"moving romantic family drama"

Caroline Rogers gave up her dreams to raise her brother and sister after her adopted parents died within days of each other. She sold the family farm and got a job photographing special occasions and freelance work like a state calendar. When she sees someone move into the Rogers' farm Caroline wants to know who it is and if he will keep the spread in good condition because some of her happiest memories happened there.

Dr. Mick Larsen, a psychiatrist turned farmer, informs Caroline that he is going to work the land. He is running from his past because he realized he never wanted to be a doctor and only did so to please his father. A tragedy convinced him he was not a good doctor. Mick and Caroline feel an immediate chemistry between them but she wants to travel for national Geographic when her sister goes to college and he wants a partner who will love him and give him children, something Caroline is afraid to do. They are drawn closer together when they realize Caroline has a stalker who is escalating in violence and his targets are tied to the pictures on the calendar she photographed. Yet a relationship for these two star-crossed lovers seems impossible.

This is a fetching and moving romantic family drama that is well written and focuses on characters that are very realistic and likeable. The heroine is afraid to love after she has seen what it did to her biological mother and the hero needs love of which he never got from his father. Susan Crandall is so talented that readers will want to read her backlist because A KISS IN WINTER is everything a contemporary romance reader wants in a book.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted December 26, 2006

Summary

Six years ago tragedy struck and Caroline Rogers had to make tough decisions to sell the family farm and put her life on hold to raise her younger siblings. Now that they're entering adulthood and her long-delayed photography career is taking off, she can almost taste the freedom.

Shaken by self-doubt, Dr. Mick Larsen turns his back on his big-city psychiatric practice and settles for the small-town quiet of Redbud Mill, where he can hide his past successes and failures. To Caroline, he shows only a man who wants to put down roots and start a family—good reasons for her to stay away. Then someone starts vandalizing local landmarks she has photographed. Now Caroline must convince a man with little faith in his own abilities that he can help her find the disturbed mind in their midst. But even as she teaches him to trust himself, she must fight the temptation to trust him with her future and her heart.