This is a good book. The two main characters are Caroline and Max. Caroline is an editor. Max is an owner of a distillery in Aspen. Caroline lives in New York but comes to Aspen during Christmas. They meet at a bar and there is an instant attraction. They both have issues but together they work them out and fall in love.

3.5⭐️

While i love a good Christmas setting, this story wasn’t as warm and fuzzy as i wanted. I enjoyed the setting, but some of the story characters and story line i just didn’t connect as well with. It was a different kind of emotional — a lot of secrets. Just different than i was expecting.

A great festive read, emotional in places, as it tells the story of several different intertwined lives.

This book dealt with some heavy topics and some strong feelings of grief, but in the same token, also gave me the warm and fuzzy feelings all simultaneously. A beautiful story.

Honestly this book kind of made me feel sad. I was expecting more of a cozy, hallmark-y holiday read, but it didn’t hit the way I was hoping it would. Thought it was sweet, I couldn’t really connect with the characters and it didn’t fill me up with happiness and hope which is what I am looking for in a holiday read. I also think naming a book with “Christmas” in the title leads the reader to believing it’s more of a Christmasy book.

This book felt very much like the movies…..Valentine’s Day and New Years Eve…….where you have multiple people to keep track of….and it is definitely not spicy.
There are multiple storylines. There was Daphne & Luke, Anne’s mystery man, Nick & Savannah, Nina’s and Caroline.
So if these hallmark type movies except with a billion things happening are your jam….this book might be for you.
I received an ARC of this title, all opinions are my own.

I really wanted to love this one but I struggled to connect with the story! It left me wanting more and lacked a bit of the Christmasy feel I was hoping for.

I did really enjoy the letters that were incorporated throughout the story as well as the mystery with Santa’s Little Red Mailbox.

Just because it wasn’t the book for me, if you’re looking for a light & charming holiday read I bet you’d enjoy this.

I have loved Anita Hughes' other Christmas books so I was SO excited to read this one! Additionally, Colorado is such a beautiful place, it made the perfect backdrop for a story like this one!

Hughes does such an amazing job of engaging you with her characters, and this book is no exception. Add in the fact that there is a real theme here (finding yourself again after a loss), and it just makes the story all the more real and relatable.

This is definitely a book to read this Holiday season!

A chick-lit Christmas story a story of the goodness that can come after tragedy. I think this is a good story to start your holiday reads

Thank you to Wednesday Books and Netgalley for an earc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Editor Caroline Holt is on her way to her late mother’s upstate cabin in Hudson to spend the holidays. She was supposed to be in London, having a holiday romance. But this Christmas, she isn’t in the mood to get her heart broken again. Caroline loves being an editor, but in the last year burnout has taken over. She has been mourning her mother, and she is looking to get that spark back.

In the cabin, Caroline finds a letter addressed to her mother. It’s in a red envelope, and the return address is Santa’s Little Red mailbox, in Aspen, Colorado. The letter is from a man declaring his love for her mother. He’ll be waiting for her in front of the Little Red Mailbox at three pm on New Year’s Eve.

Unable to ignore her curiosity, Caroline takes the next flight to Aspen to meet her mother’s mysterious lover, but things start getting complicated when she meets another man in town. The more they run into each other, the more she is drawn to him. And when Caroline finds out the truth about the person her mother had loved, she unravels secrets of her own past.

By the end of Christmas week, Caroline gets a chance to rewrite her own destiny by confronting her fears of loving again and possibly leaving behind what she thought was a perfect life.

This book surprised me - I admit that I haven't read a lot of contemporary, Christmas-y stories, so I didn't have a lot of preconceived expectations. I will say that if you're expecting this to be very Christmas-centric, it's not. The bulk of the story focuses on New Years, so don't go into it expecting a lot of Christmas feel-good scenes. I enjoyed the storyline between Caroline and her love interest. I found the letters rather took away from the story rather than added to it. But overall, 2.5-3 stars for me.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC. I adore Anita Hughes Christmas books and this one did not disappoint. Caroline Holt was suppose to be spending Christmas in London until her mom passes away. She finds a letter addressed to her Mother from Aspen and decides to head there for Christmas instead. This book is full of fun secrets and twist and turns.

