A nice holiday tale with a family mystery proves for a great continuation to the history of the Hamilton's. As Holly comes back to her hometown to deal with her family's holiday themed shop, she faces life changing choices and an unexpected complication involving her heart and her childhood crush of Sean Gallagher. Sean's life hasn't gone the way he expected either but he's determined to make Holly take a chance on the sparks between them. Throw in a long forgotten diary, a hidden family secret and a little bit of Christmas magic and what a lovely little story. Can't wait to see what else unfolds with the Hamilton's.

I love any book by Donna Kauffman. Her writing style and the way she develops characters makes me want to visit the places she writes about. Although this story is short, more of a novella, I think she is able to draw the reader in and make them want more. I am sad that Donna won't be writing more books but so thankful for the ones she has left us. I will read them again and again.

This is the second book in the Hamilton series. You will fall in love with Sean and Holly. Holly moved to England as soon as she graduated high school to study art while Sean stayed close to home to learn culinary skills. Sean ended up back in his hometown to take over his parents restaurant after they were both killed while Holly stayed in England. Holly just found out that her parents have retired earlier than she expected and she now has things to deal with back home. One of which is her mothers Christmas store. While back in town she runs into Sean. They grew up together in the small town. Both had a crush on the other in high school but neither acted upon it. Now that they are both in their thirties and they are ready to see if what they felt when they were young was the start of something. During this journey they discover the secret that was talked about in the first book Unleashed. Trevor and Emma make an appearance at the end of the book which all leads up to the final book in the series, Naughty but Nice. This was another great story by Donna Kauffman!

This is the second book in the Hamilton Christmas series. Lock, Stock & Jingle Bells takes place several years after book one. Holly Berry Bennett has returned home from London, England when her parents tell her they have sold the house and moved to Florida. Her mother has signed over her Christmas store to Holly and it is up to her to figure out what to do with it. She returns home, planning to see it all and then head back to England, she has two weeks to take care of it. When she arrives in town, she meets up with Sean Gallagher, the boy she loved when she was a young girl, who just happens to operate the restaurant across the street from the store. Little does she know that he also had a crush on her, but was afraid to act on it and be turned down. Now is their second chance, 20 years later.

This second book of the Hamilton Christmas series was just as enjoyable as the first. Of course, being a novella, things happen fast and there is not a lot of character development. There is a mystery that was introduced in the first book, that carries on in this one that added interest to the story. This is a second chance romance that occurs at Christmas that was a rekindling of feelings from earlier times, so it wasn't completely, insta-love. I enjoyed the characters, the banter, the small town and the romance. A sweet, quick Christmas romance that I recommend.

I really enjoyed this Christmas novella. It is just right for a short holiday read.
I loved the way Sean put his feelings right out there for Holly. He realizes that this is his only chance with her, and he completely goes for it. It is very romantic.
Holly was very brave to try something new with Sean when her whole life had been turned upside down. I was proud of her.

I loved the characters and the storyline development of this book. It was absolutely one of my favorites so far and I can't wait to delve in to the next one that this author writes. The storyline was simple, enjoyable, and entertaining.

Dollycas’s Thoughts

Holly Berry Bennett left her small Virginia town to travel across the pond for college and except for a few short visits home has made a life for herself there. Now her parents have other ideas. They have decided to sell their home and retire to Florida. They have also left her mother’s Christmas shop to Holly for her to take over or dispose of as she sees fit. So again she is home trying to figure out with the mess she had been left with.

Sean Gallagher runs the family restaurant right across the street from the Christmas store. He sees Holly arrive by taxi with just one suitcase and he rushes right out to welcome her back. Childhood friends who had secret crushes on each other, Sean hopes that this will be their time. He just needs to convince her to give him a chance.

While Holly is sorting through inventory at the shop she finds an old diary. After reading it she does a little investigating and learns the secrets revealed in the diary could mean changes for both the Gallagher’s and the Bennett’s.

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Like the first book in this series, Ms. Kauffman gives readers characters we can fall for quickly which is good due to the novella length. She does an excellent job filling us in on their backstories and writes a romance that takes place quickly but realistically. I enjoyed that a little mystery theme was continued.

