Winter at Cedarwood Lodge by Rebecca Raisin
Published: 1st December 2017
Publisher: HQ Digital
Pages: 403
Available on Kindle
Rating: 5/5
Blurb
This winter it’s time to fall in love at Cedarwood Lodge…
After years of dreaming, Clio Winters is finally fulfilling her childhood dream of renovating the gorgeous old Cedarwood Lodge in Evergreen and turning it into the perfect destination for celebrations, weddings and extravagant birthday parties. The huge property used to be a bustling holiday camp, now Clio wants to bring it back to its halcyon days – which will be a lot of hard work!
Returning back to the small town of her youth she’s glad to have one of her best friends still around to lean on, Micah who is just as solid as he used to be. But with her own secrets pushing her to run from her glamorous life in New York, she’ll have to tread carefully, especially when the far-too-handsome-for-his-own-good contractor, Kai, shows up on her doorstep…
Sure she’s here in Evergreen to change her life, but there is no way she’s falling in love!
Review
Winter at Cedarwood Lodge is the new title for three
novellas Rebecca Raisin wrote last year Celebrations and Confetti, Brides and
Bouquets and Midnight and Mistletoe, which I was lucky enough to read last
year. In this new version all three stories have been edited together and given
a final ending which I think finishes off Clio’s story perfectly. I’m a huge
Rebecca Raisin fan and have loved re-reading Clio’s story again and feel it’s
now even better than before.
Clio has just bought Cedarwood Lodge and returned to her
home town of Evergreen. Along with help from best friend Micah, irresistible
project manager Kai and shy but sweet Isla Clio plans to renovate the lodge in
time to re-open at Christmas. With an anniversary party, a wedding and a New
Year’s Eve party to plan Clio has her hands full, will she manage to pull it
all off despite the many obstacles which keep appearing.
Clio is a lovely character who is always willing to help
others, especially if that helping involves a little match making. She’s determined
that love is not for her even when her feelings for handsome Kai can’t seem to
be controlled, so perhaps her friends need to do some matchmaking of their own.
There is also a more serious thread running through the story as Clio tries to
rebuild her relationship with her mother and work out what secrets she is hiding.
This gives the story some balance and makes it even more enjoyable.
I adored reading these separately last year but as one whole
novel they make a perfect story which has everything you could wish for
friendships, romance, Christmas, a little magic and that thing Ms. Raisin has
mastered scrumptious sounding food. Another winning book from Rebecca Raisin
and one which will bring joy to anyone who reads it.
Thank you so much to LLR Promotions for inviting me on the
blog tour and sending me a copy to review.
“And what about Timothy? That fine specimen of young love? Have you reconnected?”
I groaned. I’d forgotten her earlier directive about catching up with him for coffee. “Well, we’re all supposed to be going out on Friday. But that’s only because I literally bumped into him in town…”
She cut me off. “Bumped into him? Like meet-cute bumped into him? Like the beginning of every single decent romantic comedy?”
“If I eye-roll any harder I’ll see my brain. Yes, but it wasn’t like the movies at all. It was painful and all sorts of awkward because he had his two children with him, who were so frosty they were practically snowmen. The little girl made the finger-across-the-throat gesture behind his back. And she’s only, like, four, or eight, or something!”
“OK, OK, that’s interesting. We don’t know enough about kids to translate the meaning. It could be anything! Did he say where their mom was?” Her voice rose with excitement and I knew I had to put a stop to her scheming. Before I could answer she was off again. “Was he wearing a wedding ring?”
I debated whether to lie, because if I told her the truth there’d be no going back.
“He wasn’t, was he?” she said triumphantly.
Dang it! “No, he wasn’t. But that doesn’t mean anything! He could have been swimming, or at the gym and taken it off for safekeeping. Besides, I’m not interested in revisiting the past.” I didn’t know which way was up at the moment and definitely couldn’t be trusted with matters of the heart unless they related to someone else’s heart. Someone like Micah and Isla.
“Did you have butterfly belly? Yes or no?”
“Possibly, but I think that was because I had a traumatic bump to the head…”
“Yes or no?”
“It was more nerves…”
“So that’s a yes. Did he give you that same special smile from back in the day?”
Damn it.
“I’ll take your silence as an affirmative. And who invited who out? Actually, don’t bother answering that – it was him.” The clack of laptop keys clattered down the phone line.
“What are you doing?”
“Research.”
“His Facebook page is locked down.”
Her curse rang out and the keys clacked furiously once more.
“He doesn’t use Twitter.”
I was met with silence.
“Or Instagram.”
“Are they so remote they can’t communicate? I mean, how do these people survive?”
I giggled. “I think they meet face to face.”
She gasped. “Bloody hell. OK, so if we can’t stalk him online, I suppose you’re going to have to do this the old-fashioned way.”
