and some wicked twists to those Maple Falls Holiday Games that no one aside from the Merryatrics could see coming (it’s the group of geriatrics who brainstorm the games and referee the various and varied contests). This one is a gift, so put those marshmallows into your hot chocolate and get a plate of cookies while you settle into this for a long winter’s read.

Egalleys for The Christmas Wager were provided by G.P. Putnam’s Sons through NetGalley, with many thanks.