Once Upon a Winter Beast
(2026)(The second book in the Once Upon a Time in Colorado series)
A novel by Monique Brasher
He’s all thorns; I bring the twinkle lights. Together, we make the season sparkle again.
I run a tiny photo studio that smells like balsam candles and hot cocoa, where kids grin in front of a fake tree farm because I can’t quite afford the real thing. Which is ironic, considering the real thing lives ten minutes away—quiet, breathtaking, and owned by the one man I promised myself I’d never orbit again.
Aiden Wheeler used to be all warmth and evergreen. Now he’s gruff edges and locked gates, a tree farm that hasn’t felt like Christmas since the day his world cracked. Mine’s cracked, too—leaks in the ceiling, bills snowballing, a daughter who deserves more than a mom patching life with towels and hope.
When a desperate favor turns into a ridiculous proposal—marry him, on paper, to save the farm he’s shouldering and the season I’m drowning in—I should laugh and walk away. Instead, I say I’ll think about it. Because under the flannel and the frost, I still spot the boy who once made everything look easy. And when he shows up with cookie supplies for my daughter like it’s the most natural thing in the world, something stubborn in me thaws.
Maybe love isn’t ballrooms and grand gestures. Maybe it’s learning the breaker box together, hanging lights on a porch that hasn’t glowed in years, and finding out some castles don’t crumble—they just need new beams and brave hands.
This winter, I’m photographing other people’s magic while trying not to admit I’m standing in the middle of my own: a Christmas tree farm waking up, a town that refuses to let me fall, and a man who looks at me like home is a place we can build—one evergreen at a time.
This book was previously published as Love at the Christmas Tree Farm, but has been altered and expanded to fit the fairytale it was originally meant to be.
Once Upon a Winter Beast is a cozy, closed-door, (light) magical-realism Christmas romance featuring a marriage of convenience, second chances, small-town charm, holiday magic, a single mom, a Christmas Tree Farm, light grief themes, one bed, and a Beauty and the Beast winter enchantment that brings them back together.
Once Upon a Time in Colorado:
I run a tiny photo studio that smells like balsam candles and hot cocoa, where kids grin in front of a fake tree farm because I can’t quite afford the real thing. Which is ironic, considering the real thing lives ten minutes away—quiet, breathtaking, and owned by the one man I promised myself I’d never orbit again.
Aiden Wheeler used to be all warmth and evergreen. Now he’s gruff edges and locked gates, a tree farm that hasn’t felt like Christmas since the day his world cracked. Mine’s cracked, too—leaks in the ceiling, bills snowballing, a daughter who deserves more than a mom patching life with towels and hope.
When a desperate favor turns into a ridiculous proposal—marry him, on paper, to save the farm he’s shouldering and the season I’m drowning in—I should laugh and walk away. Instead, I say I’ll think about it. Because under the flannel and the frost, I still spot the boy who once made everything look easy. And when he shows up with cookie supplies for my daughter like it’s the most natural thing in the world, something stubborn in me thaws.
Maybe love isn’t ballrooms and grand gestures. Maybe it’s learning the breaker box together, hanging lights on a porch that hasn’t glowed in years, and finding out some castles don’t crumble—they just need new beams and brave hands.
This winter, I’m photographing other people’s magic while trying not to admit I’m standing in the middle of my own: a Christmas tree farm waking up, a town that refuses to let me fall, and a man who looks at me like home is a place we can build—one evergreen at a time.
This book was previously published as Love at the Christmas Tree Farm, but has been altered and expanded to fit the fairytale it was originally meant to be.
Once Upon a Winter Beast is a cozy, closed-door, (light) magical-realism Christmas romance featuring a marriage of convenience, second chances, small-town charm, holiday magic, a single mom, a Christmas Tree Farm, light grief themes, one bed, and a Beauty and the Beast winter enchantment that brings them back together.
Once Upon a Time in Colorado:
- Once Upon a Sugar Plum
Once Upon a Winter Beast
Once Upon a Rose
Genre: Romance