Romance

Seattle is where Josie has always wanted to be, with her mom and in a restaurant that would allow her to use her culinary degree. The summer before her career was to begin, she took a job at an Alaskan lodge. The town of Ponder has only a few permanent residents, one of them is Palmer, who finds the new cook at the lodge to turn his world upside down. Getting her to stay in Ponder may take more than just a marriage proposal.

This Macomber book is a little different than most. When we first meet Josie and Palmer, they are already a couple, if not completely in love. The story basically starts at the marriage proposal. I missed the meet, the fall, and a lot of the little things that make a Macomber story so sweet. This 2nd half of the story was good, I just felt like I missed the 1st half. ( )

I enjoyed this short book with romance, snow, and chefs. It wasn't real Christmasy, and was sweet and romantic. ( )

Alaskan Holiday was a sweet, quirky Alaskan romance with two interesting characters who took a little while to figure each other out! Palmer knew he liked Josie from the start, but being an Alaskan man raised far away from other people, expressing that wasn’t his forte. Josie’s dream was to put her culinary degree to work, and she wasn’t sure she could do that cooking up moose stew forever. So what are these two to do?

I always love sweet Debbie Macomber romances around the holidays. This one won 5 cold Alaskan husky bonus points for the cold setting and quirky moose-meat factor! Plus, I really liked Jack as a side character. He was a hoot! In terms of the romance, we were also at 5 peppermint lattes. These two were just so sweet. I would say in terms of a holiday book… probably two snowmen, simply because compared to previous offerings like “Merry and Bright” this one isn’t super-Christmas-y, however, it’s got great foodie- and cool setting vibes, both in Seattle and Alaska, and is a great read all its own. Very much enjoyed.

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader. ( )

Josie Avery just graduated from culinary school. In a career-making break, a renowned chef hires her to help open his new restaurant in her native Seattle. The building won’t be ready until the fall so Josie takes a summer job cooking in a lodge in the community of Ponder, Alaska.

Palmer Saxon and Josie end up spending every waking minute together during Josie’s time in the small town. The night before Josie leaves for Seattle, Palmer proposes. Josie doesn’t completely shut him down but she doesn’t say yes either. They decide to pursue a long-distance relationship and re-evaluate later.

I’m not really the audience for this book but I wanted a Christmas-y audiobook. The options at my library were either this standalone romance or other romances or cozy mysteries that were roughly number 52 in a series. (Yes, that’s an exaggeration but not as much as it should be.) Standalone romance it was, even though I’m not really a romance reader.

This was cute enough but completely forgettable to me. Josie and Palmer literally relate their respective sides of the summer courtship while they’re preparing for their final evening together. The author didn’t show the relationship building so I just had to accept that they cared for each other. It was entirely predictable but other readers might like predictability in a holiday book.

My feminist hackles rose when it started to feel like Josie and the other women in the book were going to give up their own dreams and career plans for marriage. I must admit that I was placated by the ending though.

And really, who allowed a book about Palmer from Ponder to get published? I had to think about whether I was hearing information about the town or the man more often than you would expect.

The narrators overall did a great job. Laurel Rankin may have been a bit too earnest and Luke Daniels may have tried too hard to liven up a lackluster book, but those are fairly minor quibbles.

Romance readers and those who take comfort in familiarity and predictability will like this more than I did. It’s sweet enough and a quick Christmas read. I’m simply not the audience for this book so I shouldn’t have even checked it out from the library. ( )