cover image A Very Merry Match

A Very Merry Match

Melinda Curtis. Forever, $7.99 mass market (368p) ISBN 978-1-5387-3345-5

The unremarkable second romance in Curtis’s Sunshine Valley series (after Can’t Hurry Love) returns to small-town Sunshine, Colo., where the matchmaking women of the Sunshine Valley Widows Club have made it their mission to give Cupid a helping hand as Christmas approaches. This time they set their sights on member Edith Archer’s granddaughter, kindergarten teacher Mary Margaret, whose husband died a year earlier, leaving her with a mountain of debt she knew nothing about. Divorced Sunshine mayor Kevin Hadley, who has high-flying political ambitions, knows and admires Mary Margaret because his son, Tad, is in her class, and the more he sees of her the more he thinks she would make a suitable match—though her night job working as a burlesque dancer to pay off her husband’s debts might jeopardize his public image. Meanwhile, Kevin’s ex-wife waits in the wings, scheming to win him back. Curtis makes a believable case for Kevin and Mary Margaret to find a second chance at love, but their nosy neighbors rarely give them a moment alone. The humor occasionally falls flat and the Christmas season serves as little more than set dressing, but the sweet, chaste love story will please series fans. This is solid, if uninspired, fare. Agent: Pam Hopkins, Hopkins Literary. (Oct.)