Review: Valentine's at the Graff (Holiday at the Graff Book 4) by Sinclair Jayne

Marietta native Miranda Evans has yet to find her niche...until a small legacy allows her to open a gift boutique featuring local artists in the historic Graff hotel. As Valentine’s approaches, Miranda, who’s always left romance to the pages of a book, reaches out to involve the community in random acts of kindness to celebrate the month of love. Miranda has no need for hearts and flowers until the boy next door she dreamed about in high school arrives back in town more handsome, brooding, and out of reach than ever.

Orthopedic surgeon Whitman Telford blew out of his small, Montana hometown at eighteen without looking back. When he's told to fill in for a month at Marietta’s hospital before obtaining his dream job in LA, no is not an option. After getting sucked into the Valentine project along with half the town, Witt starts to wonder if he'll still be eager to see Marietta in his rearview mirror.

Opposites attract or so Miranda’s heard, but will she have the courage to test this theory and take a chance on romance when so much more than her heart is at stake?


My Review:

Valentine’s Day.  You either love it or hate it.  But for two special people, their lives are changed when they least expect it.

Miranda Evans just wanted a place in Marietta where she could fit in and be an important part of the town.  She finally found it when she opens a gift shop at the Graff Hotel just in time for Valentine’s Day.  While she was preparing her shop to open, she discovers her high school crush, Whitman Telford, has returned to town.  And when he talks to her, even though he doesn’t remember her, her memories and fantasies run wild.  But she keeps them to herself.

Witt didn’t want to be back in Marietta, but he was needed for a month to fill in for a doctor at the hospital.  He couldn’t escape the town fast enough when he finished school.  He never felt like he was part of his father’s family or part of the town.  He will do his job and then blow out of town like the wind to the new life he has planned in California.  But when he finds his step-mother, Sarah, at the hospital and learns his father is a hospital in Denver and Sarah needs Witt to look after his cousin Petal while she goes to be with her husband, Witt can’t say no. 

When Witt employs Miranda as Petal’s temporary nanny and moves her into his room at the hotel, things take an unexpected turn.  Witt will have to choose between the life he planned and the growing attraction he has for Miranda

This is a wonderful addition to the Holiday at the Graff series.  The characters felt real and their story was one that made me remember what new love was all about; the growing attraction, the struggles and confusions that we all feel when starting a new relationship.  Petal was a great addition to the story as well. 

Favorite quote:

“You’ve made me realize I need to reach out and grab my happy.  I don’t want any regrets.  I don’t want to wish I’d tried harder”.