EARLY REVIEW: Christmas at Two Love Lane with Kieran Kramer

Title: Christmas at Two Love Lane
Author: Kieran Kramer
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (October 3, 2017)
Source: NetGalley
Rating: ☕☕1/2

Synopsis: The best gift of all is the one you share with someone else. . .

From the moment he strode through the iron gate and into the offices of Two Love Lane on a crisp December day, it was obvious that Deacon Banks was something different. He wasn’t a Charleston native, not with that adorable Yankee accent. And unlike the usual client at the elegant matchmaking agency, he had no interest in finding a woman to marry—just a few no-strings dates while he was in town.

Macy Frost takes her professional services very seriously—how could she not, when she’s rumored to be a direct descendant of Cupid? Tech entrepreneur Deacon says he’s just trying to make his social-climbing aunt happy by being seen out and about with a few prominent beauties, but Macy insists she can make her client fall in love…for real. And Deacon can’t help but think she might be right. As charming as the palmetto trees and magnificent harbor may be, it’s the beautiful, breath-of-fresh-air Macy who’s become Deacon’s favorite part of the scenery. But can the hopelessly romantic Southern belle stop trying to fix him up and just let Cupid do his work on her own heart?

My Thoughts: I went into this book with so much excitement. It's a Holiday book! It's by Kieran Kramer! Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me.

The Good, The Bad, and Everything Else: The setting of Charleston is charming but the pace and the setting of the story makes this feel like a small town story. With Charleston being well over 100k people this felt a bit off for me even though I did like it. I love small town romances. I also liked some of the secondary cast of characters. Fran, Deacon's Aunt, was an interesting woman who stole the scenes she was in, and she was in quite a lot of them and George, her HouseBoy/Manservant, was a hoot . Unfortunately, I never really warmed up to Macy, or even her partners, Greer, Ella, and Miss Thing, or really many of the characters. There was very little background on them and very little divulged during the course of the book. What I got from Macy was she was perfect. She giggled. She was a professional (although the last thing wasn't demonstrated but repeated by Macy herself.) Her only imperfection is that she can't seem to let herself fall in love. She's a matchmaker who doesn't believe she can find her true love.

Anyway, I had a hard time getting into this book. It could have been the pacing, which seemed really slow. Or it could be everything was just so sweet. There wasn't any actual conflict. I don't consider Macy's wishy washy woe is me I can't fall in love ways conflict. I missed this aspect and felt the book suffered a bit without it. In addition, there were a couple sex scenes but they all began on page and finished off page. Very little details were included and I actually prefer a little more sizzle in my books.

In a Nutshell: Even though I really adore Kieran Kramer's historical romances I wasn't blown away by this Contemporary Romance and barely even liked it. Even though this book wasn't for me those who like just plain sweet CRs with a low heat levels might enjoy this.

An Outlaw's Christmas by Linda Lael Miller

Synopsis: With his wild heart, Sawyer McKettrick isn't ready to settle down on the Triple M family ranch in Arizona. So he heads to Blue River, Texas, to seek a job as marshal. But in a blinding snowstorm he's injured -- and collapses into the arms of a prim and proper lady in calico.  — The shirtless, bandaged stranger recuperating in teacher Piper St. James's room behind the schoolhouse says he's a McKettrick, but he looks like an outlaw. As they wait out the storm, the handsome loner has Piper remembering long-ago dreams of marriage and motherhood. But for how long is Sawyer willing to call Blue River home?

As the gray skies clear, Piper's one holiday wish just might bring two lonely hearts together forever. 

My Thoughts: This is part of Linda Lael Miller's historical romance McKettrick series and frankly I was completely underwhelmed by it. The characters were not fleshed out enough and there was little conclusion to the added conflict. The characters fell in love with each other in a matter of 2 days (never mind that the hero was unconscious a lot of that time) and they were marveling at the admirable character traits of the other that left me wondering if they were having riveting conversations that we readers weren't allowed to witness. I have read several other McKettrick books and liked them well enough to continue reading them but this one was so not up to snuff.

However there were some positives. It was a quick holiday read and parts were simply sweet. I enjoyed some of the additional characters including a woman who works in a brothel. Her daughter is one of Piper's students and I thought their part of the storyline was very good.

Overall not a book that I would recommend to newbies of Miller's work but if you have read her books before and are a fan you will probably enjoy this one too. On a side note this book is not labeled a McKettrick but a stand-alone. Sawyer's brother Clay's book was book #15 in the McKettrick series and this one follows it. Sawyer is definitely a McKettrick so I'm not sure why this is not listed as such on Miller's website.