It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas (Reads) GIVEAWAY: Muskoka Christmas (+ guest post)

Muskoka Christmas

Welcome back to our annual blog series spotlighting (over 60 again this year) new and recently-released Christmas reads!

Christmas is only 21 days away, according to Google, but of course it’s never too early for Christmas stories, and ’tis the season when I really start craving them (even more than I do the rest of the year lol), so now is the perfect time to jump right into these posts!

Continuing through just after Christmas, I’m going to spotlight several Christmasy releases from 2022. Most days will have more than one post, just FYI. So… snuggle in, grab your fave hot beverage and comfiest blanket, turn on some Christmas tunes and start your bookish Christmas list! Oh… and did I mention there are GIVEAWAYS with EACH POST in this series??!! (Because authors are awesome!)

MUSKOKA CHRISTMAS by Carolyn Miller
SERIES: Muskoka Shores #2
GENRE: Inspirational Contemporary Romance
RELEASE DATE: November 10, 2022
PAGES: 295

Staci Everton is a multi-published author of historical romances, whose Christmas Eve deadline for a new book sees her leave her Chicago home to go write while staying with her grandmother in the beautiful small town of Muskoka Shores, Canada. Staci is determined to finish her manuscript, despite the small town’s Christmas charm – and Muskoka Shores most eligible bachelor.

Dr. James Wells is on enforced leave from working in Africa, after nearly burning out. He’s here to spend time with family, not spend time with a workaholic whose focus on fiction is very different from the harsh realities he’s faced.

But Christmas is a time of second chances, family and faith. Maybe they’ll find magic under the mistletoe, and a future after all.

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’Tis the season to be getting Christmassy!

I love this time of year. I love the fact we have all kinds of fun things to do and see (and eat!) and the fact there often seems to be a general lift in mood in people. (except maybe not among those last-minute shoppers…)

Here in Australia we’ve just started summer, so unlike folk preparing for snow, we’re getting ready for the beach. For picnics. The end of school before six weeks of summer holidays. Outdoor concerts and events like Carols by Candlelight, which can see thousands of people gather outside and sing along to all kinds of Christmas music, from those featuring Santa and snow (ironic, huh?) to those more traditional carols about Jesus, the real reason for the season.

In fact, this coming weekend my church is hosting our community Christmas carols, outside on the church lawns, an event where I sing (and play keys) out the front along with my daughters and others from our church and local public high school. It’s always a goose-bump-inducing occasion to sing the lines of ‘O Holy Night’ when there are hundreds of non-church people listening, and we’re able to minister to them with some Christmas truth. I love it!

I love other traditions as well, like decorating gingerbread houses, making cookies, driving around our small town’s streets to see the lights. My family decorate the house on December 1 each year, and there’s something so beautiful about looking at the finished tree, decked in fairy lights and meaningful ornaments collected from our travels. It’s like a soul exhale, a chance to enjoy some magic and just breathe.

On Christmas Eve, my husband’s family tradition sees us put little gifts in our kids’ ‘Santa stockings.’ Weirdly, Santa never gives as good presents as Mum and Dad do 😉

Then, on Christmas Day, we attend church together as a family before unwrapping presents (oh, the anguish of waiting!), then traveling to see family and enjoy meals that might make more sense in colder climates (hello, roast turkey and baked ham!) but still taste delicious, especially when added to our summer-appropriate prawns, salads, and desserts like pavlova.

I loved incorporating some of my favorite traditions (tree decorating! cookie making! lights!) in my new novel Muskoka Christmas. This book sees a workaholic historical romance author (nope, can’t relate at all) visit the small town of Muskoka Shores to finish her book while staying at her grandmother’s. She certainly doesn’t expect to find romance of her own, but when handsome burned-out medical missionary Dr. James appears, he proves to be a mighty distraction.

Muskoka Christmas, the second in the Muskoka Romance series (but can be read as a standalone) was SO fun to write, has banter and all the Hallmark Christmas feels, but has touched hearts as it explores what it really means to come home for Christmas. I hope you enjoy!

So let’s chat: what are some of your favorite Christmas traditions?

Do you have a favorite Christmas ornament? What makes it special?

Would you like to experience Christmas in another part of the world? Where and why?

(Need more Christmas – for free? Then sign up for my newsletter and get my Christmas contemporary romance, Originally Yours, for free!)

Carolyn Miller is offering an ebook copy of Muskoka Christmas to one of my readers! (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 Muskoka Christmas by Carolyn Miller? Pick one or more of Carolyn’s questions to answer too!