Christmas at Cady's Canteen*****
A snowed-in romance by Andrea Maxand
The story: https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0BQQPM449
A heroine named Jess, who might or might not be comparable to Bridget Jones, spends a lonely Christmas Eve with a mother she barely tolerates. She wants to have a great relationship with her mom, if only her mom would be less aggravating. They watch Bridget Jones’s Diary while Jess eats popcorn and her mom (well, doesn’t) because “it’s sort of a Christmas movie.” But after the movie Jess can’t wait to bolt. The weather forecast is bad, though. A snowstorm is coming. Can Jess make it back to the city where she lives before the storm at the very least hits full throttle? Maybe, if she leaves now. She uses the cat as an excuse. Even though she knows her cat will be fine, the cat would be “angry” if she didn’t come home. So she takes her chances and buckles up. That’s Episode 1. The next one is about her regret over that bad decision, and the fear that overwhelms when we’re driving in the dark and can barely see anything around us, and it’s the middle of nowhere, so no street lights, sorry. Feeling unsafe, she pulls over at the first sign of light—the always-open, breakfast-all-day Cady’s Canteen.
This story is very well written. It has the feel of a Hallmark Christmas movie. (What diner in the middle of a snowstorm also just happens to have a single other customer who just happens to be a hottie? That’s Episode 3, by the way!) I mean that as a compliment, just in case you were in doubt. A heroine who lives alone with her cat and desperately wants to love her irritating-as-hell mother, enough to drive into the middle of nowhere despite a pending snowstorm, is definitely a heroine worth reading (and fighting) for. I wish I had stumbled on this little Vella gem much earlier in the Christmas season. As so often happens, I’m late to the party.
***** FIVE STARS!
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