I was disappointed in Holly’s parents though. Dropping their decision on her and leaving town did not sit well with me. I realize her mother would have a hard time dealing with her shop’s future but it was totally unfair to put everything on Holly’s shoulders. They could have had her come home and worked things out together instead of just expecting her to drop her life while they just moved along with theirs. This is where the novella-length took away from the story, there just wasn’t space to have two more key characters to be present to make their decision less jarring.

That being said I finished this book and immediately started the third book in this series, Naughty But Nice.

Lock, Stock, and Jingle Bells is an entertaining romance with just a touch of mystery set in a little Virginia town. A nice mini escape to curl up with on a snowy afternoon.

Holly Berry Bennett is not the biggest fan of Christmas. This is mainly due to her mother’s extreme passion for the holiday which obviously shows in Holly’s own name having been born on Christmas Eve. Holly spent plenty of time working in her mother’s Christmas novelty store growing up and knows Christmas is not her thing.

Holly never expected her workaholic parents to suddenly decide to retire and pass over the family store to her as an early inheritance. Holly had even been living in London all these years but now she finds herself on her way back to America to sort out her future. Worrying about the store the last thing on Holly’s mind was her high school crush, Sean Gallagher, who just happens to run the restaurant across the street and is the first to welcome Holly back to town.

This is the second novella in the trilogy.

This is another book I read by this author and can't get enough. I loved this book. Such a wonderful heartwarming story revolving around Christmas time. Can't wait to read more.

Holly hates the yuletide season more than ever since she received her very early inheritance: her mother’s Christmas novelty store. Now she has to put her life on hold to deal with the shop, while her parents settle into their busy sunny Florida retirement. But Holly’s childhood pal, Sean, is determined to warm her up—to Christmas and to him. When they uncover a diary concealing secrets involving both their families, this could be the Christmas that changes their lives forever.
This was a cute and light-hearted Christmas story that really brings out the holiday spirit. I highly recommend.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book

Lock, Stock & Jingle Bells is the second, not so stand-alone novella in the Hamilton Christmas series by Donna Kauffman. The novellas are connected and in my humble opinion is better if you read them in order. If you have read Unleashed you might already know what's the secret Holly and Sean uncover. If you have not, you will find it out in this book, so no worries. Trevor and Emma (the couple from the first book) make a brief appearance and it was great!

The book is short so the second chance trope that is going on was a factor on my liking the book and buying the romance. It worked well and on the book's favor. Sean had some very good moments and he wasn't going all alpha male on Holly which was good. Overall though, I have to say that I didn't like it as much as I did with Unleashed. The story and the characters were good, but something was holding me back from loving it.

Holly is returning to her hometown to run the family store when her parents decide to retire and move to Florida. She is undecided about selling and returning to England where she has a good job in advertising. (Not the dream artist job she hoped for when she left town) Sean Hamilton has always worshiped Holly from afar as they were growing up and he's determined to have her stay. This is a short story set over the Christmas season and is book 2 in the Hamilton Christmas series. . It can be read as a stand alone and book 3 in the series is already available. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Second Chance Romance - The Gallagher Family Saga Continues
Although this is a standalone story, it helps to read Unleashed first if you want to put the pieces together of the larger story in this 3-novella series. Shy Holly, who’s just inherited her mom’s Christmas store, has always had a thing for Sean as a teen, but he was too popular to approach. Sean has been anxiously waiting for a glimpse of Holly’s return to town since he’s always had it bad for her back in school but never got a chance to act on his feelings.

Watching these two fall in love was like eating comfort food with someone you love, and just as enjoyable.

This story was originally published as part of an anthology.

My ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I received this book and Naughty But Nice by Donna Kauffman to read and review. I read Naughty But Nice first but realized I should have read this one before that one. However, I still understood the story, though reading them in order would have helped me more fully follow the stories. Frankly, neither book is very long and neither has much of a story line, so they are fast reads. In this book, Holly returns home from England because her mother has given her the family owned treasured antique/Christmas store (the store Holly actually was running away from when she moved to England), Still. Holly is now at the store, for better or worse, and she needs to decide what to do with it. Should she move back and manage/run the store, or should she sell it? Holly has spent the past few years in advertising, though her first love is art, which she indulges in periodically, traveling around the continent and painting pictures of the wonderful spots she visits/sees, so running the store does no appeal to her. When Holly arrives at the store, the man who owns the restaurant across the street, Seth Gallagher, comes by with dinner for her late one night. Holly and Seth were in school together years before. In fact, Holly once harbored a crush on him, though she never told him or anyone else about it. For his part, Seth was a well known and loved teenager, who excelled at just about everything and dated the local girls extensively. One thing Holly never knew was that Seth likewise had a secret crush on her, but never got up enough nerve to act on it. When he sees Holly again, the years fall away, and Seth is again the love-stricken beau. Because she is so mixed up about what to do and because she is so busy trying to make sense of her mother’s store, while also trying to figure out what to do about her life, Holly is not quite ready for Seth’s advances—though her body and emotions tell another story. As the story goes on, the pair manage to figure out what is going on and how to cope with everything they are feeling.

This is a short novella. I have read a lot of the books this author has written and was surprised to find myself having so much difficulty reading this one. I think the fact that it was so short was part of the problem, as there was little or no time to develop the two main characters, Holly and Seth, and too little time to grow their relationship. Everything seemed to just move along at warp speed. I also did not sense any real chemistry between Holly and Seth as I read. Finally, there was little plot and the ending was obvious from the very beginning. If you want a quick holiday story, this will do the trick. However, as I said, this does not have the interest of depth that her other books have. I received this from NetGalley to read and review.

Lock, Stock & Jingle Bells is a novella by Donna Kauffman that was previously published in the Kissing Santa Claus anthology and has now been rereleased as an ebook as part of the Hamilton Christmas series in time for the holidays.

Born on Christmas Eve to parents who are obsessed with the holidays and who run their own Christmas novelty store Holly grew up hating the season and couldn't get away from her hometown fast enough. Now suddenly her parents have decided to retire early and have given her her inheritance early so she finds herself the owner of a Christmas store and no real idea what to do with it. She's taken two weeks leave from work and plans to dismantle the shop as quickly as possible so she can return to her life. That was before her childhood friend and crush Sean walks back into her life though and now she finds herself considering other possibilities.

As much as I enjoyed the first story in this series (Unleashed) I did feel that the romance was a little rushed so the friends to lovers / second chance romance theme of this story worked much better for me in that regard. Holly and Sean grew up together so although they had never been more than friends there is a long history between them and that made their romance feel less rushed and more believable. They make a really sweet couple and I appreciated that Sean didn't put pressure on Holly to make huge decisions without taking the time to think things through. He wanted her to take a chance on them as a couple but he also understood that she couldn't make any promises when her whole life was in another country.

This whole series has had a nice festive feel to it and stories they've been really quick and fun December reads.

Holly leaves her life in London to take over the Christmas themed store that her mother left to her. She plans to sell it off, but she's hesitant to do it because of how much her mother loved the place. Along the way she reconnects with her old crush, Sean, and then there's like a tiny bit of mystery at the end.

Unfortunately, there's not really much to this one. Holly and Sean are cute together, and I REALLY liked Sean (I have a thing for cooks *shrug*) but at the same time...that's it? They both have always liked each other, they admit as much really early in the book, and then the diary/mystery part didn't come until the very end. In between those was just a lot of mush with no tension or structure. Cute mush, but it made the whole thing feel longer than it really was.

Review featured at www.books-n-kisses.com

This is the second in the Christmas novellas that Kauffman has put out this year. And was originally part of an anthology.

Another cute holiday story that will certainly get you in the Christmas mood. I read the first one and had hoped it was a bit of a continuation but it was not but that does not mean it is any less interesting.

Kauffman is always one of my go to authors. I have never been disappointed by her stories and this one is no exception. This is a very quick read with just about 100 pages.

Disclaimer:
I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

A novel for those who enjoy Christmas Hallmark movies. A happy romance that I would recommend to readers of contemporary romantic fiction.

This was my second Donna Kauffman book in a week and I love her writing style even more now. This Christmas story is so charming and heartwarming. Just what I needed. Pick up this wonderful Christmas story and get that feel-good Christmax spirit today!

I love these Christmas love stories. I love feeling like Christmas magic is happening for two people in love. It gives a young lady hope.

I recommend all of Donna's books. This one is the perfect read by the fireplace with some hot cocoa!