cover image A Seaside Christmas

A Seaside Christmas

Sherryl Woods. Mira, $16.95 trade paper (288p) ISBN 978-0-7783-1511-7

Woods’s 10th Chesapeake Shores contemporary (after The Summer Garden) has few surprises. Renowned songwriter Jenny Collins is having difficulties coming to terms with her mom’s happy marriage to an O’Brien. Nonetheless, a bad tabloid-splashed breakup with her cheating pop star boyfriend, Caleb Green, has Jenny retreating to her beachside hometown for Christmas. Caleb knows that performing Jenny’s latest tune could help him make a comeback, but he’ll have follow Jenny to Chesapeake Shores to get her permission. As Caleb is drawn into the sphere of the O’Brien family through participation in a local Christmas show, he predictably helps Jenny begin to feel at home there again. This Christmas tale is set against a huge warm Irish-American family cast with an ending that turns out “exactly the way it was supposed to.” (Oct.)