Sleigh Bells in the Snow by Sarah Morgan

Sleigh Bells in the Snow (O'Neil Brothers, #1)

by Sarah Morgan

Sarah Morgan puts the magic in Chrismas" - Now Magazine - Kayla Green's Christmas Survival Strategy! Once upon a time, Christmas was Kayla Green's favourite time of the year. Then family heartbreak shattered that fairytale.

Now all marketing expert Kayla wants for Christmas is for it to be over - as fast as possible! So spending the holidays working to put a family resort called Snow Crystal on the map, is a dream come true. Jackson O'Neil left a thriving business behind to return home and salvage Snow Crystal - it's in his blood, and he'll never turn his back on it. Now he's got Kayla Green working with him, success is on the horizon. The fact they strike enough sparks off each other to power all the Christmas lights in the town is just an added bonus! Kayla might be an expert at her job, but she's out of her depth with Jackson - he makes her crave the happy-ever-after she once dreamt of, and it's terrifying. As the snowflakes continue to fall, will the woman who doesn't believe in the magic of Christmas finally fall under its spell..?

THE O'NEIL BROTHERS TRILOGY

Book 1 - Sleigh Bells in the Snow

Book 2 - Suddenly Last Summer - available July 2014

Book 3 - Maybe This Christmas - available October 2014

Reviewed by EBookObsessed on

4 of 5 stars

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Jackson O’Neil left home and opened Snowdrift Leisure, specializing in luxury hotels for winter sports. But after his father’s sudden death, he returned home to Vermont to take care of the family business. Snow Crystal has been a family owned vacation resort for four generations, but his father’s bad business decisions have left the company in ruins and Jackson will use all his hard earned knowledge to keep the family from losing everything.

He has sunk a great deal of money into building new cabins, adding a spa, and a world-class restaurant and creating the Snow Crystal Report and Spa. But what good are all the improvements on top of the classic features of their amazing ski slopes, horse drawn sleigh rides and skating on a lake, if no one knows about it. They still don’t have rooms booked and they are still in jeopardy of losing everything.

So Jackson contacts a big New York public relations firm. He wants Kayla Green to work the same PR magic on Snow Crystal that she brought to Adventure Travel to make them a household name. In order to convince his family, he needs Kayla to come to Vermont to explain to his family what Kayla and her company can do to bring in the paying guests.

Kayla is willing to do anything to get away from the Christmas crazies which takes over this time of year. Christmas memories bring about nothing but pain to Kayla and the sound of spending Christmas week in a secluded cabin away from the holiday cheer sounds like her own Christmas miracle.

Yet her hopes of isolation away from Christmas and family is an unfulfilled fantasy. Kayla never expected to walk into the O’Neil family’s home and be engulfed by such a loving family atmosphere full of happy Christmas memories. Talk about out of the frying pan and into the fire. This might just be one client that Kayla loses when her own family traumas surface and fails to impress.

Jackson won’t let Kayla walk away so easily. He has pinned all his hope on her working her magic to save Snow Crystal. He just needs to show her that Snow Crystal has a magic all its own and how much it is worth saving.

THOUGHTS:
This was a truly enjoyable story. There is a definite set up for the other brothers already and I am excited to see where their stories will go. Heck, if Snow Crystal was real, I would be booking my own vacation there and I hate the snow.

Kayla was an only child of divorced parents who went on to start new families after their divorce, neither one interested in the child created during their failed marriage. Kayla was well aware that she was the outsider in both her mother’s and her father’s new lives. Even to this day, Kayla is an unwelcome reminder of their past failure. So she spends her holidays alone. She also protects her heart by now allowing anyone to be close to her. All she has is her work which she is very good at.

But a close family like the O’Neils shakes her to her core. The loving family who hug and argue and stand by each other is absolutely foreign to her and she is overwhelmed by it so much so that she fails to make a decent first impression. But Jackson and his family break down her walls and she grows to accept the love and friendship that they offer her.

The O’Neils have a great family dynamic and every character is unique and lovable from grumpy Grandpa Walter to Tyler’s young daughter, Jess, who unlike Kayla was send away by her mother into the loving arms of her father.

Personally, the last few days have been very bad for me and this story was enjoyable enough to draw me away from my troubles and into the world of the O’Neils and Snow Crystal, and give me a few hours of peace.

Received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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Reading updates

  • Started reading
  • 10 November, 2013: Finished reading
  • 10 November, 2013: Reviewed