Friday, October 31, 2014

The Christmas Treasure by Mallory Kane




From award-winning, best-selling romantic suspense author Mallory Kane., comes a short, historical Christmas novella, about loss and lies and the healing power of love. 

Lorilla traveled alone over the treacherous Santa Fe Trail to find love. What she finds instead is a man whose heart is turned to stone. 

Gabriel Beltran paid dearly for a widow who'd born a child. What he got was a virgin and he is not happy about it. 

The Christmas Treasure is 35,000 words.

Published & Release Date: Self-published, October 26, 2014

Time and setting: New Mexico 1847  

Genre: Western Historical Romance

Heat Level: 1

Reviewer rating: 5 Gold Crowns

Reviewed by Vikki

What a wonderful heart-felt Christmas story. Sometimes the best things really do come in a small package, or in this case, a short story. I could not read this little gem fast enough. One of my favorite troupes is a marriage of convenience story, and this one is excellent. Mallory Kane has such a smooth and flowing writing style, bringing to life the vivid countryside surrounding Santa Fe, New Mexico with a masterful touch, and allowing me to experience the deep desires of the hero and heroine.

Lorilla Harmon arrives in Santa Fe on Christmas Eve and is rushed to her wedding with Gabriel Beltran. Lorilla’s stepfather had told Gabriel she was a widow who had delivered a stillborn child. Perfect for his purposes. All he wants is a son, and a sensible, biddable woman, one he will never give his heart to. Gabriel is outraged when he discovers her virginity. The last thing he wants or needs is an innocent woman.  

All Lorilla has dreamed of a man to love her and a family. When Gabriel turns from her, she takes matters into her own hands and seduces him. He succumbs to her charms, but remains distant. Lorilla prays he will grow to love her if she gives him a son. Will Gabriel let the memory of his first wife go, or will he cling to the past and lose what could be his greatest treasure.

I thoroughly enjoyed Lorilla and Gabriel’s love story. For such a short story the character development is incredible. The plot is intriguing and captured me from the first page to the last. The emotions run deep in this enchanting tale of a woman’s determination to gain the love she has so desperately craved all her life. Lorilla is an engaging heroine and she grabbed at my heart strings along the way and had me rooting for her “Happily Ever After”.

Gabriel is my favorite kind of hero, a tortured soul, scared to let go of the past and grasp a new life, yet brave enough to take a second chance on love. But in the end, willing to humble himself to gain Lorilla’s heart.


If you like western historical romance and warm-hearted Christmas stories, then this is a book you will love. It is one you will want to pull out and read each year during the holiday season. I know I will. Oh, and I must say: Love the amazing cover. Happy reading!  

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