A jilted-at-the-altar bride reunites with her high school sweetheart in Lori Wilde’s sensational new Twilight, Texas Christmas novel.Kelsey James always played by the rules and look where it got her—dumped and half-drunk in a poofy white dress, her Christmas wedding ruined. Then her best friend talks her into going on her “honeymoon” anyway, daring her to a “Christmas of Yes.” It’s about time … “Christmas of Yes.” It’s about time she lets loose a little, so Kelsey agrees to say “yes” to fun, to romance, and to adventure! And adventure leads her right smack into the arms of sexy Noah MacGregor.
Noah’s never one to say no to a risk—from leading his NBA team to victory to making Christmas cookies in Twilight, he’s up to the challenge! But a lot has gone on since they were teenagers, and he knows he has to take his time to make Kelsey dare to believe that what they feel is more than just the holiday magic that’s in the air . . .
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A Revealing Christmas Story and Second Chance Romance
The Twilight saga continues with another successful mark on the famous Kissing Tree.
While this started out with a conundrum of all conundrums for Kelsey, thank goodness for best friends who love unconditionally and are ballsy enough to help in a very direct way–head on!
Going back to Twilight, TX, and her first love that ended abruptly 10 years ago, Kelsey reunites with Noah. The current Christmas scenes and events were great, funfilled and exciting! There was also hair-raising dramatic moments. I could have done without all the rehashing of the past and what ifs. As a reader, I truly got it the first time, and got a bit bored.
Noah had moved on, content, or so he thought, with his life until he sees Kelsey again. They still have magic, but each was understandably unsure of the other, and what those feelings really meant, true love, closure, a roll in the hay?
I can only describe their “togetherness” as a crescendo that fell flat for me. The numerous adjectives used, pages of them, could’ve been skipped for no more than what actually happened. Awkward is the feeling I got, like the author is uncomfortable with writing of seduction and sexual pleasures. Please, either go big or leave it out, and shorten those many pages of verbose descriptions.
There is a very poignant, revealing moment in here that blew me away, at the same time an understanding of what Kelsey had been going through all these years. She was the only one who could help herself. I admire Noah for making her stand on her own two feet and figure out what she needed, even if it made him look like he was giving up and pushing her away. He couldn’t fix this for her, and she would also never have known he wasn’t trying to manipulate her.
The happy ending was fantastic and doubled as Kelsey and Noah weren’t the only ones to find love, Tasha and Sean found their HEA also.
A truly great read of life’s realities, NPD is very serious and causes more problems and pain for the people around, rather than the afflicted. I almost rated this a 3 star except for this very topic and excellent way of integrating it into a romance based on Kismet and whimsy.
I do think the book would have worked better, for me at least, if it had been shorter, deleting reiterations and redundancies, but still a wonderful read.
It was amazing to pop open a book and there was my neighborhood. Well, not my exact neighborhood as I am not rich but one I have driven through in Dallas and Highland Park. I knew this was a book I had to readjust to follow along with places my husband has taken me to and see if the author changed them or allowed the story to flow around the cityscape. Funny most of the book was written around a fictitious town called Twilight (I keep trying to figure out where the author based this town on) LOL that loves Christmas themed. If getting stood up at the altar wasn’t bad enough for socialite Kelsey James, then going on her honeymoon with her best friend Tasha and ending up at the town with her first love will just be a piece of cake right? Yea about that Noah MacGregor wasn’t just her first love but the one Kelsey judged every other person by. And he also happens to own Christmas Island where she is spending the next 2 weeks at. This book was so much fun to read and boy it was so true on how the upper-class socialite moms treated their daughters especially. Having worked retail one on one with some Highland Park Mavens. I can not wait to grab the other books in this series and read them and also see if I can decide where Twilight is based on in real-time.
It’s been a long while since Ive read a book from this author and it’s been in my TBR staring me down. I needed some holiday reading the week of Christmas and picked it up. It was just what I needed and I enjoyed The Christmas Dare.
I always try to get a hold of Lori Wilde’s books because they give me a way to open my mind to wonderful romantic worlds. This story is no different. It’s funny, sexy & just plain a good continuation of the Twilight, TX small town series.
Kelsey James, whose mother is now mayor of Dallas, TX & extremely controlling of all around her, was left at the alter by Clive who withheld the fact he was gay. Kelsey’s BFF, Tasha Williams, then tricked her to return to Twilight after a 10 year hiatus, for a 2 week R&R, to reunite with her first love, Noah McGregor. Kelsey & Noah never lost their love for each other. The supporting characters in this story encouraged both both Kelsey & Noah to rekindle their relationship with the love that was never lost but pushed away by Kelsey’s mother, Filomena James.
Read the book to find out how Kelsey & Noah manage to find each other’s love again & end in a HEA Twilight ending. You’ll be surprised who ends up with who. Enjoy this wonderful read.
