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As we continue into the holiday season, this week I want to share a first chapter excerpt from my sweet holiday romance, Candleglow and Mistletoe
Noelle Wentworth doesn’t mind getting away from St. Augustine to fill in at her ailing aunt’s candle shop.A few weeks in Snowing Rock will help her get past the humiliating memory lapse that ruined an important piano concert—and, ultimately, her marriage to her overbearing duet partner.
She’s mentally rehearsing for her comeback performance when the bus she’s riding in slides off an icy mountain road.
And one deep, calming voice emerges from the confusion to slow her racing heart—right before his ruggedly handsome face kicks it back into allegro.
Chapter One:
Noelle Wentworth never liked long bus journeys, especially when the bus was being driven by a preoccupied driver who kept glancing down at his cell phone. She shifted in the worn bus seat and fished through her purse for dry soda crackers to calm her motion sickness. Then she pushed down the impulse to march to the front of the bus and suggest that the bus driver slow his speed and concentrate on the snowy, frozen road ahead.
She glanced out the window. The traffic lights in Fisher’s Crossing, the last small town before Snowing Rock, North Carolina, would force the driver to slow.
Noelle leaned back in her seat and blew out an exhausted breath. She’d been traveling since morning and longed to unpack, enjoy a long, hot shower, then practice piano for her upcoming concert.
She glanced at Anjali, the sleeping, five-year-old girl she’d met a few hours earlier. She’d started talking to Noelle, and Noelle had invited the little girl to sit in the empty bus seat beside her. Noelle smiled at Anjali’s mother, Mrs. Fernandez, seated across the aisle.
The woman nodded back, her gaze tired, her hair graying at the temples. She zipped her long, red puffer jacket up to her chin and closed her eyes.
Noelle tucked her curly blonde hair beneath her hat, envisioning the picturesque town of Snowing Rock ahead. The town had been listed as one of America’s top ten ‘Christmas Towns’ because of its quaint charm. She hoped nothing had changed in the fifteen years since she’d last visited. Although this wasn’t a visit, she corrected herself. She’d agreed to temporarily manage her Aunt Joy’s candle shop while her aunt convalesced from a hip injury.
Noelle’s orderly private life would be disrupted for a few weeks while she helped out her aunt, but Noelle had agreed, purely out of duty. Although she was busy preparing for her concert, there was no other family, and her aunt needed someone she could trust.
Noelle knew that feeling all too well. She’d lost her parents a year ago and missed their support and guidance, especially after her bad marriage, made even worse by her illness. Along the way, Noelle had learned a hard lesson. She was leery of trusting anyone.
Snag your ebook copy of Candleglow and Mistletoe today!
Also available in paperback and audiobook.
Reader Reviews:
“This was such a wonderful read, and I know I’m going to read it again during the Christmas season. Being a pianist, I could relate to the stress of stage fright and how every day events can affect one’s focus, but this is just one small element of the story. I love how the author weaves the 2 main characters together, and you quickly love and root for them to be a couple. There were some twists and turns, but they got there! Loved it.”
“I loved this story from the very beginning! Noelle was so focused. It was great to watch Gabe pull her out of her shell. I could feel her vulnerability and also her determination to be the strong person she truly was. Gabe…sigh! Gabe was pretty much the perfect hero! This is the first thing I’ve read by Josie Riviera. I am very excited to read more of her work!”