”I will always—and I mean until the day I die—consider you to be my hero.”
“I didn’t get you anything for Christmas.” She tilts her head, smiling slyly. “Of course you did. You gave me your trust and your love. In all the history of presents—Christmas or otherwise—it’s been the best gift I’ve ever received.”
Released as part of the ‘Tis The Season anthology, so this is probably less than 100 pages.
This is a novella in the Jameson Force Security series.
Synopsis:
Corinne knew Clay years ago when he was the FBI Agent involved with her parent’s murder case. They became close confidants and friends and during a celebratory evening when the serial killer got justice, they shared a kiss. However feeling like he failed her that he didn’t catch the bad guy before it impacted Corinne‘s life and concerned about their 8 year age difference, the kiss just made him feel even more guilty so he bolted out of her life and never looked back.
Nine years later they’re paths cross and Corinne is determined not to let him go this time and “coerces” him to spend Christmas Eve with her, and they end up getting snowed in. (😉 sneaky Corinne 😉)
- ”Now, had I watched the weather before I brought Clay here? I had. I’ll admit I’d known we’d be getting a lot of wintry weather, and I’d banked on us getting snowed-in.”
My Thoughts: The following are my thoughts about this book:
General:
- Trigger warning: parents killed by a serial killer (off page)
- Setting: Pittsburgh, PA
Characters:
- Clay (39, FBI Agent):
- FBI Agent who was assigned to Corinne’s parents case.
- Parents died when he was in his early teens and raised by an uncle.
- Loved Corinne all those years ago but can’t let go of his guilt
- - ”I failed you. I didn’t catch him fast enough to prevent your parents’ deaths. And no matter how you might feel about it, I can’t ever forget that. Frankly, you shouldn’t either.”
- Corinne (31, resident psychiatrist at Jameson Force Security):
- Corinne’s parents were killed by a serial killer when she was in college
- Confident and secure in who she is and what her purpose is.
- - ”My job is to evaluate potential new agents as well as provide counseling to others who come off harrowing and sometimes soul-breaking missions.”
- Loved Clay all those years ago and hurt he left her without a backward glance
Story Thoughts:
- How would an elite security force not know the back ground of the resident psychiatrist? That seems unlikely
- The secondary characters were a little overwhelming in the first chapter or so. For anyone who has read previous books this would not be an issue
- A remote location on a Christmassy winter evening was a warm and cozy setting for the story.
Overview:
- Do you need to read previous books in series?: It would be helpful to understand the secondary characters but not completely necessary.
- POV: dual POV
- Tropes: I guess I could classify as second chance even though they technically weren’t a couple nine years ago.
- H likable? Yes
- h likable? Yes
- h virgin? No
- First time they kiss: 75%
- First time they sleep together: 85%
- First time they say I Love You 85%
- steamy? The bedroom scenes were descriptive.
- OW/OM drama? no
- H/h cheat? no
- Time apart? they spent 9 years apart after Clay walked away the first time.
- Did I skip pages? No
- Big secrets? No
- Did I cry? No
- Did I laugh? No
- Cliffhanger? no
- HEA? HFN. I imagine you will get snippets of them in other books that will solidify their HEA
- Epilogue? No
- Recommend? The whole story spans about 2 days, but for a short story these two had some difficult conversations to work through. So the tone is a bit heavy but I did find it enjoyable and it made me interested in the other books in the series.
Quotes
This man, who has been so influential to my entire adult life, means the absolute world to me, and he probably has no idea.
“So we have to what?” he asks, sounding panicked at the thought of being stuck here with me. “Wait for a spring melt until we can get back to civilization?”
“He’s not a patient of mine, but I’ve never seen anyone more in dire need of purging the guilt from his system than Clay.”
“Clay… this might be hard for you to understand because this has clearly been troubling you for years, but I’ve been able to find peace over my parents’ deaths. Do I miss them? Yes. Do I still mourn them? Yes. But I’ve also been able to build a life for myself that has made me happy, whole, and left me without regrets.”