Author: Mia Heintzelman

Publisher: Tule Publishing

Publication Date: October 12, 2023

Genre: Christmas, Holiday Romance

Rating: ✈️ ✈️ ✈️ ✈️ ✈️ out of ✈️ ✈️ ✈️ ✈️ ✈️

Synopsis

Nadia Sikes usually loves the holidays – cozy game nights, snowy mountain girls’ trips, hours decking the halls at Love & Games. But when her two best friends and co-owners find love, all she wants is to tuck away her heart and make it through the season.

Quietly handsome bookstore owner and single dad Micah Hamilton is determined to a) build lasting Christmas memories with his little girl and b) avoid Nadia. When his daughter asks to attend the holiday festivities at Love & Games, though, Micah is forced to introduce the woman who broke his heart, to his child she never knew existed.

The scene would drive anyone to plot their romantic reunion…and someone does. Between turkey dinners, tree decorating, and mistletoe kisses, mysterious notes begin showing up at the game store. As Nadia strings together clues, motives, and suspects for this twisty whodunit, she and Micah are blindsided by the return of their desire.

Is it a mistake to lose themselves in each other again? Or will a Christmas miracle bring them back to where they belong?

Review

Thank you to Hear Our Voices for letting me be a part of this tour and to the author for providing me with a signed copy to read and review.

This was the first book that I have read by Mia Heintzelman and I absolutely loved it. Thankfully the fact that this is the third book in a series didn’t matter as it can be read as a standalone.

As a long time fan of the board game, and movie adaptation, of Clue coupled with a second chance holiday romance I knew this book would be right up my alley. One of my favorite scenes that takes place early in the book is when the group of friends are having Friendsgiving and they’re trying to decide what to play after dinner, shoutout to Micah’s daughter Gilly for suggesting Mafia (if you’ve never played Mafia it’s a great game that I and my church youth group were obsessed with in high school) but when Nadia and the others look at her blankly they settle in Clue. What made this particular Clue game so fun was that due to the number of players versus the number of characters, they played in teams with Nadia being paired up with Micah and Gilly.

While the Friendsgiving scene was one of my favorites, the thing I loved most about the book was that not only was it about a second chance for Micah and Nadia to be together and have their own HEA (happily ever after), but it was a chance for Micah to spend more time with his daughter and create new and lasting memories for her and their family. I found that I was able to see myself in both Micah and Nadia, something that rarely happens when I read a book, and thus was able to relate to each of them even more.

There were many moments throughout this book where I found myself both sighing out loud as well as laughing and tearing up along with the characters. This book will definitely become a favorite book to reread during the holidays. But before I can do a reread of it, I just have to go back and read the first two books in the series so I can better get to know the lead characters in each one and read their love stories.

About the Author

Mia Heintzelman is a polka-dot-wearing, horror and romance movie lover, who always has a book and a to-do list in her purse. She writes fun, unforgettable, more than just laughs romance about strong women, and men with enough heart to fall for them. When she isn’t busy writing fictional happily-ever-afters, she is likely reading, playing board games, or eating sweets. 

She currently lives in Las Vegas, Nevada with her husband and two children.