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A review by cspoe
A Case of Christmas by Josh Lanyon
5.0
Another fantastic nugget from Josh Lanyon that fits perfectly between longer reads. A second chance, pseudo-enemies to lovers, a dash of Christmas, a bit of humbug, and a curious and nosy neighbor on a fantastic West Coast island. A Case of Christmas, indeed.
Lanyon has always been particularly talented at writing second chance romances nestled in between the beats of the main plot and focus of a book. This isn't just a tricky maneuver to write, it's downright overwhelming, from an author's point of view. Lanyon will typically drop the reader into an established relationship, one that's already often gone the way of the dodo, with salty and hurt personalities clashing. And yet—the characters aren't just likable, they're lovable. And there's never not enough information that readers are grasping in the dark, and never so much as to overwhelm the senses either.
Her second chances are like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Just right.
We meet Shane Donovan on Catalina Island, a day or two before Christmas. He's an FBI agent just released from the hospital after an unfortunate incident on the Art Crimes Team, and he's looking to share that time with... no one. Not his mother, not his siblings, and certainly not the memories of Norton, a man he met on Catalina two years before that turned out to be nothing more than a lie. Or... he was. Until Shane reaches his cottage amidst incoming bad weather and there's Norton, stringing holiday lights on the cottage across the street. And then there's Hupert, the retired gent who makes matters worse (or better?) by hitting Shane with a golf cart.
In a mere 70 pages we're introduced to the characters of the story, understand their backgrounds, jobs, their desire for love and plight not-to-love, and given a feeling of hope in our heart and a skip in our step by the story's end. It's a lovely and very atmospheric novella that was so much fun to come back to years after my first read.
Lanyon has always been particularly talented at writing second chance romances nestled in between the beats of the main plot and focus of a book. This isn't just a tricky maneuver to write, it's downright overwhelming, from an author's point of view. Lanyon will typically drop the reader into an established relationship, one that's already often gone the way of the dodo, with salty and hurt personalities clashing. And yet—the characters aren't just likable, they're lovable. And there's never not enough information that readers are grasping in the dark, and never so much as to overwhelm the senses either.
Her second chances are like Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Just right.
We meet Shane Donovan on Catalina Island, a day or two before Christmas. He's an FBI agent just released from the hospital after an unfortunate incident on the Art Crimes Team, and he's looking to share that time with... no one. Not his mother, not his siblings, and certainly not the memories of Norton, a man he met on Catalina two years before that turned out to be nothing more than a lie. Or... he was. Until Shane reaches his cottage amidst incoming bad weather and there's Norton, stringing holiday lights on the cottage across the street. And then there's Hupert, the retired gent who makes matters worse (or better?) by hitting Shane with a golf cart.
In a mere 70 pages we're introduced to the characters of the story, understand their backgrounds, jobs, their desire for love and plight not-to-love, and given a feeling of hope in our heart and a skip in our step by the story's end. It's a lovely and very atmospheric novella that was so much fun to come back to years after my first read.