A Christmas Tart by Lola West
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Maxine Redgrave grew up as one of the "summer people" of Martha's Vineyard, but after she made a "mistake" at age 16, her wealthy parents exiled her to the island to spend the fall. To lend credibility to the cover story that Max was spending a semester in France, her parents hired the three Laurent sisters to teach her French. Max had been at odds with their nephew, Patrick Laroux, since they were toddlers, but surprisingly, they became friends (and possibly more) that fall. Unfortunately, the relationship ended badly when Max left the island without saying goodbye, and Patrick has hated her ever since. Ten years later, Patrick has taken over his family's bakery and Max has moved back to the island to run an independent bookstore. With Christmas approaching, the local business owners' association, led by Patrick's aunts, is preparing for the annual Christmas Marketplace. Patrick and Max are both shocked when his aunts suddenly announce they're too old to organize the event and name the two of them as their successors. Can a bit of Christmas magic - and some help from a trio of matchmaking French aunties - bring these two back together?
"A Christmas Tart" was a short read (it only took me about an hour), but it had a nice amount of steam to it. The true story behind Max's exile to the island when they were teenagers, as well as the reason she left Patrick so abruptly, broke my heart, but learning everything that she'd been through made it even easier to cheer her and Patrick on to their HEA. The story's ending was super sweet, and I loved the glimpse of what's to come in Andrew Warner's story ("Summer's Dad Bod").
I highly recommend this story for all fans of contemporary/holiday romance and look forward to whatever Lola West writes next.
*Review copy provided by the author. All opinions expressed are my own.
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