Jericho Smith, a rancher in his thirties, has known Honey Cooper for years as their families were neighbours. But he bought the Cooper vineyard and winery, and everything changed. RANCHER’S CHRISTMAS STORM shows that changes in family situations have a lot to do with how some people live their lives.

Maisey Yates has only written one heroine in the books I’ve read by her. An opinionated, loud and occasionally foul-mouthed young woman, who snarls at men who like her and decides that she can do better. So we could call Honey Cooper an antiheroine, a woman who means well but makes bad decisions.

Deciding to pack up and move to Portland, since she’s fed up with being given an assistant job in the winery, Honey doesn’t even give notice, which seems wrong of her, but she’s only twenty-two. She’s never held a different job and might not understand her responsibilities. Her truck gets caught in a snowstorm and luckily, Jericho is passing and picks her up, but the road gets a whiteout, so they abandon the vehicle for the shelter of a lodge. This is a mountain retreat, an off-the-grid place with supplies and matches.

The Gold Valley Vineyards series shows the vineyard is obviously a bone of contention, and Jericho seems incredibly insensitive to have bought the winery, Cowboy Wines, and not wondered if all the family were okay with it. He’s got an extended family situation to deal with, so maybe it just wasn’t at the forefront of his mind. 

If you want to read a trope about a snowed-in cabin where the attraction between two people gets going, RANCHER’S CHRISTMAS STORM provides a quick read. There is a lot going on that I’m not happy about, such as the young lady’s obsession with finding out what sex is like, no matter if with a stranger. As I said, an antiheroine. But I can see that Honey genuinely resents the sale and her lowly job, which has stopped her thinking good thoughts about the handsome single man who bought the winery. This isn’t a very Christmasy story, but there is plenty of snow.