One Christmas Wish

A woman wary of love can’t resist her attraction to a handsome ex-con in Jackson’s sensual fifth Catalina Cove romance (after Follow Your Heart). Sierra Crane is focused on running the Green Fig, her booming soup café in Catalina Cove, La., and raising her six-year-old goddaughter, Teryn, following the death of Teryn’s mother and Sierra’s best friend. She has no time for a relationship, and her messy divorce from her cheating husband makes her especially uninterested. Even so, she feels an instant connection to Vaughn Miller when he walks into her restaurant and makes “every hormone in her body sizzle.” The pair strike up a friendship that rapidly deepens as Vaughn bonds with the lovable Teryn and confides in Sierra about how his former fiancée left him when he was wrongfully convicted of a crime. In turn, Sierra shares details of her disastrous marriage. Though both are burdened with difficult pasts, Vaughn is determined to convince Sierra to take a chance on a relationship. Jackson brings the quaint Southern town to life in a memorable holiday romance complete with affable characters. Romance readers will appreciate Sierra’s conflicting desire to protect her heart and take a chance at future happiness. Agent: Pattie Steele-Perkins, Steele-Perkins Literary. (Oct.)