Romance fills ‘Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor’

Sometimes it takes a little Christmas magic to help love find its way into your heart, and this is never more charmingly true than in Lisa Kleypas' holiday romance, "Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor."

Maggie Conroy has come to the island town of Friday Harbor to open her Magic Mirror toy shop, but she also hopes she can find a way to heal her grieving heart. It has been two years since her beloved husband passed away and she just doesn’t seem to know how to move on with her life.

When a handsome man with a bashful but sweet little girl come into the shop, Maggie’s heart skips a beat — is her heart telling her this may be the one she has been waiting for?

After the death of his sister, Mark was named the guardian for her little girl, Holly, but being a confirmed bachelor Mark knows nothing about how to raise a little girl, let alone a child who has been traumatized into muteness as Holly has. Desperate to make Holly happy and talkative once again, he takes her into the delightful new toy store in town, never realizing as he steps into Magic Mirror that he would find the fantasy girl of his dreams in the form of Maggie Conroy.

Holly takes to Maggie’s charm and sweetness immediately as the two bond over the fairy tale world Maggie has created in her shop. Mark is amazed to find Holly beginning to talk once again after Maggie gives her a special seashell to tell her secrets. As the adults begin to get to know one another, both Maggie and Mark soon find their attraction for each other blooming into something that feels a  lot like love. It just might be the Christmas miracle that Holly asked Santa for.

“Christmas Eve at Friday Harbor” is the first book in Lisa Kleypas’ new series set on the tiny island off the Washington state coast, and it is a great start to what promises to be a fun and romantic new series. If you enjoy fast-paced, lively contemporary romantic fiction, you’re sure to enjoy Lisa Kleypas’ style of writing.