A Cowboy Country Christmas

It’s a Creedence, Colo., Christmas—complete with a grump, a goat, and a gaggle of small-town busybodies—in Marts’s laugh-out-loud sixth Creedence Horse Rescue contemporary (after Every Bit a Cowboy). Ten years after Lainey McBride and her mother fled her abusive stepfather, she returns to her hometown to help her grandfather plan his ranch’s annual Christmas extravaganza while he recovers from a broken hip. Lainey just wishes that Holt Callahan, the best friend turned true love she left behind, weren’t also back in Creedence, reopening old wounds. Holt’s tending to his cousin’s horse rescue ranch in her absence and he’s quite comfortable keeping to himself as a miserable grinch who hates Christmas—but seeing Lainey again, and stepping in to help when he sees she’s in over her head at the ranch, might get him into the spirit after all. The universe—with help from the meddling townspeople—finds plenty of ways to throw these old flames together. An adorable menagerie of critters—including a large pig named Tiny and a wayward camel—often upstage the quirky, bighearted leads, but the animals are so cute readers won’t mind. This feel-good fare is guaranteed to get romance fans in the holiday mood. Agent: Nicole Resciniti, Seymour Agency. (Oct.)