A Marvell Country Christmas

Murphy had one thing on her mind, get in and get out. Get the house ready for sale and get on with her life. Things didn't happen the way she hoped, but Cody has come to her rescue. Cody and his brothers own the ranch next door, Murphy has no love lost for this family. Cody has invited Murphy to spend the Christmas holidays with him. Murphy is thinking a Christmas fling, might just be ok, but will to turn into so much more. Loved this Christmas story with plenty of traditions, decorating the tree, games. sledding, cookie baking and plenty of romance. Can't wait to read more of the Marvell Brothers. I highly recommend.

Murphy Anderson takes advantage of the two week Christmas break to return home to her family ranch to go through her late father's belongings and ready the property for sale. It's the first time she's been home in a decade and she's not looking forwards to the inevitable memories of her bleak and austere childhood. She also isn't looking forwards to being so close to her childhood crush, the boy next door, Cody Marvell and the Marvell ranch which was everything the Anderson ranch was not. But when disaster strikes Murphy ends up spending Christmas with Cody at the Marvell ranch and discovers that not everything was what it seemed when she was younger. I liked this but I didn't love it. About midway through the book I just had the feeling that Cody and Murphy had been decorating the tree and making mulled wine for page after page and nothing seemed to be going anywhere - often a problem when a novel is set in a short time period. For those who pay attention to these things, the romance was practically fade-to-black, short and sweet. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Too much anger and deep resentment coming from Murphy. She hated being poor while their neighbors were flourishing. She hated that her father and her had to work for Cody's family ranch as she was growing. Murphy is a jealous person for resenting the richer family of Cody. Her anger issues towards Cody for buying her horse that will just be uncared for was totally stupid and unreasonable. Who was she expecting to take care of her horse in her absence? She could have confronted Cody and came after the horse if she loved it that much as she claimed. The heroine has a bad character and way to childish for ignoring attempts of Cody to talk to her or being civil when they used to work together at the guy's family ranch when they were young. Then after a decade, nice guy Cody falling for grumpy and resentful Murphy despite her attitude. This is more a plot for murder and horror than a romantic love story.