Name: A Fool's Gold Christmas
ISBN: 9780373777884

Susan Mallery

When an injury forces her to return home, and into the fold of her estranged family, Evie Stryker agrees to stage the winter festival and then plans to leave town, but her brother's best friend has other plans for her.

A Fool's Gold Christmas

Angela Guilherme

*I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

This is the first book on this series that I read but, even though it was apparent that several of the characters on it where protagonists in previous books in the series, it’s not necessary to read them because each story is independent.

The protagonists are Evie Stryker and Dante Jefferson, both newly arrived at Fool's Gold. But, unlike Dante, who only moved there because his best friend and business partner (and Evie’s brother) also moved there, to Evie it was a return to her home town. And to the familiarity of the family with whom she has had practically no contact with since she left home at seventeen to go to Julliard to study dance... And the truth is that the decision to return to Fool's Gold wasn't even hers, but her family’s that brought her back after the accident that ended her dancing career.

And that is how Evie finds herself living in a town she practically doesn't even remember and assuming control of the dance studio in which she got employed, after the manager of it left town all of a sudden, and having to assemble the annual Christmas show for which there are no instructions available... It’s no wonder she’s not really feeling the Christmas spirit, is it?

And then there is the matter of the family that never really cared about her, all of a sudden, suffocating her with motherly and brotherly love. However, Evie never really felt as part of the family and her mother’s attempts of getting close are too little, too late, as far as she’s concerned. So Evie’s plan is to put up with Christmas and New Year and save enough to leave Fool’s Gold.

Not all is bad though, because Evie discovers that her brother’s business partner, whose office is on the ground floor of the dance studio where she works, is her neighbour. And he seems to share her aversion to all things Christmas. And, as they spend more and more time together, and realize the attraction they feel is mutual, somehow starting over in Fool's Gold doesn’t seem like such a ridiculous notion to Evie. Of course she will have to overcome her issues with her family and Dante also has a trauma stopping him to ever becoming attached to a woman to overcome but, with a little bit of Christmas magic, it may just be possible.

I liked the story and I’m going to keep following the series. Even if it’s the type of book that always leaves me feeling sorry that these small towns only exist in fiction...

Forced to return to her family in Fool's Gold, Calif., after an injury, dancer Evie Stryker agrees to stage the town's winter festival, the rehearsal space for which is above bad-boy lawyer Dante Jefferson's office.

A Fool's Gold Christmas

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