She came to Candlewick Mill for a quiet Christmas. Then a charming chocolatier, a forgotten piano, and a little holiday music changed everything.
At fifty-three, professional cellist Denise Mullins has spent most of her adult life traveling from one concert hall to another. When the orchestra she's played with for twenty-six years closes, she suddenly finds herself facing a December without rehearsals, performances, or anyone expecting her to be somewhere at a particular time.
So she rents a cozy loft at Candlewick Mill, determined to enjoy a proper Christmas for once. A little music, a few snowy walks, and plenty of time to herself. That's the plan, anyway.
Then she meets Vince Cormier.
Candlewick's resident chocolatier has a warm smile, a wicked sense of humor, and a habit of giving away perfectly good peppermint bark because the edges aren't quite straight. He's also hiding something in the back room of his chocolate shop: his mother's beloved piano, untouched for years after a humiliating Christmas Eve performance convinced him to stop playing in public.
When Denise hears him playing one evening, she can't resist asking him to join her for a carol. One song becomes two, private rehearsals turn into cozy suppers and stolen kisses, and before long, the woman who came to Candlewick for a little peace is helping organize the town's Christmas orchestra.
But Vince isn't ready to share his music with the world again, and Denise has spent too many years building her career to give it up for a holiday romance. As Christmas Eve approaches, they'll have to find a way to make room for each other's dreams without losing sight of their own.
Between chocolate-dusted afternoons, snowy sleigh rides, a small-town orchestra with more enthusiasm than polish, and a Christmas carol that carries memories across generations, two people who thought they knew exactly what their lives would look like discover there's still room for a beautiful surprise.
And sometimes the sweetest music is the kind you never expected to play together.
Peppermint & Preludes is a heartwarming, later-in-life Christmas romance filled with small-town friendship, found family, holiday music, delicious chocolate, gentle humor, snowy Vermont traditions, and the joy of discovering that love can make life's next chapter even sweeter.
Genre: Romance
At fifty-three, professional cellist Denise Mullins has spent most of her adult life traveling from one concert hall to another. When the orchestra she's played with for twenty-six years closes, she suddenly finds herself facing a December without rehearsals, performances, or anyone expecting her to be somewhere at a particular time.
So she rents a cozy loft at Candlewick Mill, determined to enjoy a proper Christmas for once. A little music, a few snowy walks, and plenty of time to herself. That's the plan, anyway.
Then she meets Vince Cormier.
Candlewick's resident chocolatier has a warm smile, a wicked sense of humor, and a habit of giving away perfectly good peppermint bark because the edges aren't quite straight. He's also hiding something in the back room of his chocolate shop: his mother's beloved piano, untouched for years after a humiliating Christmas Eve performance convinced him to stop playing in public.
When Denise hears him playing one evening, she can't resist asking him to join her for a carol. One song becomes two, private rehearsals turn into cozy suppers and stolen kisses, and before long, the woman who came to Candlewick for a little peace is helping organize the town's Christmas orchestra.
But Vince isn't ready to share his music with the world again, and Denise has spent too many years building her career to give it up for a holiday romance. As Christmas Eve approaches, they'll have to find a way to make room for each other's dreams without losing sight of their own.
Between chocolate-dusted afternoons, snowy sleigh rides, a small-town orchestra with more enthusiasm than polish, and a Christmas carol that carries memories across generations, two people who thought they knew exactly what their lives would look like discover there's still room for a beautiful surprise.
And sometimes the sweetest music is the kind you never expected to play together.
Peppermint & Preludes is a heartwarming, later-in-life Christmas romance filled with small-town friendship, found family, holiday music, delicious chocolate, gentle humor, snowy Vermont traditions, and the joy of discovering that love can make life's next chapter even sweeter.
Genre: Romance