Different Author for this Holiday Book

 Christmas Eve at Cranberry Cross by Kate Forster

This was not a typical Hallmark style Christmas story. The characters were much more developed and the story more fully formed than you expect from a Christmas book. I normally don't like an age gap, but it didn't bother me in this because both people were fully grown adults instead of the FMC being barely 18 like in most age gap romances. Eve is an assistant for an editor and Serena, the editor is the absolute worst person to work for; she treats her employees horribly and takes credit for other peoples work. Edward is an author on Serena's case who hasn't delivered the promised book so she sends Eve up to him to get him to work. Eve definitely thinks he's cute. But it's weird because she can't tell if he's flirting with her or not. Then there's the issue of his kids; Myles is 14 and his step-son who he never adopted but his mother abandoned him and he is severely depressed. Then there's Flora who is 7 and burying her dolls in the snow so she can rescue them; unlike her own mother who abandoned her and hasn't shown up to rescue her. But Eve bonds with both kids. She takes them to meet her family. She flirts with Edward. They spend Christmas with her family. Then Amber, his ex-wife shows up and starts smashing his car with a hammer. Then she finds out that she's not getting the editor job she applied for to stay working as Serena's assistant because Edward wants to keep working with her. This was really Serena's way to keep her and not promote her. She leaves the house and returns to her apartment with her roommates. She quits her job. Edward calls Serena and asks why she fired her and she tells her she quit. He says, get her back and give her the promotion or he leaves and finds a new publisher. Serena calls and begs her to come back. Eve refuses. She interviews with a small boutique publisher. She is on her way to apologize to Edward and see if he will take her back when she gets a call from her mother. There was a fire. Amber set fire to the house. Edward was the only person there. Firefighters were able to save him and the kitten Flora got for Christmas but Amber died. But he was severely injured. He was in the hospital for a while. Eve was by his side the whole time. His kids were with Eve's parents. He and Myles started looking for new houses and they found the perfect place and showed it to Eve and that's where he proposed. Then she got the email saying that she got the job with the new publisher, which turns out to be the same publisher that Edward moved his new novels to and neither new that the other was talking so it worked out great. He also adopted Myles. The epilogue was three years later. They had a daughter. She reaches out to one of her friends about writing a self-help book. It had a lot of the expected tropes for a romance, but also some unexpected things as well. I really enjoyed this.