Christmas in Harmony Harbor

Excellent addition to the Harmony Harbor series! One doesn’t have to have read previous books to enjoy this one, but it does help with the backstory. Besides, the whole series is so good, I’d recommend reading it all!
Evie Christmas and Caine Elliot are complex and interesting characters. Both have deep hurts in their pasts to overcome. Evie wants to save her store. Caine has come to town to build a large office building and needs that land. In an effort to keep the land and help Caine discover Christmas spirit, Evie comes up with a challenge. Enter in the chemistry between Evie and Caine, a town full of delightful characters, a family manor also being threatened, a friendly ghost trying to help, a mystery to solve, and an upcoming wedding and there is never a dull moment. I highly recommend this book!

The final book in a series is always a bit bittersweet, especially a series I've enjoyed as much as I have Debbie Mason's Harmony Harbor. I have taken these characters into my heart with laughter, tears, heartache, and love. Christmas in Harmony Harbor bids Harmony Harbor a fond farewell with a heart-tugging romance filled with humor, danger, a battle of wills, some ghostly interference, satisfying romance, answers we've all been waiting for, an unexpected surprise...or two, and a Grinch hero due a few lessons in the true meaning of Christmas.

One of the facets of Debbie Mason's writing that I most enjoy is her world building. In this series, she's brought the town of Harmony Harbor and her citizens to life. Her characters are fully dimensional and complex, with realistic flaws and emotional depth. Her heroes and heroines are not always easy, and they're not always nice, but they're real and, in the end, they always succeed in winning my affection. Though, admittedly, some more than others. ;-)

Caine is one of those "difficult" characters and it took a good amount of time for him to win me over but win me he did. As with other characters in this series, Mason has given him a lot of emotional baggage to unravel which, for me, made his eventual redemption all the more satisfying. My heart really hurt for him - after I got over wanting to throw him off a cliff - and by the end I was cheering for his happily-ever-after. Evie, on the other hand, had me in her corner from the beginning. I was confident she was the perfect "Christmas Elf" to bring Caine out of the darkness and help him remember the good that Christmas and family are supposed to represent.

Christmas in Harmony Harbor is an engaging, heartwarming holiday romance that can be read and enjoyed on its own but readers should be aware that, as the final story in a series with an overarching mystery, there are several plot threads that are wrapped up, questions answered, and characters present (the Gallagher and DiRossi families are big) that could be confusing if you have not read any of the earlier books. As a reader of the entire series, I turned the final page with a tear, a smile, a sigh for lives well lived and a love that endures into eternity, and eager anticipation for whatever Debbie Mason has in store for readers next.

4.5 stars
ARC received. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.