The Mistletoe Inn by Richard Paul Evans

Title: The Mistletoe Inn
Author: Richard Paul Evans

Read by: Madeleine Maby

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 6 hours and 36 minutes
Source: Simon & Schuster Audio Digital Review Copy – Thank-you!

I LOVE Christmas romances if you can’t tell from my reading the month of December.  A good Christmas romance has flawed characters that are able to find love and redemption by the end of the story.  The Mistletoe Inn delivers as this kind of good Christmas romance.

Kimberley Rossi has had a difficult life.  Her mother committed suicide when she was a child on her fifth attempt, forever ruining Christmas in Kimberley’s eyes.  She has a wonderful father, but many problems finding the right man.  After her fiancé runs off with another woman, she continues to blunder in the romance department eventually marrying her college professor . . . who is later investigated and put on the front page for having affairs with multiple students during their marriage.  Alone, Kimberly works at a Lexus dealership and dreams of becoming a romance author like her beloved favorite author H.T. Cowell.

H.T. Cowell is notoriously a recluse, but is the keynote speaker at a writer’s conference in Vermont at the Mistletoe Inn.  Kimberley would like to go, but isn’t sure she has the money.  Her father surprises her by gifting a trip to the conference for Christmas.  He has found out he has cancer and he wants what is best for Kimberley with what time and money he has left.  Once there, Kimberly discovers a lot of other ladies are budding romance writers as well.   She also meets and befriends one of the only men there, Zeke.  Zeke helps her to understand herself, but she also realizes there is a lot more to Zeke’s story than she thought at first.  Will Kimberly be able to find her happily ever after?

I vastly enjoyed this audiobook.  Madeleine Mabey is an excellent narrator.  It was a great Christmas romance with a storyline that followed the template laid about by Zeke – a flawed character finding redemption.  The characters were great and there was just the right amount of fantasy with Zeke taking Kimberly out on a fantastic date with a seemingly endless supply of money.  I also loved reading the background of a writer’s conference.  I think like many people I harbor the dream of one day writing a novel, reading about all of the wannabe authors at the conference kind of dashed my dreams! Ha!  I guessed the ending, but still find the journey enjoyable.

Favorite Quote:
"They say love is blind, but it's not. Infatuation is blind. Emotional neediness is blind. Love sees the fault---it just sees beyond it as well."

Overall, The Mistletoe Inn is a great Christmas romance and audiobook and left me wanting more. The next book in the series does not stick with Kimberly and Zeke’s story – but I really wish their story would continue!