Kaitlyn Barnes is already working hard enough, running a bakery, guardian to her sister’s rebellious teen daughter Hazel who has been sent to Angel Falls, Ohio to keep her out of trouble. And now Kaitlyn’s expecting a baby. A single mom at thirty-two. ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU is the third mature romance novel in the ‘Angel Falls’ series, and we meet plenty of townsfolk who notice and care about one another.

Rafe Langdon, a popular firefighter, laughs about being a calendar pin up and the female attention he gets. He’d rather be with family friend Kaitlyn, but he’s thought of her as almost a sister for so long. They had one night together but he’s not getting too close to anyone, since his fiancée died in a car crash eight years ago. When Kaitlyn tries to tell him about their baby, some other lady is texting him, so she gets uncomfortable. Rafe thinks she’s expecting her former boyfriend’s baby. And he really doesn’t like Steve.

The misunderstanding grows as Rafe says things which on the face of it are rather tactless, like he doesn’t want kids. Who says that around a pregnant lady? I can only think his antipathy towards Steve, an innocuous high school teacher, makes him act childishly. The only person who gets told the truth right away is Sara, Kaitlyn’s best friend and MD. She’s Rafe’s sister. What a stress to lay on a doctor! To my mind the emphasis on the possibility of a single woman bringing up her child is overdone; there is no reason the employed single man shouldn’t provide for his offspring. I have to think the generally responsible townsfolks would think badly of an absent father too, so his social standing would drop. I do understand that Kaitlyn’s hormones are all over the place and she hasn’t been planning this change. Then there’s the stress of telling everyone. Well, what’s a little gossip and family pressure.

A sub-plot is that Kaitlyn hopes to enter a cookie baking contest, but can’t find an old family recipe. Christmas is just the time for baking, with spicy scents rising on the heat from the oven. Picking out a Christmas tree and strolling past the main street shops, our characters tick off the right notes and yes, they grow up in a hurry. Miranda Liasson demonstrates in ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS IS YOU that some people don’t change until a situation means they need to change. This is a highly enjoyable read for the modern lady. And after Christmas, that lady probably deserves to sit down with a good book.

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