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Maybe This Christmas (Sarah Morgan)

Maybe This Christmas - Sarah Morgan

4.5 stars

I have wanted to read Tyler and Brenna’s story from the first time I got my hands on this series. What can I say? I love the best-friends-to-lovers theme in my romance. So I came into this book with high expectations. The question was, of course, did the book deliver?

Oh, hell, yeah, it most certainly did!

While there was nothing new on the reason why Tyler and Brenna weren’t yet involved — Tyler felt that he screwed up all his relationship so far, so there was no way that he would cross the line with Brenna; while Brenna felt that, despite her loving Tyler all her life, she knew that Tyler only saw her as ‘one of the guys’ so she didn’t stand a chance, and his friendship meant a lot more to her — Ms. Morgan was able to inject complexities into it. Most especially related to Brenna’s high-school past. This brought up a few twists that I didn’t see coming – including the one with Brenna’s own mother.

Tyler was definitely my favorite brother. He had this sexy bad-boy image, someone who thrived on challenges, who just wanted to ski, fast, fast, fast; he couldn’t care less about managing the ski lodge. Tyler was devastated with his injury, which stopped him from skiing professionally, but he kept his game face on and did what he had to do. I thought that made him an admirable man.

In addition, it was truly heartwarming to see how Tyler dealt with his teenage daughter, Jesse. Tyler tried hard to be the good father. He stumbled along the way, but it was clear that he wanted the best for Jesse. Gah, I loved him so much!!

And Brenna – sweet, kind but very loyal Brenna. Usually, I love my heroines to be feisty and able to push through to get what they want. In that sense, Brenna should be a bit too meek for my liking. But at the same time, Brenna brought out the protective side of me – just like she made Tyler protective of her. I could understand her fear of losing Tyler if she confessed about her feelings – her terrible past in high school definitely didn’t help her confidence. So I loved how other people – namely Kayla and Élise – were championing for her. The way that Brenna slowly gained inner strength to face her fears and to finally tell Tyler what she wanted made me so very proud of her.

The push/pull from both Brenna and Tyler did feel a bit repetitive. It took almost 3/4 of the book before Brenna and Tyler were finally working on what was inevitable between them. I thought it could have been cut a little bit short since this book felt slightly too long because of it. However, I admit that I was also a sucker for such unsolved-tension between friends, and in here, it was pretty delicious. Pure torture and frustration. But delicious.

Then, the final grand gesture from Tyler? Be Still My Heart!! *swoon*. It was SO romantic. It became one of my favorite grand gestures in romance, most definitely. I gave Tyler a perfect 10 for it *clapping hands, standing ovation*. It was worth reading all the USTs between the two to get into that final point.

So it might not be a perfect read, but Ms. Morgan was able to write a very compelling romance using this classic theme. With lovable protagonists, charming secondary characters that have been part of this series from the beginning, along with that marvelous ending, Maybe This Christmas is my favorite from the trilogy. It was fabulous, and I loved every minute of it. In fact, it is definitely one of my favorite contemporary romances of the year.