Welcome to the holiday season with a true gift by Carolyn Brown. COWBOY BOOTS FOR CHRISTMAS is a holiday story that keeps on giving page after wonderful page. Believe when I tell you some of the characters in this book are quite difficult to love but Brown's sense of humor rings true. In COWBOY BOOTS FOR CHRISTMAS Brown has given her slant on family feuds which needless to say goes from sublime to ridiculous. But entertaining as can be.

What begins as a search for a temporary safe house becomes so much more. Callie and her nephew Martin desperately need a secure place to stay but even more they need a real home. Finn has an affinity for taking care of people and animals. He comes from a huge family and truly understands the meaning of being part of a something so wonderful. Finn was clearly unlucky in a failed attempt at finding that love for himself -- the everlasting kind with a good secure future. Finn needs Callie and Martin as much as they need him and this time Finn knows letting go would be nearly impossible.

Martin and Callie's needs are pretty basic. Callie realizes she can at best do temporary -- it's not in her DNA to do permanent and yet Finn no longer believes that's true. Callie is skilled at taking care of herself. It's her ability to overcome what she feels are unhealthy traits for a real relationship that has her selling herself short.

Callie and Finn had been a team in the military. Both had felt the attraction and hid it very well. The combat field was no place for any affairs of the heart -- that distraction would get both you and your partner killed. But now things and circumstances have changed. The two of them had a remarkable friendship. Opening his house to Callie was easy. Keeping an eye on her and Martin also well within Finn's wheelhouse. Keeping her at arm's length -- that was going to be the challenge. And Finn wasn't entirely convinced he really wanted to do that. The more time with Callie and watching this wonderful woman open her arms and heart to anyone who needed her has Finn beginning to hope for more.

True to Carolyn Brown the story in COWBOY BOOTS FOR CHRISTMAS is deceptively simple after all it is a Christmas story and of course has to have some very basic holiday elements. But COWBOY BOOTS FOR CHRISTMAS is filled with allegories. The boots represent something very basic, necessary and desperately coveted. Each character in this amazing story is looking for their own. But what is so very lovely is that although the boots would make a least one of their dreams come true they would be passed over for what is really important. In the spirit of the season -- giving is truly more important than receiving -- and that message is loud and clear in Carolyn Brown's contribution to this year's Christmas stories.

Book Summary

'Tis the season for...
Feasting
Frolicking
And...Feuding?

All he wants for Christmas is peace and quiet...

After two tours in Afghanistan, retired Army sniper Finn O'Donnell believes his new ranch outside the sleepy little town of Burnt Boot, Texas, is the perfect place for an undisturbed holiday season. But before he can settle in, an old friend shows up looking for protection and a place where nobody knows her name.

But that's going to take a miracle...

Callie Brewster must relocate to protect her young nephew, Martin, and the only person she trusts is her old Army friend, Finn. Burnt Boot seems like the perfect place to be anonymous, but it turns out a small town with big drama is no place to hide...