Book two of The Hathaways, Their Christmas Carol is a second chance at love story for young widow Linnea Olsen and her first love Nat Hathaway, who is on the cusp of making it big as a singer songwriter. Set in Marietta Montana, this gorgeous story is all about learning to take chances, learning to seek and accept support when you need it. It encompasses community and family and Christmas traditions.
I found both Nat and Linnea utterly engaging from the first. I truly felt for Linnea as she struggled to help her young daughters settle into their new home at her parents’ orchard. Poor Linnea seemed to be carrying the worries of the world on her shoulders until Nat steps back into her life and shares the load.
This story is packed with emotion and kept me hooked from the beginning. It came out at the end of 2017 and I wish I had read it then because I just loved watching Linnea and Nat discover their love for each other.

I simply cannot get enough of the stories revolving around Marietta, Montana by Tule Publishing...the Christmas Carol another fine example of the quality and genuineness of the stories and their authors.

Nat and Linnea's story touches your heart nearly from its onset, with remembrances of a first love and then of a second chance one that they fight to recapture. There are moments of tenderness that nearly bring you to tears. There definitely is no shortage of heartwarming and loose your breath moments as well. Nat will steal your heart, while Linnea will break it...this only making for a story that you can't turn the pages quickly enough.

This author has captured the perfect mixture of love loss and found again to carry the story through at an attention grabbing pace that brings the it to an end too quickly as you've lost yourself in the Hathaway's world. The next story in the series cannot come soon enough.

This ARC book was complimentary, provided by the Publisher and NetGalley. I am voluntarily providing my honest review.

Thank you for allowing me to read and review this book. I am just not interested in this book anymore. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Their Christmas Carol is a touching Christmas romance of a now older version of high school sweethearts who went different directions when their dreams couldn’t or wouldn’t follow each other. Linnea is now a widow with two daughters. She’s returned home to Marietta to tend to her parents, their orchard and business and to provide a solid community home for her kids. Nat has also returned home but more quietly, working on his songs, getting ready for the next album, wondering why the life he choose no longer gives him the satisfaction it once did. Both have changed, and yet they still have the same issues that separated them so many years ago.

When Linnea decides to organize a charity concert she may have bitten off more than she expected. But with Nat in town, he’s the perfect candidate to volunteer to help her get this event off the ground. The past, the present and a very uncertain future are all tangled up in this second chance to get it right romance. The love, the desire is still there between them, but have they grown older and wiser enough to realize that compromise is the answer to their happy ever after this time around.

I enjoyed another Christmas story in Marietta, Montana where the small town feel never gets old and the neighbors are there for you no matter what. Nat and Linnea make a believable couple who are dealing with current life issues, and maybe some left over feelings of the past as well. Each are dealing with current events that need to be faced before their chance for happiness together can be realized. If you love anything Marietta – then Their Christmas Carol is another perfect fit. I would recommend this story for any reader who loves small town romance, a second chance to get it right and the magic of the holiday season all wrapped up in a tender, touching romance.

*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley. That does not change what I think of this story. It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this book.*

I’m not as enamored to this second entry to “Big Sky Hathaways” series as I was with Baking for Keeps. It’s sweet enough, I think. And there’s history between the characters, making Their Christmas Carol has that second-chance one-who-got-away vibes, which I usually find interesting. Yet somehow I feel disengaged with Nat and Linnea, and their feelings to each other don’t seem to be out there.

What first crossed my mind was, this book has too many characters flipping through pages that diverted the attentions from our MCs, Nat and Linnea. Which is funny really, I’ve no trouble devouring books with multiple POVs before. Then there’s also kids, food, and pet thrown in the story (again, usually among my favorites items in books). The (personal) baggage Nat and Linnea have is not something to thumb your nose to. Plus, as in previous book, the nosiness level of family and friends is not annoying for a small town setting. It’s hard to pinpoint, but I’m not really convinced with the romance between Nat and Linnea.

Between them, I think Linnea gets the bigger POV portion and to work on her personal issue, dealing with her kids and parents. With less part, Nat also has to deal with his own issues with help from his parents and sibling. That doesn’t leave much for our MCs private time, really. And even those don’t go deep enough though (at least in my humble opinion). Both Nat and Linnea are too - Idk if it’s the right word - haughty(?) to own up to their feeling.

The saving grace of their story comes close to the closing chapter, which is way too late to excite this reader, really. For a holiday story with exciting kids and activities, Their Christmas Carol got a pretty gloomy atmosphere. But if nothing, at least it has hopeful HEA ending.


Advanced copy of this book is kindly provided by the author/publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Their Christmas Carol by Jessica Gilmore is a charming story of second chances, revamp dreams, family and charity. The characters are kind, god-natured if somewhat disillusioned individuals. At different places in life’s journey they wind up back in Mariette, which is a good place to come home to.

The story is an easy read with Jessica Gilmore’s clear pleasing writing style. It is not one in which there are so many characters that you can’t keep up with them all. Instead it has the focus on Linnea and Nate as they fall in love while working together to help the community. What a wonderful way to meet your true love. I found it a relaxing entertaining Christmas story.

I loved this second change romance story. Two souls who never thought they'd be reunited in the small town where their young love first blossomed. Linnea and Nat thought they wanted different things out of life and both of them clearly felt out of place as high schoolers in Marietta - Nat because he grew up on the road with his parents and thought that's what he too wanted out of life and Linnea because she overheard an insensitive relative comment about her adoption. Circumstances bring them both back to Marietta and putting on a charity concert throws them together all the time. Nat is shocked by his parents putting down roots and struggles with his identity and success as a musician - does he have to sell out to be successful? Linnea struggles with her decision to move home to help her family while her oldest daughter fights their move away from the only home the girls have ever known and where they lived with their late father. Nat and Linnea discover that despite superficial differences in their situations they have much in common and learning to be true to themselves brings them back together.

This was a wonderful holiday story that truly touched my heart. Going home can sometimes be hard but it also is sometimes exactly what you need. That's the case for Nat Hathaway and Linnea Olsen. They dated in high school but went their separate ways after graduation. Now he's a disillusioned songwriter/singer and she's a widowed mother of two young girls. She came back to help her family and start over, he came back to look for a little inspiration to finish writing songs for his new album/ When Linnea convinces Nat to help her with a Christmas charity concert the get to spend a lot of time together and discover that the old attractions are still there.

Put this one on the holiday reading list, I highly recommend it.