Review: A sweet Christmas romance you'll love
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 14, 2013
Unexpected Gifts is the first book in the Castle Mountain Lodge series, but it's a standalone and from the short excerpt of book two, it's clear that each book has its own characters and the only connection is the setting - the Castle Mountain Lodge resort - and some of the characters, basically the people who work in the resort.The first chapter pulled me in immediately. We meet Andi, a party planner, and Eva, her funny business partner and friend, while they're at work. Andi is having a hard time surviving the festivities, since she's trying to recover from her ex dumping her after she lost their baby. She's broken and not exactly in the mood for Christmas celebration and, as the last straw, her father calls her to inform her last minute that they will not be celebrating Christmas with her, as his new wife has organized a trip to Disneyworld for their 3-year-old twins. In order to avoid spending Christmas alone, brooding over her life and all that she's lost, Andi accepts an invitation that the Castle Mountain Lodge resort sent to their office. After all, spending a few days in a mountain resort, reading a book and enjoying the snow can be quite inviting.Enters Colin. He's Canadian too, just like Andi, but has been living in the Caribbeans for the last five years, expanding his business and putting it before anything else. Scarred by a serious relationship that didn't end too well, the last thing he wants is to get involved with someone else. Back in Canada, he's determined to enjoy the true Christmas spirit, in the Canadian way: snow, ice-skating, mountains, Christmas trees and all that he's missed over the last five years. So he gets a room in the Castle Mountain Lodge and he gets there just in time to find a desperate Andi talking to the resort manager. Apparently, her reservation hasn't been confirmed and they're completely booked for the holidays so Andi can either go back to the city (in the middle of a snow blizzard) or sleep on a couch until the morning, when roads will be clear.When Andi turns back to check the weather conditions outside, she meets Colin's stare and something clicks: They know each other. Colin was an old school friend of Andi's ex, Blaine, and they met some time ago, when Blaine took her to the Caribbeans and they had dinner with Colin. Ever the gentleman, Colin offers her to stay in his villa, which has three bedrooms and two bathrooms, so plenty of space without the awkwardness of having to spend time in the same room as a stranger.Well, as you may have guessed, Andi accepts and everything changes, for both of them. I won't tell you more, though, because it would spoil the fun. You've got to go download it and enjoy their story.I really liked the story. It's a beautiful romance without the graphic sex scenes, which I've come to realize it's quite hard to find nowadays. I guess this is what helped me enjoy this book so much, apart from the lovely and warm Christmas atmosphere. The chemistry in the story is really strong and the author has a very good way of creating it with clean scenes. I didn't feel the need for sex scenes to feel the connection between Andi and Colin and I really enjoyed reading their story.I loved the setting. It was described perfectly and I could see the whole resort and the beautiful Canadian landscape right in front of my eyes. It warmed my heart and made me feel as if I was actually in the book. I could almost feel the snow crunch!The author has a very good way of pulling the reader into the story and keeping the interest up. I couldn't wait to read more and at the same time I didn't want it to be over. This is actually the main reason why I didn't rate this book 5 stars; when it ended, I felt a little disappointed because I wanted to read more about Andi and Colin and I immediately read the excerpt from the second book to understand if I'd be getting more of them. But from what I could read, I'm afraid I won't. Which in a way is good, because I hate cliffhangers, but a few more chapters about them would have been nice. I will definitely be reading more from this author.