Genres: adult, Family, Holidays, Love & Romance
Pages: 259
Perfect for the holidays! In the harsh winter of the Scottish Highlands, where love and past history are equally fierce, burning away old hurts lets the future bloom its brightest. Award-winning author Martina Boone spins a beautiful, heartwarming, and moving standalone novel of love, loss, hope, redemption, family, small-towns, and big ambitions set in the magical landscape of the Celtic Legends Collection.
Cait Fletcher was always second-string in her father’s eyes, unable to compete with her perfect older brother. Her father’s view of Cait only deteriorated when she fell for the local “bad boy” at the age of nine, and her love for Brice MacLaren never once wavered until the day he betrayed her a few months before their wedding. But their tiny glen in the Scottish Highlands full of secrets, opinionated neighbors, wandering sheep, and countless old traditions left no place to for Cait to escape either her past or her mistakes. She moved away—until her father’s unexpected illness gave her no choice but to return for the winter holidays.
Home again, Cait still loves the village of Balwhither as much as she hates it, and she despises the fact that just the sight of Brice can has never stopped making her heart twist and her breath come faster. But when she discovers that her father has given up not only on the family-run Library and Tea Room but also on the treatment for his cancer, she must put her own emotions and fears aside. Brice claims he’s changed, and he’s certainly been good to her father since she left. Now can she trust him enough to work with him as she fights to give her father something meaningful to live for?
A timeless story of love, passion, fathers and daughters, heroic women, men in kilts, and heartwarming traditions that will charm new readers and fans of the Celtic Legends Collection alike. Perfect for those who love Nora Roberts, Susan Mallery, Susan Wiggs, Sarah Addison Allen, and Diana Gabaldon.
Magic of Winter is the third book in the Celtic Legends series by Martina Boone and if you are looking for a story that centers around family and second chance romance, you should consider this book. While this is the third book of the series, I don’t think you have to read the first two, but it is definitely a good idea as some characters from the previous books make appearances.
The main characters in this story are Cait and Brice. They were high school sweethearts and engaged but both of them were struggling with figuring out who they were and what they wanted out of life. After the death of her mother and brother, Cait sees something that pushes her to run away to London – away from Brice as well as her father. When Christmas rolls around and her father refuses to come to London, Cait makes the decision to go back home and that is when things start to be revealed.
Cait immediately realizes her father has been keeping some pretty big secrets from her. He has essentially packed away or gotten rid of every trace of her mother and is in the process of selling the Library and Tea Room she built and loved. Not only was this important to Cait but it has been an important part of the village of Balwhither and Cait is unwilling to let it go. Add to this the fact that her father has found out he has cancer and has basically given up trying to fight it and Cait decides she needs to stay and do what she can on both fronts.
Before I go into this story any further, I have to say, I loved how Boone decided to write about such a challenging relationship between a father and a daughter. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for her when she gets home and continually hits a wall with her father. He is stubborn and sad, and it seems like no matter what Cait does, she can’t win with him.
Of course, there is the romance part of the story. I love a second chance romance and while I had no idea what it was that sent Cait running, it was clear Brice was going to have to prove himself in order to win her trust back. From the start of the book it is obvious that they both still have feelings for each other and as Brice slowly proves that he has really changed, Cait realizes they both had some growing up to do.
This was a pretty quick read (as are all the books in this series) and the romance is slowly built up despite the fact that these two characters have a past. As in the other books, Boone does a fantastic job of setting up the surroundings these characters live in and tying in the local traditions. If you are looking for a light romance set in the Highlands of Scotland, definitely consider checking not only this book out, but also the other books of the series.
Thank you to the author for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
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