It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (Reads) GIVEAWAY: A Small-Town Christmas Challenge (+ guest post)

today’s book: A Small-Town Christmas Challenge

Oh hey! It’s been a minute since I last posted in this series. I am so appreciative of these wonderful authors who are taking part in this year’s Christmas Reads Giveaway – each one of them has granted me abundant grace and compassion as I struggle to get back into the swing of things after losing my dad last week. And you, my dear blog readers whom I consider friends, have extended to me that same grace and compassion. Thank you ♥

I am finding that grief is ever-fluctuating so I am dipping my toe back into the blogging waters today with no absolute guarantee that I will have the emotional or mental stamina to do so tomorrow. But today I do, so today I am blogging. And I am becoming okay with giving myself the freedom to see how I feel and listen to what my body & heart are telling me.

So without further ado, I am continuing our annual blog series spotlighting (over 60 this year) new and recently-released Christmas reads! Christmas is only THREE days away, so… snuggle in, grab your fave hot beverage and comfiest blanket, turn on some Christmas tunes and continue your bookish Christmas list! Oh… and did I mention there are GIVEAWAYS with EACH POST in this series??!! (Because authors are awesome!)

Today’s featured book is a romance between a nurse and a pastor who inherit an old historic home together, and author Susanne Dietze shares about a yummy Christmas tradition that plays a key role in the story!

A SMALL-TOWN CHRISTMAS CHALLENGE by Susanne Dietze
SERIES: Widow’s Peak Creek #3
GENRE: Inspirational Contemporary Romance
PUBLISHER: Love Inspired
RELEASE DATE: November 30, 2021
PAGES: 219

Will reviving an old tradition

be the start of something new?

When she inherits a beautiful historic house, nurse Leah Dean knows selling it could solve all her problems. But there’s just one catch—she and co-owner Pastor Benton Hunt must cohost the Gingerbread Gala in the home first. As Christmas approaches, Leah and Benton grow closer, and parting with the house—and each other—is not as easy as they thought…

From Love Inspired: Uplifting stories of faith, forgiveness and hope.

Widow’s Peak Creek

Book 1: A Future for His Twins
Book 2: Seeking Sanctuary
Book 3: A Small-Town Christmas Challenge

affiliate links used

Hello, friends!

If you’re anything like me, you’re facing down a holiday to-do list while also trying to make time to savor the season.

We all have different traditions, but I like to use special devotionals for Advent, go for walks or drives to look at holiday light displays, drink hot cocoa with a candy cane in it, and indulge my love of gingerbread houses.

Whether they’re candy confections like the kits we can make at home, or professional marvels, like the annual White House gingerbread creations, I think gingerbread houses are delightful. I always have, since I was a little girl looking at my mom’s holiday issues of Good Housekeeping, which included photos from their annual gingerbread contest.

With gingerbread on my mind, I suppose it’s no surprise that the main characters in my Christmas romance A Small-Town Christmas Challenge find themselves tasked with creating and decorating a V.I.G. (a Very Important Gingerbread house which will go on display at the town’s Gingerbread Gala). Benton and Leah are intimidated by the prospect, but I couldn’t resist assigning them such a sweet activity (pun intended) to do together!

I had so much fun writing those scenes. I sketched out their house on paper, researched the candies they’d use, and looked up the “best” recipes for royal icing for them to use as glue. I even included in my personal trick for getting a gingerbread house to stay in one piece.

I freely admit the fictional house in my story turns out much better than my home attempts. I may have won first place in a cake decorating contest when I was eleven years old, but in the decades since then, my skills with a tube of icing have gone downhill. That doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy the process of decorating gingerbread houses with my family, though. That’s part of the joy of the season, isn’t it? Creating special memories that last far beyond the items on our to-do lists?

How about you? Do you make a gingerbread house at Christmastime? If you do, do you ever nibble the candies?

I hope that however you spend Christmas, there are many special memories for you and those you love.

Susanne Dietze began writing love stories in high school, casting her friends in the starring roles. Today, she’s an award-winning, RWA RITA® nominated author who’s seen her work on the Publisher’s Weekly and ECPA Lists for Inspirational Fiction. Married to a pastor and the mom of two, Susanne lives in California and enjoys fancy-schmancy tea parties and curling up on the couch with a costume drama. You can visit her at www.susannedietze.com.

Susanne Dietze is offering a print or ebook copy of A Small-Town Christmas Challenge to one of my readers! (US only for print. Ebook is available internationally. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.) This giveaway is subject to Reading Is My SuperPower’s giveaway policies which can be found here. Enter via the Rafflecopter form below.

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What about you? What makes you want to read A Small-Town Christmas Challenge by Susanne Dietze? Do you make a gingerbread house at Christmastime? If you do, do you ever nibble the candies?