A brave kindergarten teacher named Mary Margaret Sneed has been paying off her late husband’s debts. With Christmas approaching, her life in the high plains Colorado town, Sunshine, is about to change. A VERY MERRY MATCH is on the way.
The mayor of Sunshine is handsome single dad Kevin Hadley, whose divorce papers are barely dry. Already the matchmaking Widows Club grannies are trying to pair him off with someone; I’m sure they have the best interests of Kevin and his little boy Tad in mind, but I kind of wish they would mind their business and leave people alone. The single, or newly widowed, ladies are quite well able to see an opportunity if they wish.
Christmas is a fun time in school, but Mary Margaret is under the trauma of her selfish husband’s accrued gambling debt at an online casino. Two shady debt collectors show up and insist on a substantial payment. To cope, she has to take a part-time job or two. Some of them don’t work out. The best-paying option seems to be dancing in a club, but the school would not support its staff appearing in anything tawdry. Using a stage name, Foxy Roxy, Mary Margaret is taking a chance every time she tries to earn.
Reputations are made and broken easily, and gossip is currency. So we learn. We also see that some people prefer to keep their troubles quiet when they really would be better off getting proper advice. This isn’t such a romantic story and the various threads keep spinning without always engaging my interest. I would call A VERY MERRY MATCH more women’s fiction than romance, and there are a few areas which could be more developed, maybe in the next book of the Sunshine Valley series.
Melinda Curtis has written several romance series, and she describes the warmth of small-town Christmas admirably. Sunshine is, like many towns, on the brink of change, the modern era ushering in coffee shops and developments, the old-timers keen to preserve what makes their way of life valuable. The third book of the series suggests that change is arriving from outside, whether wanted or not.
This Christmas, all Mayor Kevin Hadley wants is to give his five-year-old son whatever his heart desires. Only Tad has fallen head over holly for his pretty, sweet-as-sugarplum teacher. When attraction sparks between Kevin and Mary Margaret, the single dad thinks she may be the answer to his and his son's dreams. But after Mary Margaret reluctantly turns him down, Kevin decides it's time to embark on a new campaign -- one for Mary Margaret's heart.
Mary Margaret Sneed usually spends her holiday baking and caroling with her students. Yet this year, she's swapped shortbread and sleigh bells for a second job to pay off her late husband's debts. Mary Margaret would love to go tree trimming with Kevin and his son, but she won't risk his political future with her controversial side gig. Only the town's meddling matchmakers have determined there's nothing a little mistletoe can't fix . . . and if the Widows Club has their way, Mary Margaret and Kevin may just get the best Christmas gift of all this year.
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