Christmas Inn Maine

By: Chelsea M. Cameron

Narrated by: Katherine Schooler

All Colden Hayes wanted was to spend Christmas by herself in a cottage by the sea where the cheer of the holiday season couldn’t reach her. Everything was going according to plan until the cottage she rented turned out not to exist and she ends up snowed in at a charming inn that happens to be owned by the family of her most-hated coworker, Laura Sterling. Talk about bad luck.

Colden ends up saying yes to Laura’s mother when she insists on giving her a room. It’s only for a night, but she somehow finds herself agreeing to spend Christmas with the Sterlings as well. She blamed the festive atmosphere that she couldn’t seem to escape. Maybe there’s something in the mistletoe?

Against her will, Colden finds herself being sucked into the comfort and joy of the season, even though she can’t seem to escape Laura, who is literally everywhere Colden is, like she’s doing it on purpose. Things get even worse when they’re forced to share a bed when there’s a fire at a local farm and the inn offers all the available rooms to the family.

Colden finally realizes there’s a thin line between annoyance and attraction, and she and Laura definitely crossed it. She’s also pretty sure that Laura’s mother is shipping them hard and so is the rest of her family, right down to her great-grandmother whose main companion is a 200-pound pig named Minnie.

Will the magic of the holiday season melt Colden’s heart? Or will she go back to Boston alone, with only the memories to keep her warm?

©2019 Chelsea M. Cameron (P)2020 Chelsea M. Cameron

Snowed in holiday romance

Going in with no expectations - this was a very cute little holiday book!
F/X Christmas romance between two coworkers, a demi girl and woman who both end up at an inn together.

There's a lot of cute elements in this: snowed in, only one bed, some unrequited love, meddling but not overbearing family members, a pet pig, and reading together in comfortable silence.

I really enjoyed including the trans lead, and how the heroine would check in with them each day to check what pronouns to use. I also appreciated that there was a little bit of trans discussion, while also not feeling preachy or like the lead's only personality aspect was being a demi girl. It was a good balance.

However, this plot of them stuck together is held on by a thread, and there's a bit of suspension of disbelief to just go along with it. We like seeing them spend time together at the inn. The "rivals" to lovers aspect was also luke-warm, which I appreciated. There wasn't much angst in this, and also no end of book conflict!

Christmas Inn Maine

This was pretty cute - a rivals to lovers, holiday romance. Colden and Laura are competitive coworkers to say the least. As luck would have it though, the vacation elves have made it so that Colden ends up at Laura's family's inn. Then Christmas magic does it's thing.

The two have such a palpable tension between them, it makes the story electric. They both have a grumpy side that they are not shy in showing each other. But like I said, the magic happens and things get pretty steamy for them. Laura's family is a wonderful addition to their dynamic...really puts that small-town vibe to the story. ❤️

Bad Narration

the narrator for some reason felt the need to over enunciate practically every vowel in the book. but I liked the story better than some of Cameron's other stuff

Couldn't do it

I couldn't get through the first chapter. The narration is so robotic it's distracting.