A December Bride by Denise Hunter

What started as a whim turned into an accidental - and very public - engagement. Can Layla and Seth keep up the facade in Chapel Springs this holiday season - for the sake of her career . . . and his heart?

Under normal circumstances, Seth Murphy, the best friend of Layla O'Reilly's ex-fiance would be the last person she'd marry. But the news of their upcoming (and phony) nuptials convinces a big client that Layla may be high-society enough to work for his agency, a coup that would put her fledgling home-staging business on the map. Seth has secretly loved Layla for years, even when she was dating his best friend. Maybe she'll never forgive him for the way he hurt her back then, but he has to try. And Layla is willing to keep up their engagement farce until she's landed her client. For Layla, it's the chance to save her career. But for Seth, it's his last chance to win her heart.

A December Bride by Denise Hunter is one of the twelve Year of Weddings Novellas, each written by a different inspirational romance author. This novella was a quick and easy read, but it was sweet and enjoyable. Despite the length, I was still able to identify with the characters and sympathize with their mixed emotions. For any readers of Denise Hunter's novels, they will find an added bonus in this novella as the main characters and other characters mentioned in this novella are characters that are also seen in Barefoot Summer since both books are set in Chapel Springs. However, for any reader who has not read Denise Hunter's other novels, the characters were easy to connect with and it is definitely not necessary to read any of the other books first. I really liked Seth Murphy and his devotion to winning Layla's heart even at cost to himself. Layla had a lot of bitterness and distrust to work through, but I was glad to see her begin to trust again and to be willing to open her heart up to love. I was not a huge fan of how easily both Seth and Layla were willing to lie and to keep lying to the others even if it did add some suspense to the novella. However, overall I enjoyed this novella, and I look forward to reading the second Chapel Springs novel, Dancing with Fireflies, which I have not had a chance to read yet.

I received this novella from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.