This story felt so magical and was perfect for this time of year. With the main character mourning I related to this deeply. The main character is grieving and feeling lost. There were a lot of secrets revealed giving this book a bit more depth than your typical feel good holiday y story.

I fell in love with Anita Hughes's Christmas books when I read Christmas in Vermont a few years ago. Along with Debbie Macomber, Mary Kay Andrews, and Nancy Thayer, Hughes is one of the authors I look for at Christmas time.

Going off to be alone and finding your passion seems to be a theme for Christmas books this year.

Caroline has a lot of rules about relationships and love. She only has flings that last no longer than a month. But she is also a romantic at heart (though she might not realize it). While going through some of her mother's things at the cabin she runs across a red Santa letter envelope. A man is planning on meeting her mother next to Santa's Little RedMailbox in Aspen on New Year's Eve. The only problem - her mother died a couple of months ago. Determined to discover her mother's lover and not have him think she stood him up, Caroline books a room at the same hotel that her mother had been at that summer and heads to Aspen.

We don't have to wait too long for the romantic setup of the story. Soon after Caroline arrives she meets Max. I liked both of the characters and they have good chemistry together - you will be rooting for Max right away.

What I really liked about Christmas in Aspen is that there are 4 stories of love. We have Caroline and Max and then there is Caroline's sister Daphne who has been dating Luke for just a few weeks but they already know they are meant for each other and are engaged. But there are two other storylines that I became very invested in as well. When Caroline was at the cabin in Hudson, she also picked up a stack of letters from an author who had been popular in the 1970s and was hoping Caroline's mother could relaunch her career. In the letters, she describes her own world-romance romance. And finally, there is the author that Caroline discovers in Aspen who is writing a romance novel based on his own romance with the girl who got away.

These stories are all sweet and the characters are endearing. I wanted to be in Aspen, hanging out with them. Oh, and I have to mention the cute little girl who is Max's niece. She is like 6 going on 30 and advises Max on how to get the girl. It is very cute.

If you are looking for a sweet Christmas love story, then you need to put this book on your reading list.

My review is published at Girl Who Reads - https://www.girl-who-reads.com/2024/10/christmas-in-aspen-by-anita-hughes.html

Life teeters on the edge for editor Caroline. She has been at odds with her career since her mother’s death. With an ultimatum to find her next book to publish, she goes to spend Christmas at her mother’s cabin with her sister. A detour to Aspen happens when she reads a mysterious letter to her mother from there. Many things happen in Aspen, testing Caroline over and over.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of the book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Sisters trying to get through the Holiday's after their mom passes was going to be a sad book. But then a letter arrives that makes them want to go to Aspen and do some research into the last few months of their mom's life. Not only do they learn things about their mom but they fall in love with Aspen, find friendship, love and a surprise at the Santa Mailbox on New Year's Eve.

This ended up being a very happy enjoyable read with some very fun and surprising revelations.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

good romance and loved how they found love and each other. They survived their trials and found their way back to each other. another great romance.

⭐️⭐️ When I saw the title and cover of this book, I expected a Christmas romance. This book lacked both and left me feeling disappointed. I didn’t not enjoy Nina’s letters and the multiple storylines. A thumbs down for me!

Thank you for this ARC! I have read all of Anita Hughes's Christmas books and enjoy them immensely. They take place in beautiful locations with delicious foods and endless financial resources. They are a great, holiday fairytale escape!

Overall, an enjoyable read, very much like a Hallmark movie! I did have trouble getting into the book and considered not finishing it a few times right at the beginning. The book goes very slow at times and I’m reading it a little early in the year for Christmas love stories. I think reading this in early to mid-December or even over Christmas would’ve made this book a much easier read!

There are several different storylines/love stories going on at once to follow along with. There was Daphne & Luke’s whirlwind engagement, Anne’s mystery man, Nick & Savannah‘s summer love, Nina’s secret life, and, of course, Caroline’s resistance to anything more than a casual fling.

If you love a spice-free, holiday romance with a multitude of love stories to fall in love with, then be sure to add Christmas in Aspen to your holiday reads!

This was the second book I read by this author and while I loved the setting, I had some issues with the story. I also had trouble connecting to the characters. Caroline was hard to relate to, I didn’t like Daphne, and while I liked the story set in the past at first, I hated Teddy more and more as the flashback progressed. He was manipulative and came on way too strong