When you can follow your dream, but which one exactly, the past one or the present one?

Synopsis

Good tidings…

Of second chances!

Sullivan MacKay knows destiny’s wicked humor firsthand. At seventeen, Sully’s plans to run away with his orphanage sweetheart, Trudy, were interrupted by a life-changing discovery—he’s a duke’s lost heir! Knowing his title could give Trudy a better life, he left to claim it, but vowed to return…

Years later Trudy has made a vow of her own: She will never marry, instead dedicating herself to her scientific pursuits. Following an unexpected Christmas reunion with old flame Sully, not even the December chill can disguise the burning embers of their lost love, awakening glimmers of a second chance…

My review

After getting her heart broken as a 17 – years old orphan, Trudy vowed to never fall in love again or marry. Instead she dedicated her life to science. As her mother died of consumption, Trudy is determined to not only raise more awareness, but eventually hopes to even find a cure. So even if she is over the moon to see her friends – that – are – more – sisters both have found love, she secretly feels herself more alone than ever, even more alone than at the orphanage. To make her life even more complicated, it is not easy for a woman to secure a job in the scientific world. So when there is the request for an aide to help curate an upcoming exhibit on Modern Medicine and Disease, Trudy does not hesitate to apply for the job and isn’t adverse in using a little scheme to show her worth. However, Trudy is shocked upon learning that her boss will be no one else but the same person that broke her heart. While she knew him as Sully MacKay, now he is actual Sullivan MacKay Alington, Duke of Pentworth. Sully, who at seventeen decided to not run away with Trudy but to discover if he was truly the son of a Duke. As an orphan he did not have a lot to offer, but he hoped that with a title, he could give Trudy the kind of life she deserved. But ten years have passed, does time heal all the wounds? Or is it all just a little too late?

I have already had the pleasure to get to know Ophelia and Hattie, so obviously I could not wait to read what this author would come up with for Trudy. Eagerly I started with this next chapter of a lovely series.

Now, I grew up in a loving family, so I can only try to imagine how it feels to grow up in an orphanage, feeling unloved and unwanted. At the same time, and also from the previous books, it warmed my heart reading how the three women found each other at a young age and have become real sisters, even if they in fact don’t share any blood. For me, it shows that blood isn’t what connects people, it is love…

Right at the start, in the prologue, we learn how Trudy’s heart gets broken by Sully and how adamant she becomes to never get married. And it saddened me, reading how she lost her faith in love. And it made me realize why she shifted her focus and her passion to science. And reading how she wants to do it in honour of her mother, made me in a way proud of her. Trudy does not do things just for doing it, but there is always a meaning behind her actions.

It would be easy to condemn Sully with his actions. But I kept in mind that he was only seventeen, and that he broke Trudy’s heart with the right intentions. Perhaps not the right actions, but the intentions were right…

I have to admit, that I initially thought, especially as the book was progressing, the main event would be making the exhibit a success. So I was wondering how would the mistletoe in the title appear? Yes, those are a few things that I wonder about 😊.

And yes, I was very curious to read how Trudy and Sully would meet again, and how things would go.

It needs to be said, I was proud of Sully, how he does not let the ‘rules of society’ have their way. Trudy is the best candidate for the job of an aide, and Sully knows that no one will be better than the woman who stole his heart many moons ago.

Of course that first encounter, it is written in the stars that it won’t go smoothly. And it gave me the best of times! It is awkward for both Sully and Trudy, as their past looms over their heads, and it changed the both of them.

And even later on, while working together, both their stubbornness make sure that there are moments that make them clash. Also the fact that the air has not been cleared between them, makes sure that things aren’t always easy.

But I found it heartwarming to read how their common interest and their common goal makes great minds think alike. They both want the museum to succeed and together they come up with great ideas to make people interested.

While I understand that Trudy wasn’t initially all that thrilled to meet Sully again, I found it great how Ophelia and Hattie were absolutely delighted to be reunited with their old friend.

As I said earlier in this review, I thought that Trudy and Sully would be mainly working in the museum. So I was a bit lost reading how at the end of the year, the issues with the museum were no more, and I had more than half a book still to read!

However, Jeanine came up with a great second storyline for the main characters, also making it possible for them to get to know each other better, as they have both matured. But also for us, a way to get to know the real personas of Trudy and Sully, what they have been through in the past, how it affected their present.

Perhaps, reaching this point in the story was what made me love this book even more. Because we see how not only things start to shift between our beloved main characters, but also we get a better understanding of this pair.

We see how a young Sully found his roots, and how he became the man he is now. And we learn how Trudy, already heartbroken, has to face something unexpected, making her resolute into refusing love ever again.

But most important, we see how it is possible that a love at that young age can still affect you in the present. And that fear is never a wise advisor. Because the only way to move forward, whether it is to give love another chance or just put the past behind you, is talking about what happened all those years ago. Talking about how it affected you, how it changed you and why you built walls so high.

This was a lovely story to read, with hardships of the past, but also with letting go of that past, forgiveness and giving love a second chance. And no matter whether this story takes place n the past, its message is still applicable in the present too!

Jeanine wrote an amazing story that I found nearly impossible to put away. A beautiful way to close the story about three young women that have become sisters and somehow all found their ways to happiness.