Review:  The Christmas Keeper (Laurel Holidays Book 6) by V.L. Locey

Rating:  5🌈

V. L. Locey’s Laurel Holidays novels are a must read for me , and this season’s release has to be my absolute favorite of all.  The Christmas Keeper, Laurel Holidays Book 6, just resonates with me on multiple levels. 

 All the heartwarming Locey elements are here and elevated. From the realistic, beautifully crafted small Pennsylvania town and community, as well as the wonderfully layered characters and holiday traditions.  Locey weaves all these elements together to create a truly heartfelt romance that makes you feel so much a part of the season and the lives of a town and couple that you forget all are fictional.

Brann Argraves, a man whose previous relationship has soured him on romance and the holidays, is returning home from his sister’s wedding, when he helps a man in need at the small airport near home. 

Brann is a perfectly realized character, from his wounded personality with raised shields to the well drawn family who are concerned about him.  Every detail of his life fits, his great realistic rescue geese, his small sparse cabin , bare of most usual personal touches expected from someone that’s well settled and happy. It all speaks to the character Locey has built and who will evolve over the course of the story.  The excellent attention to character building continues with Kenan Gardet, a busker singer in a small airport , with a history of substance abuse, who’s trying to chart a new path for his life. Kenan is a moving character, but his equal is Brann in surprisingly strong depths of personality traits and support in terms of narrative foundation .  In short, they work as believably wounded people finding their way towards recovery and each other. During the holidays, Kenan’s Jewish traditions and those of of Breann’s he’s rediscovering, which will bring them closer together.

Honestly, The Christmas Keeper (Laurel Holidays Book 6) by V.L. Locey will be on re-read, and not only for the holidays, it’s just that comfort story that you embrace.

And one I’m highly recommending, no matter what or if any holiday you celebrate.

Laurel Holidays series:

The Easter Redemption 

The Christmas Extra 

The Christmas Oaks #1

The Christmas Pundit #2

The Christmas Tenor #3

The Christmas Rescue #4

The Christmas Keeper #6

Buy link

vllocey.comhttp://vllocey.com › the-christmas-…The Christmas Keeper (Laurel Holidays #6) 

Blurb

A grumpy pub owner is about to have his chilly heart warmed by a down-on-his-luck country singer.

Brann Argraves has never left the charming village of Whiteham before nor does he wish to. As the owner of the Whiteham Taphouse, he is content to spend his life serving drafts of beer to the locals, shooting darts with his buddies, and shutting himself away in his cabin for the duration of the holidays. Who needs all that ho-ho-ho, any who? His sister, on the other hand, not only yanked him out of his happy yet somewhat solitary bubble, but she’s also reveling in it. Planning a winter wedding was plain foolish, Brann feels, as is making people fly to some frozen wasteland in Canada to tie the knot. Now, he’s never been happier to return home after the wedding and get back to his bar, his darts, and his little home on the outskirts of town.

Landing at a wintry airport smack dab in the middle of a nasty snow squall, Brann and his weary fellow flyers are entertained by a handsome, rumpled man busking outside the airport. There’s something almost magical about the man’s dark, sad gaze as well as his angelic vocals. Perhaps it’s the residual merry-merry of his sister’s nuptials, or maybe he recognizes a lonely kindred soul, but Brann steps way out of his comfort zone when he offers the man a warm place to sleep above his bar. Kenan Gardet settles into the pub with ease and Southern grace. The down-and-out singer quickly proves himself an asset to Brann’s business as a good barkeep and as a nightly draw on stage. What he didn’t expect was Kenan capturing his heart one plaintive song and gentle kiss at a time.

The Christmas Keeper is a standalone grumpy/sunshine, hurt/comfort, insta-love, gay Christmas romance with a bah-humbug bar owner, a recovering country crooner, a small town tavern chock full of unique townsfolk, two geese who are not feeling the Christmas spirit, a gingerbread house bake-off, and a sweet as plum pudding happy ending. 

Content warning: This story has references to past substance abuse.

• Publication date: November 30, 2024
• Language: English
• Print length: 186 pages