The Christmas Bride by Sylvia McDaniel–which will be released early in November–is a continuation of McDaniel’s Burnett Brides series. In this series, Eugenia Burnett is a smart, conniving widow who finds brides for her three unwilling(initially) grown sons. She wants grandkids and she figures she’s going to have to do something about it, since her sons aren’t doing anything. So conniving, wily Eugenia plots and schemes to get her handsome sons all set with three beautiful brides.
She doesn’t, of course, expect to meet the mate of her heart in Wyatt Jones, the widower who owns a neighboring ranch.
I write contemporary romance, but I critique with writers who do both contemporary and historical. Sylvia, who is one of my critique partners, excels in writing historical western romance. Although I only write contemporaries, I read other romance genres and I looked forward to Eugenia’s book because Sylvia’s western romances are always so good.
In The Christmas Bride, matchmaking mama Eugenia meets her own match. She was widowed before the Burnett Brides series started and she’s always been a bossy, outspoken woman. She makes no beans about getting what she knows is best for her sons, so it’s particularly fun to see her run into her own romantic challenge. Eugenia is accustomed to matching couples up, but when she starts sending older ladies with casseroles to widower Wyatt Jones, he startles her by saying she’s the only woman he wants.
I really enjoyed watching bossy Eugenia come up against tough, determined Wyatt. Perhaps because she’s now written four books about the Burnetts, Sylvia portrayed her heroine with laughter and confidence. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys romances where cowboys and strong women are written with heart.