A Christmas Surprise
(2025)(The sixth book in the Hearthridge Holidays series)
A novel by Laurel Leigh
Snowy ridgelines. One quiet archivist, one improv guy. A New Year’s Eve that rewrites everything.
After a too-quiet, over-curated Christmas, Dr. Nora Thornton says yes to a last-minute invitation to Wild Pines Ski Lodge, calling it a one-week dare to prove she can still do brave things. At Wild Pines, she finds dawn hikes, a local legend about a white ‘guardian’ wolf, and a version of herself who keeps choosing the unplanned.
And Dylan Grayson? He’s there too—steady-hearted, quick to laugh, the kind of man who hands over courage like a hand warmer and knows when silence is its own conversation. On the slopes, on the trails, and in one unforgettable snowstorm detour, he teaches Nora how it feels to be wanted exactly as she is, no performance required.
When a New Year’s blizzard, a midnight wolf sighting, and one very real kiss force Nora to decide what comes next, she has to choose what she’ll carry forward: the safe life she’s labeled and filed, or the messy, wild, shared one that finally feels like home.
A cozy, sweet, clean New Year’s romance about found-family warmth, quiet bravery, and the kind of hope that follows you long after you’ve left the lodge lights behind.
Genre: Romance
After a too-quiet, over-curated Christmas, Dr. Nora Thornton says yes to a last-minute invitation to Wild Pines Ski Lodge, calling it a one-week dare to prove she can still do brave things. At Wild Pines, she finds dawn hikes, a local legend about a white ‘guardian’ wolf, and a version of herself who keeps choosing the unplanned.
And Dylan Grayson? He’s there too—steady-hearted, quick to laugh, the kind of man who hands over courage like a hand warmer and knows when silence is its own conversation. On the slopes, on the trails, and in one unforgettable snowstorm detour, he teaches Nora how it feels to be wanted exactly as she is, no performance required.
When a New Year’s blizzard, a midnight wolf sighting, and one very real kiss force Nora to decide what comes next, she has to choose what she’ll carry forward: the safe life she’s labeled and filed, or the messy, wild, shared one that finally feels like home.
A cozy, sweet, clean New Year’s romance about found-family warmth, quiet bravery, and the kind of hope that follows you long after you’ve left the lodge lights behind.
Genre: Romance
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