REVIEW: Celebration at Christmas Cove by Carrie Jansen

Celebration at Christmas Cove by Carrie Jansen is the epitome of a dream for the holiday season, except for Celeste when she gets stranded there. After missing her initial flight, she hops on the next flight out which has a layover in Christmas Cove, but an incoming snowstorm makes it so she can’t continue on her next leg.

The town may be small, but it is full of holiday spirit, the exact thing that Celeste is trying to avoid by taking a writing job in the Caribbean. Since losing her mom the year before, she has felt alone and wanted an escape, so she signed up immediately to work the holiday. Anything to avoid Christmas, but Christmas Cove caters towards the holiday for the entire month. It also doesn’t help that she has to deal with her overbearing boss, who only cares about her making it for her assignment.

Luckily, she meets Nathan on her flight (also the only other passenger) who helps her find a room at the Inn in town, who was traveling back from Boston after trying to secure a grant to ensure the community center remains open. He doesn’t succeed, but he does succeed in interviewing for a new position that would help him and his daughter when the center inevitably closes. He hides both aspects of his travels from the town to ensure that they can still celebrate Christmas the way it’s supposed to be.

Between Nathan trying to raise money to save the community center and Celeste trying to find a way out of the town, they manage to build a bond. The surrounding cast of characters complements them and helps them make the tough decisions. They just have to decide what is most important to them.

Celeste feels very alone for most of the book. She’s not used to relying on others and having others around as much. Over the course of the book, she grows leaps and bounds. She figures out what matters in her life and how she should be treated. It takes courage for her to interact with her boss, and that is where we see most of her growth. In the beginning, she is very timid, but she finds her voice by the end by understanding her worth.
Nathan has a one-track mind at the beginning: trying to save the community center, but he tries to do a lot of it on his own instead of sharing the burden with others. His relationships suffer because of it, but he learns what matters most and straightens up by the end.

Overall, the book has a little bit for everyone. It is a great Christmas feel-good romance while keeping things very PG. I could definitely see the readers going back to Christmas Cove in later installments, which is all a reader could ask for!

Book Info:

Publication: October 26, 2021 | Berkley Books |

In this humorous and heartwarming romance, sparks fly between a woman who can’t wait to leave a wintry New England island, and a widower who would do anything to stay.

Travel magazine writer Celeste Bell is in a terrible mood. Not only was her flight to the Caribbean diverted to a Massachusetts island, now it looks like she’ll have to spend Christmas there. Single and still mourning the loss of her mother a year earlier, Celeste is desperate to avoid any emotional entanglements and all holiday festivities. She just doesn’t feel like celebrating.

But that’s exactly what community center director Nathan White and his young daughter, Abigail, want to do. Nathan is entirely focused on making sure that his daughter has a happy Christmas, especially with the knowledge that if he can’t raise money for the community center soon, it will close and they’ll have to leave the island. When he meets Celeste, Nathan begins to feel a connection and wonders if he’s brave enough to risk his heart once more.

Thawing their frozen hearts and saving the community center will require a Christmas miracle. But ’tis the season….