by C.R. Jane
Part of Pucking Wrong, book 2.5
First published 2024
Ari has one firm position on Christmas: it is the worst. Years of letdowns have soured her on the music, the food, the decorations, all of it. She has no interest in changing her mind. Then there is her husband, Lincoln Daniels, tattooed NHL player and relentless optimist, who refuses to accept that verdict. He sets out to rebuild Christmas from the ground up, one small gesture at a time, convinced he can reach the woman he loves through the holiday she has spent years writing off. Walker is also back in the mix, keeping the found-family warmth of the original story alive. The tension is simple and real: Lincoln believes in the season the way he believes in Ari, and Ari is doing her best not to let either one get to her. What unfolds is a holiday novella about a woman who built her walls for good reasons and a man patient enough to wait outside them. C.R. Jane keeps the stakes intimate and the emotion grounded, closing on the question of whether love is enough to turn the worst time of year into something worth keeping.
Genres: romance, contemporary, adult, adult-fiction, contemporary-romance, holiday
Vibes: emotional, grounded, heartwarming, hopeful, intimate, tender
Tropes: emotional-walls, found-family, patient-love, second-chance-at-joy
Period: Christmas
112 pages · Paperback · Podium Publishing