By: Sherryl Woods
ISBN: 9780778316626
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Publication Date: 10/07/2014
Format: Hardcover
My Rating: 3 Stars
When it comes to family and Christmas, #1 New York Times bestselling author Sherryl Woods always looks to the O'Briens for a little holiday magic.
For the very driven medical student Caitlyn Winters, catching the bridal bouquet at a Christmas wedding has set off a chain reaction that she's sure is more curse than blessing. Not only has she fallen in love with family medicine resident Noah McIlroy, but an unexpected pregnancy threatens her well-laid plans for the future. It doesn't help that Noah—with a whole lot of help from her O'Brien relatives—is completely on board with the prospect of marriage and happily-ever-after.
It takes a whole lot of patience, love and family persuasion to help Caitlyn realize that she can still have everything she ever wanted, including a home in her beloved Chesapeake Shores and a man who understands all of her dreams.
"Love, marriage, family, and forgiveness all play an important part in Woods's latest richly nourishing, holiday-spiced novel." —Chicago Tribune on A Chesapeake Shores Christmas
My Review
A special thank you to Harlequin MIRA and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Yes, it is that time of the year, as we are into ARCs for the holiday season! Sherryl Woods returns to Chesapeake Shores with #11, The Christmas Bouquet, a love saga of Caitlyn and Noah for a mix of a contemporary romance, and a winter wonderland Christmas wedding. However, it is not smooth sailing on this shore.
From the moment Caitlyn Winters caught the bouquet at Jenny Collins’ Christmas wedding in New York a little over a year ago she’d been doomed. Her twin sister Carrie who all but shoved her aside to try to snatch the bouquet from the air, was going to laugh herself silly at what had transpired since that night. So were the rest of the O’Briens, for that matter. They loved irony.
Noah McIlroy the family medicine resident whom she’d met soon after the wedding and with whom she’d been having a serious relationship since last September, is not so sad that an apparent defective condom has gotten them to this place. She trusted Noah when he had assured her that it would be sufficient. She should have had three or four backups. The man had cast a spell over her from the minute they’d met, literally one week after she’d caught the blasted romantic bouquet with all its superstition. Now more than a year later, her she is pregnant.
She was supposed to be the grounded, goal oriented sister. Carrie was the one everyone had expected to fall madly in love and marry before college graduation. Instead Carrie is jetting around the world, leading a carefree life, building a career in PR for a big fashion designer and tossing away men like used tissues while she pined for one unobtainable man. Now here she is with a positive pregnancy test result.
Just like her ambitious mother, Abby O’Brien Winters Riley, Caitlyn had thought her future through very carefully. College, medical school, an internship, and residency. She would make a difference. She was so focused she managed to complete college in three years, then set out to whip through medical school and every summer she either crammed in more courses or served in another needy community most recently in Africa with the Red Cross. Caitlyn is driven, not allowing a single distraction, until Noah.
Of course, Noah wants to get married, but she feels that is his dream, not hers. But she assures him there will not be an abortion. If you have read any of the Chesapeake Shores series, you know this Irish O’Brien family loves weddings, playing match maker, and a family who tends to stick their noses in everyone’s business. They continue to grow and grow.
As it nears Christmas, with a baby due in December, and the O’Brien’s need for a Christmas Wedding, the pressure is on. A light contemporary romance with a holiday Christmas theme to prepare you for the upcoming season.
Always fun catching up with the gang at Chesapeake Shores (as have read them all). Delighted about the news of the upcoming 2015 Hallmark Channel adapting Sherryl Woods' 'Chesapeake Shores' Book Series for TV, and looking forward to learning the cast of stars who will take on the role of these enduring small town characters.
