This is the first book I've read by Janet Dailey and I've found it quite appealing and realistic.
Very vivid Christmasy descriptions . Quite charming characters, well most of them.
Small town romance where everyone knows everyone and is helpful to one another.
A tragic accident takes the sheriff of Branding Iron,Texas wife and his daughter Maggie's mother.
A year has passed and his daughter is pushing him to get a girl friend.
His daughter is very precocious and seems years ahead of her age. This girl is talking about cooking meals for her father and she's only eight.
With an elaborate plan to get her father hooked up and him not ready to move on from grieving for his wife how will this work out for them both?
Lots of fun Christmassy scenes such as tree decorating,holiday meals with family and a special school program the children worked hard on. What Christmas story would be complete without the lovely snowy blizzard?
I found this very charming and I recommend it.

Pub Date 28 Sep 2021
I was given a complimentary copy of this book. Thank you
All opinions expressed are my own.

I love reading books by Janet Dailey. She writes clean and heartwarming novels. I loved this one , because of the characters. Grace learned how to be bold, and Maggie is adorable she seems mature for her age. I am glad that netgalley and the publishers let me read this in exchange for an honest review.

I received Santa's Sweetheart as part of a NetGalley giveaway.

A year following his beloved wife's tragic death Sheriff Sam Delaney is struggling to raise his precocious young daughter Maggie, who has made it her personal mission to find her father a girlfriend. She zeroes in on her teacher, Grace Chapman, a quiet newcomer trying to start over after a rocky past. Sam and Grace cannot deny their chemistry, particularly when thrown together to plan the community's holiday celebration. But Grace and Sam both have hangups and doubts based on past relationships that must be traversed before they get their happy ending...

This was sweet. It has a 90s feel to it--there's no reference to modern technology, like cell phones or the internet--which isn't a bad thing; in many ways it gives it a timeless quality. There's no sexual acts beyond kissing, and a small child features prominently, so it's quite clean for any readers who may be uncomfortable with overt sexuality. Unlike a lot of small town romances, I liked that it didn't over-romanticize that life--it showed very real problems that the community was struggling with, and that it's not all sunshine and roses with universally happy people, thriving businesses, and a perfect location. If I had a critique it would be that the perspectives seem to change from paragraph to paragraph. All in all, though, a simple but sweet holiday romance.

I was genuinely excited to read this holiday romance. In the late 70s and early 80s Janet Dailey was one of my favorite romance authors. I remember reading her as she transitioned from Harlequin to Silhouette and on to her Calder series. After that I stopped reading romances for a few decades. I thought this was a republishing of an early work but I can not find it in her book titles looking at several sources. Janet Dailey died in 2013, so I don't know if this is a missing work or something that has been written under her name.

Santa's Sweetheart is a sweet, clean, short (233 pages), holiday romance. In a small town in Texas Sheriff Sam Delaney has been widowed for a year. His first grade daughter Maggie decides her school teacher Grace Chapman might be just the person to cheer up her lonely daddy. Grace is new to town after calling off a wedding and leaving her old job in Oklahoma. Maggie is adorable as a match maker but she has the emotional maturity and thought process of someone twice her age. I like both the main characters but the attraction seems very instant. This could easily be a script for a Hallmark movie. Everything is predictable and I'm going to end up happy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books for an ARC ebook in exchange for an honest review.