12 Days of Yule Day Eight

 

Welcome to Day Eight of the 12 Days of Yule! Today's story is, The Spirit of the Place, which is the sixth book in my Oberon series, and which I  will be re-releasing next year in an annotated, twentieth anniversary edition. 

Here's the download link:

https://dl.bookfunnel.com/pudagjrqpb

The Spirit of the Place is the only Oberon book that was not written in California. It's also the book I was working on when the series was accepted for publication. So, it's an outlier in a lot of ways. 

The first five books in the series are all seasoned romances involving Scout, Lucy and Marsha who'd been friends for years; and two of Marsha's sisters. This book is a hybrid--there's a storyline involving Sam, Marsha and their wedding plans, and then there's the romance storyline involving Jasmine and Brandon who fall for each other while working together to STOP the wedding from taking place.

Books seven, eight and nine are firmly focused on the younger generation--on Jasmine's friends and Lucy's children and their friends. 

So, as you might imagine, there's a lot happening within these pages. There are even three ghostly visitors that work for a certain value of "past, present, and yet to come." Although, at first glance it might not seem like that's the case. 

On the surface, you might think that we're looking at three ghosts from Marsha's past. And yet!

Also no, I can't say more than that because spoilers!

It's no secret that I  like my characters flawed--at least in the beginning. And Jasmine and Brandon are grinchy as hell this holiday season!  They're both dealing with issues of loss and grief, but they start off as brats with seemingly opposite agendas. Jasmine wants to get her mother (Marsha) away from her fiancé, Sam. Brandon wants to save his boss (Sam) from Marsha's clutches. 

They both also want into each other's pants, and I think that's exactly what they deserve! 

But, somewhere along the way, they each end up helping the other to mature, to fall in love, to see the world through someone else's eyes. And, just like the original Grinch--their hearts grow three sizes by the end of the book.

Which--awww!--is kind of what you hope for in a Christmas-themed book, isn't it?