Bailey Sullivan’s family owns The Perfect Christmas, a landmark in Coronado, California.  Her childhood experiences with the store and Christmas left her feeling sour about the holiday.  She is now with a law firm in LA and likes her life there just fine. 

Then trouble brews between her mother and step-father and suddenly no one is minding the store at their busiest time of the year.  It is a reluctant Bailey to the rescue.   

Someone else has come back both to help a loved one and to try to emotionally heal.  Finn Jacobson was the bad boy who would stay with his grandmother for summers in his youth.  The girl next door inspired him away from delinquency but left him with a broken heart. 

They have both grown up but as their paths cross they learn that they have not grown out of their mutual attraction.  Will this end in disaster or will they find this to truly be the perfect Christmas? 

Ms Ridgway offers us a straightforward plot with lovable characters then adds layers and depths to all.  Sexual tension threads through and strengthens the storyline to this engaging romance. 

Finn makes a wonderful wounded tough guy kind of a hero.  He has recovered from injury in the line of duty and in the same incident lost a friend and colleague.  An eye patch lends him a piratical air, but the loss of that eye means he needs to rethink his future.   

Unwilling continued feelings for Bailey are particularly touching considering having been hurt during their relationship in the past.  Readers are likely to fall for Finn even as he does battle with the attraction to his first love. 

Our female Scrooge is not as unfeeling as she would like to be.  Her wounds are not physical but she has been profoundly marked from having watched the effects of her parents’ failed relationship.  Nevertheless, Bailey’s lack of enthusiasm for Christmas in no way stops her from being warm, caring and fun.   

It is a pleasure to watch these two in their second chance at love but this is more than the story of Bailey and Finn.  There is a subplot in the challenges of the relationship between Bailey’s mother and step-father as well as a teasing introduction to a possible future story for our hero’s friend Tanner.   

One looks forward to more books by this author.  MUST LOVE MISTLETOE is a delightful read no matter what the season. 

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