A fun sweet read! Highly recommend.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for my ARC.

Because of problems with my computer and e-reader my I didn't read the book and my copy has expired.

Mistletoe Magic was a DNF at just a few pages in. So bad. Maybe it would have helped to have read the series, but based on this book I am not interested in reading the rest.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC for an honest review.

I did not get time to read this book as I am in college. I will look out for the book as I am interested in this topic and I like the location. Thank you for making the title available.

In Redwood Ridge the Battleaxe Brigade is notorious for matching up residents, and those love matches last. Two of the three sisters had been married. One, now Redwood Ridge's mayor, thought she had found the love of her life but was left sitting alone at Christmas, in the town gazebo.

Decades passed, she went on to do great things and become important to the town.
And then it happened - her love, much older and accomplished, returned to town.
She did her best to avoid him but for some reason it became unavoidable.
He became part of her daily schedule, and she found that he seems much the same man she once loved.

Enter the Cupid Cult - made up of those happy couples the mayor and her sisters had matched.
Will their meddling rekindle an old flame or reopen a barely healed old wound?

Sweet, romantic and oh so well written, I was falling in love with love with the turn of every page.
You can read this as a stand alone novel, but you will want to get to know each of the remarkable and swoon-worthy characters who populate this series.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was an enjoyable, heartwarming Christmas novel about second chances.

Slightly farcical romance. This follows on from lots of matchmaking in the same village by three sisters. With fanfare and drama the decision is taken to set up Preston and Marie. The plot is a countdown to Christmas with a daily update of how the relationship is growing as the past hurts are unpicked for our couple to think about their potential future. There is a bit of a clash between the romance and emotions of Preston and Marie and the little bit silly wrap around of village life.

This one was just “meh” for me. I’m not sure if it’s because I have not read the other books in the series, but it just doesn’t do much for me. It’s a quick and easy read and clean for the most part but I just didn’t love it. It seemed rushed and the characters were all over the place in my opinion.

I’ve loved several of Kelly Moran’s books. But even though this Redwood Ridge series hasn’t worked for me in the past, I am a sucker for second chance love stories. So I took a chance with Mistletoe Magic and promptly remembered why this series didn’t work for me.

At the crux, is that I found the humor in this series to be forced and contrived. These stories are built around three sisters called “The Battleaxes” who like to play matchmaker with the single people in their small town. The way people talk about the sisters you’d think they’re old ladies, but they aren’t. And in this story, one of the sisters - 50 year old Marie - gets the “Battleaxe” treatment to reunite her with the man she was engaged to 25 years ago.

To make a second chance love story work, you need two things. First, to see - or understand - what they meant to each other in the past. Did we get that? Not really. Second, you need to see - or understand - the stages of their reunion. Did we get that? A big fat nope. The start of their reconnecting happened off page. We learn they’d spent two nights talking on the phone for hours. About what? Who knows. We aren’t told. THIS IS A SECOND CHANCE ROMANCE. That reconnecting is what I’m here for. And it happens off page. Boooooo.

My other issues with this story? When you are writing a novella, you can’t afford to waste too much time on extraneous details - like house renovations or party decorations. World-building is important, but romance stories are about relationship building and I found this one lacking. Too much telling and very little showing happened. Also, I’m not a fan of nicknames as a general rule and the hero’s nickname for the heroine was eye roll inducing (and also never explained and thus made no sense).

If you’re a fan of the previous books in this series, you’ll probably like this one. In my case, I took a chance because of the trope…and lost.

Better luck to me next time.

* thank you to NetGalley and Kelly Moran for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

This novella was “Better than Christmas cookies.” And a slow dance with my person while he sings to me?? Yes please!
This was a short (less than 150 pages) enduring second chance for romance Christmas. Small, beautiful town with all the feels of a holiday celebration.
It’s not very long but was very cute to see them working through this together. It can definitely be a stand-alone read, but is also a part of a full cast series if you’re interested.
Thanks Kelly Moran via NetGalley.

A cute and easy holiday of a 2nd chance romance. Marie was left by her fiancé Preston 25 years ago. Now he is back as he promised. A quick easy read, although the time gap is a bit extreme. Would recommend.

Mistletoe Magic was a good book about second chance, trust, and little town community.

I've really enjoyed this novella, Kelly Moran gave us a more mature couple to end this delightful series.

Marie Sedgwick is Redwood Ridge mayor, she tried to avoid her ex fiancé, Preston Masterson, since he was back in town, but that's really difficult when he has offered to host the Annual Holiday Ball at his new inn. In the week leading to Christmas seems like magic and fate, and maybe a less ethereal force, are pushing this two ex lovers into each other presence at every chance. Will Marie give a second chance to her first love? Will Preston play his cards right this second time around?

I've adored these characters, you can easily see that the attraction and the love between Marie and Preston are still there but for Marie is not so easy to trust Preston after all these years apart. The best thing of this story is to see how Preston succeeds to melt Marie resolve with a few words a day that make her remember their good times together and it's like time never passed.

Grab it if you like Christmas stories and small towns people who butt into each other lives.

I really enjoyed this second chance romance, a holiday novella perfect for a quick afternoon read. It was a pleasure to see two mature adults finally get the happy ending they missed out on the first time around, when they were both too young to understand that compromise doesn't mean weakness or completely giving up your own dreams. When they were fresh out of college they had opposing goals in life. Marie wanted to stay in the small town she was raised in and work to make it better. Preston, an Army brat, had never really had a home town and couldn't imagine settling down in one place. They were both too rigid to come up with a solution, so Preston left and Marie stayed, but neither was ever able to forget the other. Twenty-five years later, Preston is finally back for good and is willing to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes to prove his sincerity to Marie. With a little help from some sneaky matchmakers, hopefully he'll get his chance. My thanks to Netgalley for an advance copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions in this review are my own.

This is book six in A Redwood Ridge Romance Series and it is Marie and Preston's story and it is definitely a must read. Marie is the mayor of Redwood Ridge and along with her sister's they have managed to help people find there match and happy ending only for the tables to be turned and for Cupid to turn around and target her with a man from her past returning twenty years later looking more handsome than ever completely throwing her for a loop and Marie needs to avoid him to her own sanity only things don't always go as planned. Preston has returned to Redwood Ridge after being away for many years but he has his own goals and one of them is to win back Marie the one woman that got away and he never got over her and she is truly more beautiful and sassy as ever but sometimes it takes the help of other's in the community to make your plans work. Will everything work out for Marie and Preston or will they crash and burn only time will tell what the outcome would be for them. This is a really lovely story full of magic and hope and I really enjoyed reading it and I can't wait to read more books by Kelly Moran in the future.

I Voluntarily Reviewed a copy of this book