Bea Reviews Miracle on 5th Avenue by Sarah Morgan

Series: From Manhattan with Love #3
Publisher: HQN Books
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: November 29th, 2016
Challenges: Ho Ho Ho Read-A-Thon |
NetGalley & Edelweiss Reading Challenge
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Blurb from goodreads:

It will take a Christmas miracle for two very different souls to find each other in this perfectly festive fairy tale of New York!

Hopeless romantic Eva Jordan loves everything about Christmas. She might be spending the holidays alone this year, but when she's given an opportunity to house-sit a spectacular penthouse on Fifth Avenue, she leaps at the chance. What better place to celebrate than in snow-kissed Manhattan? What she didn't expect was to find the penthouse still occupied by its gorgeous—and mysterious—owner.

Bestselling crime writer Lucas Blade is having the nightmare before Christmas. With a deadline and the anniversary of his wife's death looming, he's isolated himself in his penthouse with only his grief for company. He wants no interruptions, no decorations and he certainly doesn't appreciate being distracted by his beautiful, bubbly new housekeeper. But when the blizzard of the century leaves Eva snowbound in his apartment, Lucas starts to open up to the magic she brings…This Christmas, is Lucas finally ready to trust that happily-ever-afters do exist? 

My Thoughts:

Christmas! For many people, Christmas is a time of joy, celebration, and family time. But for some, Christmas is a lonely and depressing time. "Miracle on 5th Avenue" gives us a romance between a man from one camp and a woman from the other. Will they be able to come together? Can they be happy together? Will it make sense as a stand alone? The answer to the latter question is yes, though at times as I read it I wished I had read the previous two books.The story worked as a stand alone but there were so many references to the earlier books that at times I felt like I had jumped in mid-stream.

The blurb calls Eva a "hopeless romantic" but she's more than that - she's an optimist, she's a believer in magic, she's perky, she's bubbly, she's sugary sweet, she's practically perfect, she's pull-my-hair-out annoying. She was too good to be true. Lucas is cynical, broody, gruff, rude, abrasive, and not a fan of Christmas. He was often obnoxious, but I related more to him than I did to Eva. I've never been perky, bubbly, or sugary sweet but I can be gruff and abrasive.

Watching Eva and Lucas butt heads and seeing Eva work her own personal magic on Lucas was entertaining. Eva, though sweet and bubbly, has a backbone and I loved seeing that. She also had a tendency to speak without thinking first:

"I thought you didn't have a type."
"I probably shouldn't. Given how long it is since I had sex, my type should just be anyone with a penis and a pulse, right?"..."Do you ever edit your thoughts before they come out of your mouth?"
"It's your fault for pouring wine into me." She poked at her food. "But it's true that generally I'm a spontaneous type."

I wasn't fond of the miscommunications, there were several, or the circumstances around the late wife's death and their marriage. I can't say more without going into spoiler territory but why is it that all deceased spouses in romances are either saints or horrible people? Why is it so often all or nothing? That annoyed me no end; I expected better from a writer of Morgan's caliber.

The romance was sweet and Morgan writes dialogue that can be funny in one paragraph then be  insightful and just a bit dark in the next. I did feel that Lucas and Eva's problems were wrapped up too neatly. After such a long story, the wrap up was just too neat and tidy. Overall, a pleasant story with some flaws but a sweet holiday dessert.