This is a good book. The two main characters are Dani and Gabe. Dani is a waitress and mother. Gabe owns a realty company. He does not want to be near his family during Christmas so he goes to house his grandmother grew up in. There he meets Dani at the one she works at. He goes to the restaurant several times and they talk. She invites him to church. They date. They have a misunderstanding and she ask him to leave. They both love each other.

If you enjoy Hallmark movies and similarly themed books, then this one is right up your alley. It's a lovely, cute story and great for the holiday season. This sweet romance left me with a smile on my face and a warm feeling afterwards. It serves as a good reminder of what the holiday season is all about. Gabe was just tired of all of his family drama and just wanted to get away from it all. When an opportunity comes up to sneak away to Summer Creek, he grabs it with both hands. He decides to hang out there until all the holiday festivities are over. Being the grouch that he is, the town has named him Grinchy Gabe. But something about Dani seems to melt the ice around his heart just a little more each time he sees her. Dani is a single mom and is known for spreading cheer and joy everywhere she goes. She makes it her mission to make Gabe see and feel all the holiday cheer around him and put a smile on his face. These two were absolutely adorable together and I loved the romance that blossomed between them. They were both so endearing, I couldn't help but fall in love with them. This sweet and lovely story will definitely pull at your heartstrings and give you all the feels. A delightful story I am glad to have had the opportunity to read!
I received a complimentary copy from Netgalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.

I want to give thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for allowing me to read this book for Free in exchange for an honest review. This was my first book to read from this author. I liked it so much, I’ve already added her other books to my Kindle Wishlist. I love a good romance, and that’s exactly what this author delivers! She kept me entranced and not wanting to put the book down. She did a really great job bringing me into the scenes and emotions of the characters. I really love that this book is Christian based!

Book review :

This book is a sweet story that tries to engross the reader towards lonesome persons who meet accidentally but eventually become a part of each other. This is a great story to remind you to love those around you and enjoy each minute with them.

The story revolves around Gabe and Dani . Gabe Gatlin has full of corporate responsibility, the annual corporate Christmas parties, and an overbearing family who seems to dictate his every move. Dani Lathem is a single mom, a waitress, and a penny pincher, she is teaching her son to be a responsible young man.

When Gabe dines at one of Dani’s tables, he’s irritated due to a voice mail from his sister. Dani catches him just as he’s grumbling about Christmas and all the family hoopla, swearing at his phone, and portraying a Scrooge’s attitude.

She makes it her new mission to enlighten Gabe of what the season truly means and spread her infectious Christmas joy into his heart.

I appreciated being reminded of the joy of spending time together, celebrating traditions (or making them), coming together as a community for fun and the occasional silliness.

I liked reading this great story of love, family, friends & forgiveness. Beautifully told with wonderful characters that charm and steal your heart. I would definetly recommend this book to all.

I am thankful to netgalley and the publisher for gifting me this book in return of an honest review.

Happy Reading!

I really enjoyed this story, it was heartwarming, fun and perfect for Christmastime. Gabe is a billionaire who is tired of his sister dictating his holiday schedule. Upon learning that his family business has been maintaining a property in Oregon but no one knows why he decides he will go there to escape and research the house. At 42 years old he runs away from home only telling his assistant where he is with strict instructions not to say anything. In Summer Creek he meets Dani, who is a waitress at the local restaurant and a single mom to a 15-year-old son. Dani overhears Gabe muttering about the Christmas schedule his sister is trying to force on him and she jokingly called him Mr. Grouch to lighten the mood. This begins a friendly banter between the two with Gabe starting to call Dani Miss Christmas. Dani starts teaching Gabe about the fun of Christmas, decorating a tree, stringing up lights, baking cookies and watching Christmas movies. Gabe has never experienced these Christmas traditions before, and it was fun to see him embrace Christmas and the town. Gabe might be rich but he was really down to earth and personable with everyone he came in contact with. I really enjoyed seeing the relationship develop between Gabe, Dani and her son, Seth. I also loved reconnecting with the other characters of Summer Creek from the previous books, including the goat Ethel adding entertainment. I loved the ending, especially with the kids stepping in. This was a wonderful Christmas story and I highly recommend reading it. Wonderful reminder that Christmas is about spending time with loved ones making memories.

A good Christmas story has a billionaire Gabe wanting to get away from his family and all of the trappings that go on with them, so he takes off to Oregon to look at a house that is in the company's portfolio that he did not know about. The house and the town are filled with a history of his family that he never knew and the more he is in the town and around the people he finds himself becoming a different person.
One of the people that he meets and finds is Dani Latham and her son he is taken by her. Not just by her looks but by her spirit and the way she handles her life and the way she has made the people in the town her family. Which were things I could relate to. Dani and all of the other characters really make this story, and though yes there is a Christmas theme this really could be a book at any time for you see a change in Gabe even after everything that happens. So read this really good story to see what happens.

