Book Review: The Christmas Tree Farm

I recently finished the third book in the Dream Harbor series by Laurie Gilmore, The Christmas Tree Farm. At first, I wasn’t sure how much I’d like it, but I ended up loving it!

The novel follows Bennett and Kira. Bennett is Jeannie’s brother who she convinced to come visit Dream Harbor for a month during the holidays. Kira is the new owner of the Christmas tree farm in town. She made a brief appearance in one of the previous books when she was introduced at one of the town meetings as the new owner. She didn’t intend to reopen the farm as a Christmas tree farm at first, but when she she realized she needed the money to fix up the farm she had no choice.

We learn that Kira came from money, but wanted to leave her life in Georgia behind and start fresh with a life completely different than the life she left behind. So she moved to the northeast, hastily bought a farm that hasn’t been inhabited in years, and is making a go of it. But she doesn’t know what she’s doing, she didn’t originally want to open a farm – she just wanted to live on the land – so she’s been prickly to the people in town for the last few months, not really leaving the farm or wanting to make friends. The townspeople believe that the previous owner, an old man who died a few years ago, buried something on the land. They have no idea what, but it could be something bad like a body! When they find out that Bennett has had an interaction with Kira and it generally went fine, they enlist his help. They make Bennett go and be nosy to see if he can find whatever is buried on the land because they don’t want the new member of the town to stumble upon some grizzly sight!

Bennett has a history of wanting to fix things for everyone especially women he’s dating. When Kira begins to let her guard down and let Bennett be her friend and help her, the two develop a friendship and feelings for one another. The problem? Kira doesn’t think it’s a good idea to get attached to Bennett since he’ll be going back to California after New Year’s. And Bennett doesn’t want to fall back into his old habits of letting his feelings for a woman dictate his life. How will the two fare over the next month when they’re attracted to one another and get each other?

So at first I wasn’t sure how much I’d like this book, because Kira was very grumpy. It was to the point that it seemed like she was just mean/short with people for no reason. Almost like everything had to be a fight. But, luckily, she starts to chill out not to far into the book and then becomes not only a much more pleasant person, but actually a really nice character to read about. I loved her and Bennett together and I enjoyed watching the development of their relationship. The cozy Christmas they created together in the farmhouse also gave me all the feels and warm vibes.

Read this if you want a spicy holiday romcom set in a small town with the grumpy sunshine trope.

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