Love Finds You Under the Mistletoe, by Irene Brand and Anita Higman

Two stories about love coming to fruition at Christmas.  One story, a Christmas past, where Julia Mayfield returns from war to find her sister has passed away, and her dying wish was for her son to meet his paternal grandparents.  Julia takes the child to Mistletoe, Kentucky, where a man named David changes her life forever.  The other story, a Christmas present, where a girl named Holly works at a Christmas shop.  She was abandoned as a baby on the steps of that shop in Noel, Missouri, and the owner adopted her.  Now a man wants to write a book about her story.  Will she be wooed by his words, or will she see what has been in front of her all her life?

I have said it a few times now, I am not much of a romance reader.  But if I keep reading romance books like this, I may have to retract that statement.  This is my first encounter with the Christian romance series "Love Finds You" and I already want to read more!  Brand and Higman did a fantastic job of creating stories with lovable characters, solid story lines, and real romance.  My biggest complaint about romance novels is that often they are just cleverly disguised literary porn.  That is so not the case here, these stories are romantic, but chaste and appropriate for even teen readers.

One of the things I liked the best was there was a very tiny string of a storyline tying the two stories together.  I loved that, it brought connectedness, continuity, to the two stories.  I think these are two really lovely, and well written stories.  While this is clearly a Christian book, it is not too overtly Christian, so it will appeal to a wide audience.  I found the book to be just a couple of nice old fashioned love stories, with characters having traditional values.  No one was shoving faith down anyone's throat.

Because these stories dealt with Christmas, I thought this was a great book to read while preparing my home for the holidays.  The book would make a great Christmas gift for any romance lover!

A review copy of this book was provided by the Christian Review of Books.