I liked this ... I was wondering if it might be less "if a Hallmark movie was a book" because of the dogs, but no, this was classic "Hallmark Christmas Movie" material. A little too cutesy ... her name is Brenda Dickens, her dog is Tiny Tim, but she HATES Christmas because of a tragedy earlier in her life.  Everything was pretty predictable ... at the first mention of the love interest, I knew that's how things would end up going. HEA. Everything works out, like a Christmas miracle.

Still, it was cute enough. One F-bomb early on, but then completely clean, some sex/pretty closed door, nothing explicit. 

I like having the numerical chapters AND chapter headings ... some plays on words and Christmas context to the headers. Beyond Dickens and Tiny Tim, O struggled with ... 'Ima Hogg' and even "Dolly" didn't quite fit.  Listed as a series (different series number in Goodreads vs Storygraph) but I just read it as a stand alone. 

Words ... ebullient, was NOT pronounced correctly in the narration. Enough/context that I recognized it still. Peripatetic ... not a word I was familiar with (traveling from place to place ... "her peripatetic childhood") and had to stop and look up. Dais (just a word I note). Scowl (my son doesn't like the work, so I note it now).