Good book that started with an emotional low and proceeded through a roller-coaster of feelings. A stunned Kelsey is left at the altar when her fiancé runs off with the best man. To top off the embarrassment, her mother, the newly elected mayor, harangues Kelsey, blaming it all on her. All Filomena can talk about is how it affects her, with no sympathy for Kelsey. The only one who is there for Kelsey is her best friend, Tasha, who talks Kelsey into taking off, daring her to say yes to cutting loose a little, challenging her to accept five dares from Tasha. To that end, Tasha takes Kelsey to Twilight, home of Kelsey’s teenage crush.
Kelsey and Noah have a history. They met at camp when they were children, and their friendship grew each summer when they reunited. When they were seventeen and junior counselors at the camp, their friendship grew into something more. But they were torn apart by Kelsey’s mother, who didn’t approve of Noah or anything that took Kelsey’s attention away from her. And for the next ten years, Filomena used every manipulative trick in the book to keep Kelsey at her side. As a result, Kelsey was browbeaten into being at mom’s beck and call.
I loved Kelsey and Noah’s reunion. Kelsey’s friend Tasha got her to agree to do five Christmas dares while they were on their trip. Tasha is determined to break Kelsey free of her mother’s shackles and push Kelsey out of the comfort zone of pleasing Filomena at all times. Kelsey’s first sight of Noah is of him in a Christmas apron, standing under a mistletoe arch, brings back memories of their old attraction. Noah is hit just as hard. A push from Tasha (the first dare) has Kelsey laying a lip-lock on Noah that blows them both away.
I loved watching the rekindling of the relationship between Noah and Kelsey. With Tasha’s help, Kelsey is slowly breaking free of her mother’s chains, opening her up to the possibilities with Noah. I loved Noah’s determination to help her along by showing her how special she is. There are some delightful scenes between the two of them, as well as some very steamy ones. With both having been burned in relationships, each insists that they are not looking for love, but the more time they spend together, the more each one finds their mind leading in that direction. I loved watching Kelsey’s transformation as time, distance, and positive reinforcement worked its magic on her. But Filomena wasn’t done with her yet, and I was worried for Kelsey when her mom pulled her latest stunt. It didn’t help that Noah had a boneheaded reaction, hurting her badly as a result. The ending was terrific, with Kelsey finally getting some real help from her father that gave her the tools she needed to confront her mother. That was such a satisfying scene. Then Noah had his big moment that was the icing on the cake. The epilogue was fantastic.
Kelsey’s mother was a real piece of work. She was definitely a character I loved to hate because the way she treated Kelsey was terrible. I found Kelsey’s conversation with her father regarding Filomena to be very interesting, with some intriguing parallels to current times. The character I loved almost as much as Noah and Kelsey delightful Tasha. She was so comfortable with who she was that she was a great role model for Kelsey. She was also the best friend Kelsey could have. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing her push and pull Kelsey out of her Comfort Kitty persona and show her what she was capable of. It was also fun to see her growing relationship with Sean.
Kelsey and Noah meet again after ten years, since they were seventeen. They had been in love but Kelsey’s tyrannical mother made sure Noah stayed away from her daughter. But Kelsey’s just been humiliated on her wedding day, and her friend Tasha tricks her into spending the Holiday season in Twilight, Texas.
Poor Kelsey, stuck with her domineering mother who basically took over her life. Noah is sweet and cocky, and while both characters had possibilities, I was grateful for Tasha’s presence. Tasha is wonderfully entertaining and alleviates the gloomy atmosphere surrounding Kelsey.
I felt the story was slow to get started because of Kelsey hesitating, ruminating, not knowing what to do. It was a bit depressing, to be honest. I’m not sure if I wasn’t in the right frame of mind or if I didn’t connect with the type of story and the writing style, but I didn’t like this book very much until the last 20% or so. I really can’t put my finger on it; THE CHRISTMAS DARE is not bad, but I felt it was taking too long in getting to the point, any point. I wasn’t invested in the characters’ future, I was just watching them and getting antsy for the story to move along. Or for Kelsey to do something. She has a huge problem with her mother but it wasn’t gripping, it was stifling.
There is a lot of repetition, too many irrelevant details take too much space to the detriment of character development, the sex scenes are drawn out and rather bland. The only thing that prevented the book from being a DNF several times was the exceptional quality of the dialogues when secondary characters were involved: Kelsey and Tasha; Noah and his brother; Theo, Kelsey’s father, and Kelsey, etc. Those were the highlights of the book until it hit around the 80% mark; then the novel really took off and earned that fourth star. It’s only then that, for me, Noah and Kelsey particularly truly came alive. That’s when the complexity of the characters was revealed, that things started to gel, and I very much appreciated how the issue of NPD – Narcissistic Personality Disorder – was explained and handled. It was a lot of work for me to get to that point, but the ending made it somewhat worthwhile. I think the mental health issue is a very important one, more people should be aware of it, and for that, I would recommend this book. THE CHRISTMAS DARE has a very important message to impart, but it’s a shame it almost got lost in the execution.
