Christmas in Harmony Harbor

August 26, 2019
Mason’s engaging ninth Harmony Harbor contemporary (after Barefoot Beach) is an enemies-to-lovers story with a complicated but successful plot. Evie Christmas gave up her career as a psychologist to take over her family’s year-round Christmas store, Holiday House, in Harmony Harbor, Mass. She struggles to make it profitable while simultaneously fighting the efforts of charming Irish developer Caine Elliot to turn it into a parking lot for his planned skyscraper. After chaining herself to a bulldozer, Evie convinces Caine to bet the future of his building on his ability to successfully complete three wishes from the store’s angel tree. Meanwhile, Caine’s imperious grandmother insists he acquire Greystone Manor to humble the Gallagher family, who are unaware Caine is the son of a disowned illegitimate Gallagher child. With the help of the ghost of matriarch Colleen Gallagher and Evie’s persistent cajoling, Caine begins to thaw on the small town, but past events threaten to upend future happiness. Mason juggles her overlapping plots well by focusing on the deep, fluid emotions of her characters, which make even ghosts and humans reincarnated as cats plausible. This touching but never schmaltzy holiday romance is very satisfying. Agent: Pamela Harty, Knight Agency.

September 15, 2019
Evie Christmas lives up to her last name in the latest installment in Mason's Harmony Harbor series as she runs Holiday House, a year-round Christmas and holidays shop. But this might be its last year since the super-rich (and super-gorgeous) real-estate developer Caine Elliot wants to bulldoze the place. In a last-ditch effort to stop this Scrooge, Evie engages Caine in a bet. To earn the town's approval for his plan, he has to fulfill three Christmas wishes, and he begins to realize his own Christmas wish is for Evie, but there are many obstacles on the path to love. Extended family, including the ghost of a knowledgeable great-grandmother, plays an important role and fills the tale with colorful, sometimes over-the-top characters. The plot goes a bit off the rails near the end, but the central romance is satisfying, making for a zany and heartwarming read bursting with Christmas spirit.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)