Christmas to the Max by Bonnie Edwards

 

I am grateful to Marcia King-Gamble for this invitation to guest here on Romancing the Genres. I’m honored.

I’m Bonnie Edwards and I’ve been writing romance for a lot of years and if there’s one thing I understand about romance it’s this: Everyone in my fictional world deserves a happy ending.

This is the story of a lonely man.

Max Whyte walked into my mind as a convenient ex-husband to a lush 30-something divorcee. The story that introduced him to the world was the start of a trilogy of Christmas stories set between Canada and the US. In Not-so-Blue Christmas, Max didn’t get much more than a mention.

In Invitation to Christmas we learned a little more about him and the reason for the divorce. He and his wife had simply grown apart. They were excellent parents who put their children first.

When it was his ex-wife’s turn to fall in love in One Crazy Christmas, we saw more of Max and how he still supported his ex as a friend and confidant. He was warm and caring and exactly the right person for the heroine to talk to about her disastrous love and broken heart. (which eventually got sorted on Christmas Day.) And so my trilogy, Love at Christmas, ended.

This writer moved onto other series, and a couple of years later I was in need of a new couple to move to my fictional small town in Washington State. The series is titled Return to Welcome and focuses on people who come home and need to regroup.

I had my heroine but where to find a great hero for her? And then it hit me.

Max Whyte’s ex had moved to Washington State and taken his daughters to live with her new husband. What’s a caring, loving father to do but move to be close to them?

Christmas to the Max fell into place quickly. Every once in a while an author has the perfect blend of characters, plot, and setting and the writing goes smoothly and quickly. This is what I call a “gimme” book. No tears are shed, or hairs pulled during the writing of a gimme.

Since Christmas to the Max is a lynchpin book, it links two series and gives my readers of the first series an introduction to the second series. And readers who start on the second series get some background on characters from the first series. Everyone wins!

But no one needs to read either series to enjoy Max Whyte’s happy ending. This is a stand alone book and so are all the others.

Right now, Christmas to the Max is on sale for only 99c and is available to read in Kindle Unlimited.

BLURB:
Just in time for Christmas, building contractor Kaylin Simpson returns to Welcome, WA to give her twins a better life in the small town she loved as a child.

In a town where no one remembers her, it’s tough for a woman to launch a business, especially one dominated by men. Kaylin’s resourceful, determined, and desperate.

Single dad Max Whyte has bought a rundown Victorian house that needs a total renovation. When he saves a young boy from a near-miss with a car, he takes a chance and hires the boy’s attractive mother.

The lovely, talented, and skilled Kaylin soon proves her worth as they work together to rebuild his home—and their lives in Welcome.

The single parents soon share more than tools as they navigate their way through the work together. Sharing all the traditional small-town Christmas events brings them even closer.

Drawn to Kaylin and her adorable twin boys despite his reservations, Max finds that Kaylin's wit and feisty spirit pull at his heartstrings.

Kaylin is afraid to fall for her client, but good sense can be overwhelmed when two hearts fall into synch.

As Christmas draws near, she and Max struggle to find a way to move beyond past hurts to let love blossom.

If you love stories with warmth and the love of family don't miss Christmas to the Max.

Amazon

BIO: 

Bonnie Edwards has been writing all her life, starting with a poem about Santa suffering with gout. She was seven, Santa was a thousand years old. Delighted with writing, she went on to write family sagas, humorous contemporary romance, romantic suspense, erotic paranormal ghost romances and more.

She may jump around within romance, but all her stories come with a tear, a laugh, and a happy ending. Published by Kensington Books, Harlequin Books, Carina Press, and Robinson (UK) Bonnie’s stories stretch from short stories to novellas and novels. Now, she's happy to be publishing her work herself. Her website. Sign up for up-to-date news and deal on Bonnie’s Newsy Bits.

A Christmas Story by Eleri Grace

I have a more contemporary holiday reading recommendation to share, but I wanted to start with a choice set closer to the time period in which I write (WW2). All these years that I’ve enjoyed watching this classic movie during the holiday season I had mentally dated its setting as post-WW2. I always assumed it was set during the ten years immediately after the war (1945-55). Wrong. While looking through my Christmas books for something to share with our readers, I came across the small book version of “A Christmas Story.”

 

The jacket copy mentioned that it was set in the Great Depression years. Online research reveals that a calendar seen in the film sets it during 1939, but the decoder pen that Ralph receives from the radio show is a 1940 model. In any case, clearly it’s set just prior to the American entry into the war.

 

The book is a collection of the humorous sketches that Jean Shepherd published in the 1960s that were the foundation for the screenplay. I also had never realized that Shepherd narrated the movie as the adult Ralph.

 

For an era that inspired some of our most beloved secular Christmas tunes and provides the setting for classic films such as “It’s a Wonderful Life,” I had trouble locating any holiday novels set during that time period. This is obviously a gap I should endeavor to fill with some Christmas love stories set in the war year! 

 

For a more contemporary holiday read, I absolutely adored Josie Silver’s “One Day in December” from a few years ago and would happily read it again this season. 

 

In the opening scene, the down-on-her-luck but plucky heroine spots a handsome boy and experiences a jarring “love at first sight” sensation just as her bus pulls away. Weeks later, she reconnects with the boy from the bus when he is introduced at a Christmas party as her best friend’s new boyfriend. Over the next ten years, Laurie and Jack’s relationship takes surprising twists and turns before delivering a heartwarming and sing-it-from-the-rooftops happy Christmas-time ending. Silver brilliantly draws from the very best romantic-comedy classics – if you enjoy “When Harry Meets Sally,” “Sleepless in Seattle,” and “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” you’ll hear subtle echoes of the tropes they use, albeit sprinkled with Silver’s own special touch. 

 

 

 

You can learn more about me on my website and connect with me through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. My WW2 romances are available through Amazon.