A Merry Bramble Christmas

by C.J. Carmichael

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Bramble House B & B is booked for the Christmas season, and new owner Amy Arden and her husband Chet Hardwick are excited to spend their first Yuletide season as a married couple. To spread the joy of the season, they have carefully selected their guests for the week before Christmas including two very special people.

Oliver Rivers is coming to Marietta to fulfill his mother’s deathbed wish…to locate the daughter his mother gave up when she was fifteen. When that doesn’t go as planned, he finds himself gravitating to another guest at Bramble House.

Everyone calls Gemma Granger the runaway bride, but they don’t know she was deceived by her fiancé and fled to Bramble House to nurse her broken heart. Instead, Gemma finds herself feeling an instant connection with Oliver and helping him bond with his long-lost family.

Oliver suspects Gemma is taking on him and other projects to avoid dealing with her heartbreak. But the truth is that with each passing day, Gemma is discovering that her real life and her real love might not be where she thought it was.

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Book Details

Genre

Contemporary Romance

Subgenre

Holiday (Christmas, Valentine’s, etc.), Small Town

Series

Bramble House Chronicles • Book 2

Audience

Adult

Bell Peppers

🫑🫑

Profanity

2 Mild

Violence

1 None

Drugs, Alcohol, Tobacco

1 None

Publication Date

December 7, 2023

Language Versions

English

Fiction Form

Novel

About the Author

USA Today bestselling author C. J. Carmichael has written over 50 novels, including two mystery series, as well as romance and women’s fiction. Three of her novels have been nominated for the Romance Writers of America RITA Award, including A Bramble House Christmas. A film version of A Bramble House Christmas premiered as a Hallmark Mystery movie in 2017.Married, with two grown daughters and some adorable grandchildren, C.J. and her husband and their Welshie Jazz divide their time between their home in Calgary, Alberta and the family cottage on Flathead Lake, Montana. To be the first to know about upcoming releases and promotions please sign up for her newsletter.Visit C.J.’s website at http://CJCarmichael.com

C. J. Carmichael has touched my heart again. I adore this story.

It is my honor to offer this review of C. J. Carmichael’s new Marietta story, A Merry Bramble Christmas. This book is story #2 in the Bramble House Chronicles series. The majestic Bramble House Bed & Breakfast, the most-stately home in all of Marietta is enjoying another Christmas season. The first Christmas for new owner Amy and her husband Chet. Amy and Chet are a great couple.

First-time visitors Gemma Granger and Oliver Rivers arrive at the same time. Gemma has just canceled her upcoming wedding. Everyone back home in Denver view her as crazy. After all, both of their families are socially connected. Aren’t social and business connections more important than true love? Oliver has come to meet his half-sister and nephew that until recently he did not know existed. His mother, a cardiac surgeon, admitted to him that after a teenage pregnancy, she gave her first child up for adoption. Their meeting will be complicated.

Gemma and Oliver are both staying the week before Christmas. Each needs someone to talk to. Of course, they begin to confide in each other. Is it just a coincidence or is it due to Marietta’s magic. Gemma needs Oliver when her mother first, then her ex-fiancé second, arrive unexpectedly. Oliver needs Gemma to help him show that he wants a long-term relationship with these two new family members. His half-sister and nephew lost their husband/father in a tragic forest fire fighting accident two years prior. Life has been difficult for them.

Within one week Gemma and Oliver become closer and closer. It doesn’t seem rushed, simply valid. Mistakes don’t happen in Marietta. Will Gemma and Oliver grab their HEA? Will Trish and Sawyer accept Oliver? Will there be even more good tidings this Bramble Christmas?

When I find a new book by C. J. Carmichael, it automatically goes to the top of my “To Be Read” list. The author touches my heart with her compassionate storylines. A Merry Bramble Christmas is my second all-time favorite Marietta book. BTW, the author also wrote my first all-time favorite. 10 STARS!!!

A Merry Bramble Christmas

A Merry Bramble Christmas is a wonderful holiday romance. This is the second book in CJ Carmichael’s terrific series, Bramble House Chronicles. Bramble House is a lovely Bed and Breakfast located in Marietta, Montana. We met the new owners, Amy and Chet, in the first book of the series, and I was happy to see they included in this book as well. This book takes place at Christmas and CJ does a great job describing all of the decorations and activities going on in Marietta and at the B&B.

Book 2 features Gemma Granger, who has run away just before her wedding. She called it off as she realized she was not in love with the groom. As she is driving to Marietta, she is badgered by texts and phone calls from family, friends and the groom’s mother about her disappearance. The groom never reached out. She made a reservation at Bramble House because she had a memorable night there many years ago and thought it a good place to return to. She arrives at the same time as another guest, Oliver Rivers. The two seemed to make a connection. We learn that Oliver has come to Marietta to find his half sister. His mother confessed on her deathbed to having a daughter that she put up for adoption when she was 15. He had no idea about his sibling. He hired an investigator to locate her and he discovered she has a son and lives in Marietta. Oliver goes to her house to meet her and his nephew. She is not welcoming. His nephew on the other hand is very excited to have an uncle. Oliver learns her husband had been a firefighter and was killed two years earlier. It was difficult for her to keeps things going. She has two jobs and not a lot of free time to decorate her house or manage daily details. He enlists Gemma’s help in doing things for his sister and nephew. I was glad to see Oliver’s sister slowly begin to accept him. Gemma and Oliver become close, confiding their secrets to each other. As the days pass and their connection grows, they wonder what will happen when they return to their own lives elsewhere.

In addition to Oliver and Gemma, there is a family that checks into Bramble House and Kris, the Santa from the Graff hotel, is also a guest there. The family provides some comedy as well as some tearful moments in the book. The interaction of the characters is so entertaining to read. I love how genuine and real everyone seems. The author does a wonderful job in character development.

This is a five star book with so much heart. I am glad that CJ has begun another series set in Marietta at the Bramble. I enjoyed also seeing Amy and Chet as well as the traditional businesses and characters in the town. I loved that Sage O’Dell was included and the new candy classes are a very cool idea.