A Bride for Christmas
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Review of A Bride for Christmas from Harlequin’s Love Inspired Line of romance novels.
The Rancher’s Mistletoe Bride by Jill Kemerer
The Love Inspired Christmas Collection, A Bride for Christmas, features “two uplifting” Christmas Romance Novels. The Rancher’s Mistletoe Bride, the first in the collection, opens with handsome cowboy Clint Romine applying to run Rock Step Ranch for its new heiress Lexi Harrington, who is reeling from the death of her father. Clint and Lexi have an instant attraction to one another. However, they both fight the attraction because of their employee – employer relationship.
Lexi has trust issues that are exacerbated by learning that her father knew about his cancer and hadn’t told her. Additionally, her employees at Weddings by Alexandra in Denver are undermining her while she’s at home taking care of her father’s estate. Clearly, working remotely from Montana is not what’s best for her business. She’s going to have to choose between Montana and Denver, between her business and her family’s ranch, between companionship with Clint and her friends in Montana and her life consumed with making every bride’s wedding dreams come true in Denver.
Clint is keeping a secret from her about how he lost his own ranch and constantly second-guesses his decisions. Worse, though, is the guilt he feels for withholding the information from his new, attractive employer. This time, he prays he can make the right decisions and save Lexi’s beloved family ranch.
Can Clint overcome this feeling that he’s not good enough to manage Rock Step Ranch? Can his friends convince him that he is good enough for Lexi? In time for him to convince her that planning her own wedding in Montana is better than planning someone else’s in Denver?
Despite the cover’s claim that A Bride for Christmas contains “two uplifting stories,” life in Sweet Dreams, Montana, initially seems anything but uplifting for Lexi and Clint. They are both orphans, Lexi very recently so, and the loss of her father is hitting her pretty hard. She’s not eating properly, she’s worried about her business and the employees that she feels responsible for, and she also feels responsible for all the people that her family’s ranch has supported for years.
Like many of us after a loss so profound, she questions all the time she devoted to her company and regrets time lost with her father. She feels guilty, wondering if her dad would be alive if he’d been here. When she finds the pathology report, she’s angry with her dad for lying to her. Her quest for answers around her father’s death keeps her from being everything that she needs to be for her company.
Lexi finds herself reflecting on the 50-60 hours a week she put into building her company. She reflects on the lack of work-life balance. With dismay, she realizes that she made her career her first priority and neglected her from the family, friends, and home that really matter to her. She finds herself longing to come back, but realizing that the man that she’s falling for is emotionally unavailable. She’s been there, done that, and has no desire to give her heart to someone who can’t love her in return. She’s been making everyone else’s wedding dreams come true for so long. She has tucked away so many ideas for the perfect wedding. Now, she just has to find the perfect groom.
After being abandoned by his parents at a young age, Clint found himself living with his grandfather and then bounced around from foster-home to foster-home. Everyone he ever loved either left him or didn’t love him back enough to keep him. His grandfather’s proclamation, that he was useless, has become his internal mantra. He convinced himself that he must be fundamentally different from everyone else: not meant to have dreams of his own, and certainly not lovable.
Clint had learned to accept long ago that he was not meant to have a family. He’d never dreamed of a wife and kids and Christmas traditions. Working on a ranch was the only thing that made him feel like a man. Owning a ranch of his own was the only dream he had ever chased. Losing his ranch had made all of those feelings of inadequacy rise up again within him. So much so that he took a job he hated instead of pursuing another job ranching, as if he couldn’t risk being happy again. He feels like he must have lost his mind to apply for the ranch manager position in Sweet Dreams, Montana.
The first part of this story is a tough read for anyone who’s experienced what Lexi and Clint have experienced: the loneliness at the holidays, missing loved ones, guilt over past mistakes, remembering harsh words that still have the power to emotionally cripple us. However, do yourself a favor and keep reading! The ending of this story does fulfill the promise of being “uplifting.” More than that, the ending sweeps us away with grand gestures for a magical, fairytale-style ending that feels a bit rushed, but completely perfect.
The Rancher’s Christmas Bride by Brenda Minton
Alex Palermo refuses to turn out like his father. To him that means breaking the cycle of abuse by never marrying or having kids. At least that’s the plan until he meets Marissa Walker, who is stranded on a back road in Bluebonnet Springs. In her wedding dress. In the rain. Without her groom.
Until now, Marissa Walker has allowed her parents to dictate her life, from which job to take to which wedding dress to wear. When her ex-fiancé jilted her at the altar, it didn’t hurt her heart nearly as much as she would have expected it to. It did, however, hurt her pride. This is how she ended up in Bluebonnet Springs with the intention of meeting her grandfather for the first time.
Marissa and Alex both know that her stay in Bluebonnet is temporary. She has a life and a job in Dallas. The only problem is that the longer she stays in Bluebonnet, the more the town feels like home. Her grandfather is gruff, but he loves her and needs her. He’s family, and so is Alex.
Alex and Marissa both blame themselves for what happened to others when they were children. Alex feels like everyone judges him for his father’s mistakes. Marissa feels like she will never be good enough to win her parents’ affection and approval. They have never opened up to others about these insecurities. When they finally open up to each other, they find someone who understands.
When Marissa goes back to her “real” life in Dallas, readers will find themselves frustrated with both of them. It’s obvious to everyone but them that she belongs in Bluebonnet Springs. She belongs with Alex. It’s time for her to put herself first and start making her own decisions.
The Rancher’s Christmas Bride is a truly heartwarming novel that will transport you to a timeless town with a cast of incredible characters who know how to honor Christmastime.
Reviewed by Robin Sneed at Keeping Christmas 365
Read more reviews of Christmas novels and stories!
Originally published: December 27, 2022
Last updated: April 16, 2023
