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!

Again can't get enough of her books this year!! I actually bought older copies of hers I never read!!

A quick sweet Holiday read! 

Such a cute fun story just right for the Holidays. I love Christmas books that give you that heartwarming feeling. 

A genuine happily ever after. 

Perfect cozy read!!

enjoyed this this story much more than the first book in the series of novellas.  It's like a second chance romance that neve really had a first chance.  Because it's a novella the story moves quickly but the pace actually works until the end, and like the first, its the mystery that trips me up.  I get what Kauffman is trying to do with these books but I think they would work okay as stand-alone holiday romances without having the secondary mystery as well and probably be better books for it.

I loved reading Sean and Holly's story in Lock, Stock & Jingle Bells by Donna Kauffman, book two in her Hamilton Christmas series. 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 parent’s restaurant after they were both killed while Holly stayed in England. Holly just learned that her parents have retired earlier than she expected and she now has to deal with her mother’s Christmas store, back home. While back in town she runs into Sean. They grew up together in their small town. Both had crushes on the other while they were 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 younger could be the start of something. During this journey they discover the secret that was focused on in the first book Unleashed. 

It was so easy to fall in love with Sean. He was so patient, kind, caring and totally hot. He knew what he wanted and he went for it. As for Holly she wants to stay friends since she doesn't know if she is going back to England or not, and I was really pulling for her to fall for Sean. She had never had the love and support that Sean had; but when he takes her into his family, she realizes that she may have found her home after all.  These two friends definitely had more than just friendship between them.

Ms. Kauffman wrote a wonderful and moving story about friends finding their soulmate, filled with great dialogue and endearing characters that is not to be missed. I highly recommend this book to other readers. 

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.

A sweet, funny Christmas read, perfect for sipping eggnog and reading by the tree. 

Many thanks to Netgalley, the publisher, and the author for my ARC. All opinions are my own.

A Christmas novella filled with romance and steamy love scenes.
The story line is centered in the big decision Holly has to make regarding her inheritance from her parents, the family Christmas and antique store. While her main concern is to settle her affairs and go back to her job in London, her will may change with the presence of her high-school crush and what truly makes her happy.