cover image A Lighthouse Christmas

A Lighthouse Christmas

Jenny Hale. Forever, $13.99 trade paper (304p) ISBN 978-1-5387-2304-3

Hale (Butterfly Sisters) highlights the importance of family in this touching small-town contemporary. High-powered New York City PR professional Mia Carter is on the verge of a divorce from her estranged husband and business partner, Milo, when she heads home to coastal Winsted Cape to help her mother and sister reluctantly pack up and sell her late grandmother Ruth’s treasured lighthouse. Helping them is handsome widowed real estate agent Will Thacker, who’s in Winsted Cape from Seattle to assist his sister Kate, a single mom to a precocious kindergartner, with her ailing bakery business. Mia’s under enormous pressure to pull off her PR firm’s Christmas party in addition to her family responsibilities, while Will struggles with grief and survivor’s guilt aggravated by his former mother-in-law. As Mia and Will slowly fall in love, a long-buried Carter family secret comes to light that could derail Mia and her family’s plans. The characters feel authentic and down to earth, with Kate’s young son, Felix, stealing every scene he’s in. This sweet holiday treat will leave readers well satisfied. (Sept.)