Book Review: V.B.’s impression of My Christmas Dream by Marilyn Miles
Hi, readers! The latest I Love Romance Blog review selection is My Christmas Dream by Marilyn Miles.
Take it away, V.B.!
Thanks!
My Christmas Dream
Jordie and Gib/Gil are a sweet couple. This book follows them through late summer and into the winter in their home town full of memories. Jordie is struggling. School, her family farm, her father’s health, and the complicated situation at her new bookstore constantly weigh her down. Enter Gib/Gil. He saves Jordie from falling off a ladder upon meeting her. Then he proceeds to help her with the business, her farm, and life.
Their love story builds slowly and is sweet. This is a sweet, clean, home-town romance. Also, there’s a cat, Sylvester; named as such due to his black and white coloring. I wouldn’t consider this a holiday romance. It happens at that time and we get Thanksgiving dinner and Black Friday, along with Jordie’s holiday stress around the bookstore, but there’s no holiday spirit until a tree is mentioned on the last page. This leads me to the one thing that irritated me about the book; the ending.
At the climax, we finally get Gib/Gil’s real identity, learn the final plan for Jordie’s bookstore, and Sylvester is saved and then…the epilogue. Suddenly, a year has passed, and everything is tied up all nice with a bow. But it was Jordie explaining it to me. I wanted to experience it. I was left wanting something like a Christmas morning revelation or a mistletoe engagement, but no. We didn’t even get the Valentines Day scene Jordie mentions.
NOTE: I was provided a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I give this book 4 hearts because the MC struggles and fights until everything turns out just fine.
Book Info:
Jorden “Jordie” Butler grew up on a farm, several miles from the small town of Tuke’s Valley in Washington State. When she gets a job at a chain bookstore in the nearby city of Vancouver, she and a coworker dream of one day having their own bookstore.
Fortunately, one of the benefits of her job is partial reimbursement of tuition at the local community college. Jordie decides to work toward a business degree. Unfortunately, Jordie loses her job when the bookstore eventually closes, and she has difficulty finding another one that will allow her to work part-time and go to school. Could it be that Jordie’s dream of having her own business one day may be just that — a dream?
Gilbert “Gib” Gibson also grew up in Tuke’s Valley, but when his mother passed away his senior year of high school, he moved to Oregon to live and work in construction with his older brother. Now he is something of an all around handyman who can do just about any kind of repairs, including carpentry, electrical, mechanical, and much more.
When his stepfather dies, Gib returns to Tuke’s Valley to sell the home and see if he can find anything that belonged to his mother. But the house is a mess of semi-packed boxes and he realizes it will take more time than he thought. A former classmate asks him to look at the bookstore his wife and her business partner just purchased, and give them an estimate on repairs. Gib agrees and when he walks inside the bookstore, he sees a woman hanging precariously from a ladder. He rushes up to help, just as she falls.
Universal Reader link: https://books2read.com/u/4A2Oxk
Here’s a teaser from the book…
I never really expected my dream to come true.
Yet, there I was, standing on a ladder, organizing and cleaning shelves in my very own bookstore — well, mine, Aubrey’s and our not-so-silent partner, her husband, Josh.
I’d dusted as high as I could reach, until I was forced to stand on a stepladder to get to the very top shelf.
As I reached for a box of books, sparkling dust motes drifted slowly down from the shelf and I felt a tickling sensation in my nose. Uh-oh. With one hand, I grabbed the dust rag I’d left on the shelf, and held it up to my face.
Ah-choo. Ah-choo. Ah-choo!
I sneezed with such violence, the overloaded box slipped from my grasp and fell to the floor. The cardboard ripped apart and dozens of paperback books scattered across the carpet.
Startled, I pulled back abruptly from my precarious perch on the very top of the rickety wooden ladder. As I grabbed at air, the dust wand flew from my fingers and I found myself falling with the ladder. But before I could hit the floor, strong arms caught me. In a daze, I stared at the ladder, before I turned my head and gazed into the hazel-colored eyes of the tall, dark-haired man who held me.
“You okay?” he asked, as he helped me up.
Embarrassed, it took me a while to answer. Instead, I reached for the fallen ladder, but he moved faster, picked it up off the floor and leaned it against a wall. “Yes, just a little clumsy, I guess,” I finally answered. “Can I help you?” I asked, still trying to regain my composure.
“I’m here to do a bid on the remodel.” He wiped dusty hands on jeans that hugged his long legs and looked around as though trying to make sure he was in the right place. “Are you Aubrey?”
“No, she’s my business partner. I’m Jordie.”
“I understand you want to get an estimate on some remodeling.” He glanced around the store again. “So, what is it you want to do to this place?”
“Uhh…didn’t Aubrey tell you when she called?”
I wished she was here to answer his questions. We hadn’t yet decided what kind of changes we wanted to make, but Josh, anxious I think to start making a profit on his investment and always thinking about the bottom line, told Aubrey to get three estimates right away. I thought it was a little premature — putting the cart before the horse, so to speak — but he was our money man, so I kept my opinions to myself on that. So there I was, looking the fool.
“Actually, Josh told me to come in.”
“Oh?”
I tried to remember the ideas Audrey and I discussed. Suddenly, page twenty-five of my Small Business Owner’s class textbook, popped into my I twenty-five of my Small Business Owner’s class textbook, popped into my mind. “Do you charge by the hour or by the project? And how much would you need up front? I mean, would you need a deposit?”
There, that sounded like I knew what I was talking about.
“I charge by the hour. You pay for the materials too, of course. No deposit necessary. I can trust you, can’t I?”
My face grew warm. “Of course.”
He nodded, looked down and then up at the floor-to-ceiling shelves. “How do you get to those books way up there? On that?” He pointed to the ladder I’d tumbled from.
I nodded. “I guess so. I found it in the storage room in the back.”
“That’s pretty dangerous.”
“Well, I — ”
“I could make one for you that would attach to the bookcases and slide along the shelves. Much safer and you wouldn’t have to climb up and down all the time to go from shelf to shelf.”
“Super, that sure would save me time.”
“Yup. It’s called a ‘rolling libraryʼ ladder.”
“Can you put that in your bid? And maybe” — I looked around — “how about adding a wall or two?” I knew I sounded vague. “I’m sorry, Mr….”
“Gibson. But everyone calls me Gib.” He pulled a business card from one pocket of his pearl-snap, western-style shirt, and handed it to me with a smile.
I took the card and stuffed it in the back pocket of my jeans. He had a nice smile and the short sleeves of his shirt highlighted the well-developed muscles of his upper arms.
I shook that thought from my head. Stick to business, I told myself. “I’ll call Aubrey and see what she had in mind.”
AUTHOR: Marilyn Miles
TITLE: My Christmas Dream
GENRE: Holiday Romance
RELEASE DATE: September 19, 2018
PUBLISHER: Books to Go Now
ISBN/ASIN: B07HJF1KKD
OUR RATING: ♥♥♥♥ 4 stars
REVIEWED BY: V.B. “Can Do Indie Author”
Reviewer Bio:
VB is an indie author who writes romance and Sci Fi and voraciously reads anything (with some limits). When she’s not reading and writing, she’s working a day job to pay for her truck habit and puttering around her house.
Thanks for reading our latest book review on ILRB! ♥ Have a great week, everyone!
Originally published at http://iloveromanceblog.wordpress.com on August 22, 2023.
