Allison: Maybe This Christmas | Sarah Morgan | Book Review

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

This winter, ex-skiing champion, reformed heartbreaker and single dad Tyler O'Neil has only one mission—making sure his daughter, Jess, has the best Christmas ever. The fact that his best friend, Brenna, is also temporarily moving into his chalet at the overbooked Snow Crystal resort is a delicious distraction he's simply going to have to ignore. Theirs is the one relationship he's never ruined, and he's not about to start now. Ski pro Brenna Daniels knows all about the perils of unrequited love—she's been in love with Tyler for years. But living with him is absolute torture… How can she concentrate on being his friend when he's sleeping in the room next door? Then when Tyler kisses Brenna, suddenly the relationship she's always dreamed of feels so close she could almost touch it. Could this be the Christmas her dreams of a happy-ever-after finally come true?

I’m not a winter person. Far from it honestly. I like the first drifts of snow because I think it is beautiful. I can’t imagine Christmas without snow as that is how it has always been. Except for last year when there wasn’t any snow and it was weird. But after Christmas? The snow can just go away thank you very much. I have officially had my fill. This would probably also explain why I’ve never been skiing in my life. Have I imagined doing so? Yes actually but I doubt I ever will for various reasons such as coordination and physical limitations. I’d be much more willing to sit inside the ski lodge with a nice warm cup of hot chocolate and a good book in hand. All of that being said even though I’m not a winter person I absolutely fell in love with the Snow Crystal Resort setting of Maybe This Christmas by Sarah Morgan. I felt myself wanting to go visit it, wanting to try out the slopes, and believing that it was the perfect setting for the romance that was taking place within the pages.

Tyler and Brenna have been life-long best friends. They know everything about each other and have helped each other through their darkest hours. They have no secrets been them. Well except for the fact that Brenna has been in love with Tyler most of her life and as she is getting older she is finding it harder and harder to deny the truth. But what she doesn’t know is that Tyler has always been attracted to her too but has never wanted to change things between them because he doesn’t want to see her get hurt. I loved these two characters together. I smiled with them, laughed with them, and cringed with them as they tried to navigate the tricky slippery scope of going from friends into a relationship. Separately, they were both strongly written characters in their own right but together, they just worked and made each other stronger too.

The secondary characters were so much fun. I really liked Jess, Tyler’s daughter, who is a pro at pushing her father’s buttons even though she hasn’t really known him that long because her mother kept her a secret from him so long. She doesn’t do it to hurt him but it is their way of bonding with each other as they are not sure how to do it otherwise. Jess isn’t afraid to call Tyler out on his crap and don’t get me wrong, when push comes to shove Tyler is there to protect Jess from anyone that may be trying to hurt her even her own mother. I also liked watching Jess interact with the rest of her new family including Brenna. Apparently, there are other books written by Sarah Morgan about this particular family network which I now can’t wait to check out because of how much I loved this one.

Tyler and Brenna’s romance was a slow-build set to a beautiful backdrop. I loved watching them slowly figure out exactly what was going on between them and watching them both grow as people as they came together. Tyler became more insightful as a man and no longer held onto his past regrets while Brenna became more daring and more willing to stand up for herself instead of letting herself get taken advantage of. I loved the tight knit community within the Snow Crystal Resort. It was just all so good. Maybe This Christmas was the absolute perfect book to read during the winter time and one that I would recommend that all of you check out next winter … or maybe even sooner if you’re in the mood for that type of a book.