Guiding the Grouch. If I had to choose one word to describe this book it’d be “cute”. The story of Gabe & Dani was cute, a little slow but cute. If you’re into lovey cheesy stories you’re probably rooting for them along the way. There were a lot of times I found myself smiling especially during Cricket (a little girl in the story) & Gabe’s interactions.
Things that annoyed me:
-While I don’t want a jerk of a main male character I thought the way the author wrote in Gabe’s character it made him come across more soft than Dani the female leads character, which was a little weird to me & one of my biggest hang ups. I feel like how he was portrayed through his dialogue or some stuff he couldn’t do (he could rope & ride but couldn’t take apart a pallet?) was a contradiction to what I expected his character to be more like. -Some of the dialogue for all of the characters was odd, word choices that didn’t fit the age of the character or the time period (21st century). Like instead of saying he had a great time or so much fun, Gabe said he had a “grand time”. One of the kids made a comment that something was “beyond redemption”.
-I know the story is called Guiding the Grouch but after awhile Dani referring to Gabe as “Mr Grouch” was kind of annoying.
-One thing that wasn’t that big a deal but might bother some was there some mention of God & religion.
-Oh and least but not last some of this story was just ridiculous. He’s hiding from his family & goes to the extent of removing his battery from his phone as well as buying a burner phone..this is romance not a murder story🤷‍♀️

I think this story was a bit too PG for me, I need a little bit of smut in my romance books ha. What bothered me the most was I just didn’t love some of the writing, which I think a good editor could fix, but I probably wouldn’t read another book by this author. Did I mention it was cute? It was & it wasn’t a bad book but wasn’t one that will stay with me or that I’d rush out to recommend to even die-hard romance book fans. Thank you Netgalley & Wholesome Hearts Publishing for the opportunity to read an advanced copy!

A cute slow burn innocent romance. Gabe the male protagonist is escaping Christmas by running to an isolated country town when he meets Dani “miss Christmas”. This is a sweet story without much drama. I enjoyed reading it but as I write this review nothing really stands out to me. I wouldn’t have said that Gabe was grumpy, annoyed maybe but he could have been grumpier in my opinion. It was a little religious so maybe pass on this if you don’t like hearing about God.
Thank you to the author, publisher and Netgalley for this arc in exchange for an honest review.

4 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️. This was a fun and quick read that I really enjoyed! It was a cute “Hallmark-type” book that had me smiling from beginning to end.

I really enjoyed the storyline and all the characters. I loved the part when Dani (not knowing Gabe is a billionaire) asked him to take her to the Dollar Store and he’d never been in one! 🤣 That made me laugh. And I absolutely adored little Cricket…she was a cutie.

There were just a couple reasons why I gave this 4 stars rather than the full 5. First off, Seth (Dani’s 15 year old son). His character seemed to be written more like a 8-10 year old the way he talked. I was glad he wasn’t a bratty teenager because it seems like lately all the books I read with teenagers, make them out to be mouthy or just bad. But the way the author had him speak, it seemed more like a younger child to me. Another thing that annoyed me at times was the way everyone was just so polite all the time! 😂 I mean that’s a good thing, but everyone just seemed too proper and perfect.

Overall, I’m really happy I chose this book to read in December and I do recommend it for anyone who is looking for a sweet Christmas romance.

Thank you to NetGalley, XPresso Book Tours and Wholesome Hearts Publishing for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

To see other reviews I’ve left, check out my Instagram and Goodreads pages:
*Instagram - bookworm_traveler808
*Goodreads - Cherihy808

The story sounded really good but the book was very loooooooong. I felt that certain things should be condensed. There is A LOT of story from the hero Gabe but we don't hear about the heroine until almost 15% into the book.

I liked the premise of the story but there was so much information and so many details with each character and this bogged down the story for me. I ended up losing interest shortly thereafter.

The author is obviously talented. The story was well-written, this just wasn't the book for me.

gabe runs the real estate part of the family company. but he is tired of the parties and doing what is father and sister think he should do so after the ball game he went to with his friends he goes to check out the house that the company is paying to keep up . but he does not tell any one but his assistant . when he sees the house he knows itis special and then he meets the people and one that works at the place he likes to eat. when dani first sees him he is frowning at the phone so she calls him mr grouch. dani and her son and the rest of the town show him what Christmas is all about . this is a fun book to read , i was given a copy but this is an honest review

This book was just too long. I would have liked it a lot more if it were trimmed down by at least half. The conflict was <i>sort of</i> that Gabe was hiding his identity (wealth), but it was just…not interesting.

The story is there, but it got lost in the oven-description. Every time a character lifted an arm to drink a cup of coffee, we were told, and then when they put their arm back down from drinking the cup of coffee, we were also told. Okay, so this is <i>probably</i> a slight exaggeration, but so much of this story spent time <i>telling</i> us bits of information

Evidentially, this is a book in a standalone series, and I know that because the book would take ten pages to explain the backstory of every character it introduced.

It took about 25% of the book for the characters to meet, and after waiting that long, the chemistry was a fizzle. Gabe was not that grumpy, Dani was preachy and judgmental, and even though we saw them often, I couldn’t differentiate between any of the characters. They’re all just good people in a nice small town.

Even though the book was in third person, we spent a lot of time in Gabe’s point of view, and I love seeing the MMC’s POV, so this worked for me. Unfortunately, this meant that Dani wasn’t really developed outside of being a mother to her son and being poor but generous.

I was ready for the grumpy, grinchy, serious MMC to get a schooling in Christmas spirit by a sunshine, Christmas-loving, goofy FMC, but I never felt that. Maybe I’m just used to seeing them on screen, and that’s why this one didn’t work for me.

⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Wholesome Hearts publishing for this copy of <i>Guiding the Grouch</i> by Shanna Hatfield.