From the day she was born Kelsey’s life was already planned out for her, her overbearing mother knew what kind of life she wanted her daughter to have, and has made sure it has went off without a hitch. Unfortunately that meant Kelsey has never really had the chance to make her own choices, not even picking her own groom… which is why she ended up with the wrong man that ditched her the day they were suppose to walk down the aisle.
Now with her life in shambles, her groom off living his best life with his partner, and honeymoon tickets that will never get used she decides to take the dare her friend issues and do a little living her own way! Which leads to a “honeymoon” in Twilight Texas, and a reunion with an old flame that she has never been able to get over… Noah MacGregor use to be her everything, question is can he be again?
The Christmas Dare had everything a good romance novel should have; captivating and emotional story line, characters with undeniable chemistry, and lots of toe-curling steamy moments! I had initially planned on reading a chapter before bedtime, but I ended up getting sucked into Kelsey and Noah’s world and stayed there until the wee hours of the morning. I loved “the dance” between to these two characters, they had this palpable spark that you could feel throughout, but they both had their reservations about getting involved, so there was some push and pull there too. This was a wonderful literary journey, watching Kelsey take her life into her own hands and go after what she wanted was not only inspiring, but quite entertaining… especially when Noah came into the mix. I really enjoyed this one, it was small town romance at it’s best!
I requested an advanced copy of this title from the publisher, and I am voluntarily leaving my honest opinion.
Review copied from Goodreads:
I was lucky and won this in a Goodreads contest but not letting it influence this review. Would rate it around 3.5 very good, quick read. Readers will be rooting for the two couples–the main hero and heroine Kelsey and Ryan and their friends Tasha and Sean. Twilight is wonderful as usual and there is a lot of fun and heartfelt Christmas cheer. Minor complaints: would like to see the couples doing/working more together and, while well-written, the love scenes could have been edited down more. Kudos for dealing with an unlikeable character in a fairly sympathetic way, the Shakespeare scene–really liked Tasha and Kelsey’s changing reaction, and the feel of being immersed in Christmas!
I sure do love visiting Twilight, Texas. It’s always fun to be there. Throughout the years I’ve loved reading this series and have enjoyed the characters that live there.
Our visit to Twilight is with The Christmas Dare. I do love a good holiday story and Twilight is the perfect place to spend the holidays. I’m not sure how I feel about being dared into doing something but I really loved the idea of Kelsey being dared by her best friend, we all need a best friend like this. One who really truly cares about us.
Poor Kesley loves for her mother. She does everything to help her mom with her dreams and gets nothing back from this horrible person. The sad part is she doesn’t even see it or realize that she’s being mentally abused by her mother.
The best thing that happened to Kesley is when the man she’s to marry turns out gay. You have to ask yourself, how is that the best thing for her. Believe me, it is.
With Kelsey and her best friend on the run, I mean on her honeymoon, they end up in Twilight, Texas a place that Kelsey knows all too well. It’s where her first (and only) love lives.
Oh, Noah! What a great guy he is. I love that he’s so easy going and cares so much about the people around him. The happiness he feels at seeing Kelsey again is so touching. You can’t help by just feel. You can tell right away that these two are perfect for each other.
As the story goes on you really learn just how badly Kelsey’s life with her mom has been. You also get pissed at her father for leaving her to live like that. It made it so hard for her to have a real relationship. She couldn’t figure out how to put her happiness before her mother’s.
This story has a lot of highs and lows for its characters. You won’t want to put it down until you finished it. I really needed to know what happened. So glad I read it so quickly and found out but then again I was sad to be leaving Twilight.
I was lucky to get an ARC of this book. I have loved all the Twilight books, but this one so far is my favorite. All I can say is Christmas Bard, and I Dare you to read this book ..lol
You will understand when you read the book 🙂
I’ll start by saying I absolutely loved this book! This visit to Twilight, Texas was as wonderful as all the previous ones. The “second chance” story of Kelsey and Noah has so many elements – romance, laughter, community, grief, mother/daughter conflict, mental illness, and a sassy best friend. And, in a nice twist, it was the hero who was all about the Christmas spirit. I loved the concept of having the word “Dare” moving the story along. I had to read the book in a few sittings, but was reluctant to put it down each time – couldn’t wait to pick it up again. Lori’s writing has a way of drawing you in. I’m looking forward to the next visit to Twilight!
Lori Wilde once again accomplishes in another wonderful story about memorable characters in a small town, filled with great dialogue and humor. The Christmas Dare is about rekindling the passion of first love between Kelsey James and Noah MacGregor. After being jilted at the altar, Kelsey’s best friend convinces her into going on her “honeymoon,” daring her to a “Christmas of Yes” to fun, to romance, and to adventure! And adventure lands her right smack into the arms of sexy Noah MacGregor, much to the dismay of her controlling mother. Kelsey learns the truth behind her breakup with Noah and faces an uphill battle to stand up to her mother. It is tear jerking, amazing and fascinating story that will keep you turning the pages to see where Kelsey’s journey takes her. A delight story that will make you want your own “Christmas of Yes.”