The ever-popular Fool's Gold series returns with a newcomer to town discovering just how much snow falls in the area. Noelle has been living in Florida and LA so she's unprepared for drifts, skids, slips and falls. As a friend of Felicia who lives with Gideon, she shows up at their house and meets a stranger, Gabriel, who is Gideon's brother. He's also a doctor and luckily for Noelle, has some experience in retrieving cars from snowbanks.

CHRISTMAS ON FOURTH STREET gives us another look at friendly, bright Felicia, who tends to give a lecture instead of a comment, and is thrilled with her engagement. Gabriel doesn't tell her that he and Gideon have barely spoken for a decade. Noelle is running a store which sells Christmas decorations and gifts, toys and DVDs. Business is brisk at Thanksgiving and her young staff keep taking off to go skiing. Gabriel finds the lady, like the town, restful but he'll be returning to work in military hospitals soon. He can't fully relax. What's worse, their drill sergeant father is coming to spend the holiday with Gideon too. Is there a way to escape?

The names Gabriel and Gideon are very similar and easy to confuse, especially as both of the men have military experience. Gideon particularly was pressured into joining by his father, and now is being pressured to stay in the army for a full twenty years although he's finding it extremely stressful. Gabriel had been in special forces. While the constant emphasis on army personnel in this series will please those readers in military families, it does make for a degree of repetition from book to book. When an avalanche occurs however they're good people to have around.

If you enjoyed the easy-reading romance of the previous books, this one has more of the same, and if you're new to town, it may take a little time to settle in to the ongoing soap-opera but you can easily follow the main characters. There are small asides to hint at the author's other books such as a shirt with Blackberry Island on it, and someone touting the Fool's Gold Cookbook. A note at the start from Susan Mallery mentions a scavenger hunt of these items, which may interest some loyal readers. Enjoy the Thanksgiving turkey, tree lighting and hot chocolate, it won't be long before Christmas. And CHRISTMAS ON FOURTH STREET seems like a good treat or gift for a lady reader in the family.