Book Review: The Mistletoe Inn

Author: Richard Paul Evans
Title:  The Mistletoe Inn
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Publish Date: November 17, 2015
Buy: Amazon

Book Blurb: 

The second holiday love story in New York Times bestselling author Richard Paul Evans' Mistletoe Collection.

At thirty-two Kimberly Rossetti, a finance officer at a Lexus car dealership, has had her heart broken more times than she wants to remember. With two failed engagements, a divorce and again alone with no prospects, she hardly seems the type to dream of being a published romance author. Dreading another holiday alone, she signs up for The Mistletoe Retreat, a nine-day writing retreat in Savannah, Georgia. Deep inside Kimberly knows she's at a junction in her life and it's time to either fulfill her dream or let it go. The other reason she decides to attend the conference is because famed romance writer, H.T. Cowell, once the best selling romance writer in America, and the author whose books instilled in her the desire to be a writer, will be speaking in public for the first time in more than a decade.

In one of her breakout sessions Kimberly meets another aspiring writer, and one of the few men at the conference, Zeke, an intelligent man with a wry wit who seems as interested in Kimberly as he is in the retreat. As Kimberly begins to open up to him about her stories and dreams, she inadvertently reveals her own troubled past. As Zeke helps her to discover why her books fail to live up to their potential she begins to wonder if he's really talking more about her life than her literature. But as she grows closer to him, she realizes that Zeke has his own darkness, a past he's unwilling to talk about.

The theme of The Mistletoe Inn is that like literature, relationships must be lived with passion and vulnerability to succeed.

Review: I have loved Richard Paul Evans for a very long time. His books make my holidays. His first books were tear-jerkers and though I'm not usually a fan of books designed to make you cry, when it comes to RPE I always enjoy them. Some like Nicholas Sparks, I like Richard Paul Evans.

This book was more of a sweet romance, which really isn't quite RPE's thing, at least not in the whole Harlequin romance kind of way, and that's how this book was written. (Only most Harlequin holiday novels are a little more believable)

There are things I could find fault with in this book and I will, but I will tell you that even though there were things that made me crazy, such as how the author seemed to dismiss self published authors and the glamorous lives of published authors. I'm sure there are some very wealthy authors but that's not really the way of things anymore.

Of the characters in this story I liked Kimberly's father the most. He was the most real, where Kimberly was a little to woe is me. I also liked her writing convention buddy, Samantha. Then there's Zeke. Ah, of course you love him instantly, but it doesn't take too long to figure out who he really is. The book is all kinds of predictable, but that doesn't make it bad.

Kimberly is an aspiring writer who is attending a conference in Vermont to see the writer that she loves and is inspired by, H.T. Cowell. Zeke is an aspiring writer that she meets there. They hit it off instantly, but when he critiques her book things go south for awhile. Being the type of book this is, things will get fixed and all will be well in the world.      

This book is the type of story you read when you need a pick me up. RPE always finds something good in something bad.

I always feel better after reading one of his books and look forward to his offerings each year.

Rating: 4 flowers