Can a girl from Phoenix adjust to cold weather and small town living? She can if she has a really hot rancher to keep her warm. This charming novella will get you in the mood for Christmas. Snowy landscapes, friendly townspeople, and lots of gingerbread houses will make you want to have a Montana Christmas of your own.

For those interested:
There is NO sex in this book and no bad language.

A very cute sweet uncomplicated story of Rachael, her brother Ty and his best friend Nate and partner life in a Montana small community. Rachael has come to Marietta Montana to be with her brother Ty for the Christmas season. Ty has usually come back to Phoenix for Christmas, but this year he wanted her to come to Montana. His partner Nate is the owner of the land and Ty owns the animals. Rachael had been bilked out of her savings and bakery ideas back in Phoenix, so she was happy to get away from there this Christmas. The rest of the story is about the love of family and new possibilities.

Home for Christmas by Melissa McClone
This story starts out with Rachel and she's arrived at the Bar V5 ranch where her brother works (he's partner) with Nate.
Ty has told her she can use the kitchen to create and she's just been bamboozled out of her savings to open her bakery back home in Arizona. She's only in Montana for 3 weeks and makes gingerbread houses resembling real houses that people live in and they buy them from her.
Nate falls in love with her on sight as his dating online escapades hasn't gotten him a satisfied date in years. He loves her cooking and baking and has agreed to let her stay and even finance a shop here in town and she can use his kitchen in the meantime.
Love all the marketing ideas for Rachel to sell her baked goods.
A misunderstanding could send her back to Arizona...

A lovely sweet Holiday romance!

Home for Christmas by Melissa McClone is a lovely sweet and clean holiday romance. It’s perfect for curling up with in an easy chair with a cup of hot chocolate. This is the first book in the author’s Bar V5 Dude Ranch series and the second book in her Copper Mountain Christmas series. It works perfectly well as a stand-alone read with a self-contained romance and plot line. This is the story of venture capitalist and dude ranch owner Nate Vaughn and pastry chef Rachel Murphy.

Rachel’s brother, Ty, raised her after they lost their parents when Rachel was little. Rachel is twenty-six now, but Ty still sees her as his little sister and he’s just as protective of her as he was back then. Ty put Rachel through Culinary School to help her fulfill her dream of opening her own bakery in Arizona where she lives. However, she trusted the wrong business partners and they took her for everything. Still reeling from that devastating betrayal, she has come to the Bar V5 Dude Ranch to spend Christmas with her brother who is the Ranch Foreman there. It will be their first White Christmas together. Missing being in the kitchen, Ty offers to let her use the industrial kitchen at the ranch. She’s in seventh heaven in her element when Nate, the ranch’s owner, comes home and follows the delectable smells into his kitchen - and finds Rachel there.

Nate is a very smart nerd. He had his future all planned when his father got sick and Nate had to move to Montana to take over the family ranch. Now, he cannot imagine doing anything else. He just wishes he had someone to share it with. As Rachel needs venture capital now to realize her dream of her own bakery, Nate suggests that she market her gingerbread houses in nearby Marietta to earn the seed monies she needs. The more they are around each other, the more Nate realizes he really wants Rachel to stay at the Bar V5 Ranch with him. But… while he’s extremely smart with figures, he’s the pits at expressing feelings; graphs and charts don’t work well in the romance department.

Rachel is scared of being hurt again and she doesn’t want business advice. Being strongly attracted to his partner’s sister spells trouble with a capital T – but Nate can’t help himself. When Rachel refuses his help, he schemes to help her on the sly with Operation: Hansel and Gretel. However, secrets have a way of seeing the light of day at inopportune times. I loved this couple and was pulling for them to find that they could each have everything they wanted… together.

Following please find a few of my favorite quotes from Home for Christmas:

She wore a simple purple long-sleeved turtleneck, but streaks of white across her chest - flour perhaps? - distracted him, made him want to volunteer for cleanup duty.
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He sauntered across the kitchen, six feet of male hotness and charm, heading in her direction like a drone missile locked on a target.
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He wanted to wrap his arms around her and kiss away her uncertainty. But if he did that she would bolt. So he brushed stray hairs that had fallen out of her ponytail off her face instead. Ignored how soft the strands felt against his fingers. Pretended his pulse wasn't stampeding like a herd of bison on the plain.
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Mistletoe was her new favorite holiday decoration. She would have to hang some in the kitchen. All over the house. And keep the green stuff hanging until Easter. Or Thanksgiving.

Living in Florida, I enjoy reading holiday stories with snow during the summer just to cool off and this easy quick read works very well for accomplishing that. Melissa’s writing is so vivid that readers will feel that they are at the Ranch breathing the cold air and enjoying the gorgeous scenery. This story will make you yearn for snow and hunky Montana cowboys and is guaranteed to get you in the mood for Christmas. I still get a warm and fuzzy feeling just thinking of it! This is the first book I’ve ever read by Melissa McClone, but I want to rectify that soon! Give yourself a dose of cinnamon and spice and pick up Home For Christmas soon!

Suggested Reading Order:
The Bar V5 Dude Ranch series:
Book #1 - HOME FOR CHRISTMAS (Rachel & Nate)
Book #2 - MISTLETOE MAGIC (Caitlin & Noah)
Book #3 - KISS ME, COWBOY (Charlotte/Charlie & Zack)
Book #4 - MISTLETOE WEDDING (Meg & Ty)
Book #5 - A CHRISTMAS HOMECOMING (Ellie & Josiah)

Copper Mountain Christmas series:
Book #1 – A COWBOY FOR CHRISTMAS
Book #2 – HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
Book #3 – MISTLETOE MAGIC
Book #4 – CHRISTMAS AT COPPER MOUNTAIN
Book #5 – HER CHRISTMAS COWBOY

My full review is posted at Reading Between The Wines Book Club. Please check it out there!

Home for Christmas is the first book I’ve read from author Melissa McClone and it won’t be the last! Set in the hills of Montana on a ranch, this holiday story unfolds in the best possible way with gingerbread, snow and mistletoe.

Rachel Murphy comes to Montana to spend the Christmas holiday with her big brother and hopefully convince him to come home to Phoenix with her. She needs a new start. Her business plan was stolen out from under her, along with the seed money. She needs security and her heart needs the pieces put back together. I like her! She’s tough, refuses charity, and even though it’s the holidays has plans to earn cash by selling her gingerbread creations.

Nate Vaughn is the owner of the Bar V5 Dude Ranch and the best friend of Rachel’s brother Ty. Nate is a businessman. He never wanted his father’s life on the ranch until his father nearly lost it all. With the help of Ty, Nate saved the ranch but it cost him his job, his fiancé, and the city life he’d become accustomed to. Now though he wouldn’t trade the life he’s built on the ranch for anything…until he meets Ty’s sister.

Operation Hansel and Gretel commence! Nate learns that Ty is planning to move back to Phoenix with Rachel and well Nate can’t run the ranch without him. So he needs to convince Rachel to stay. The problem, he falls for her, the forbidden fruit. She’s his best friend’s sister, practically family. He can’t touch her, he can’t stay away from her either. I loved the sweet friendship that forms between the two and the romance that slowly unfolds. It’s also relatively clean, as in fade-to-black type scenes.

Overall I enjoyed this novella! It’s sweet, light and funny. Rachel and Nate balance each other perfectly and I love Ty! Hopefully Ty gets his own book in the series….I need to look and find that out. If you enjoy contemporary romance, I highly recommend you grab a copy of this one.