Once Upon a Thanksgiving by Holly Jacobs

Once Upon a Thanksgiving Reviews

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  Harlequin Historical

  Fun read!
  
  Once Upon a Thanksgiving is the first in a 3 book series. It is a delight to read and I am looking forward to the rest of them.
  
  In this series, 3 single parents missed the first PTA meeting and were "volunteered" for social planning committee. They will be heads of Thanksgiving play, Christmas fair, and Valenteine's day. Samantha our first mother takes on Thanksgiving since she has a third grader which is the grade that does the actual play. Other grades just do some singing. But poor Samantha already has so much on her plate. She is busy with trying to finish her nursing degree, raising 3 boys and 1 girl without much help from her ex, work, how in the world can she handle one more thing? Well the answer is with the help of the other 2 suckers who got stuck on the committee. Samantha soon comes to cherish the meetings with the ladies, never realising how much she needed their friendship before. They definitely helped her keep sane and filled a big gap in her life. While Sam is going through the process of redefining herself, she relies on her friendship to guide her and things are going great until her sons get her called to the principal office yet again. She knows they are acting out because of the pain of her divorce but can she convince the new principal of this? Last year, the principal only wanted to punish her boys rather than try to help. So when she meets the new Principal and discovers she knew him when they were both kids and that he was willing to work with her boys and finding a way to help them, she was surprised. Not only by him but by her reaction to him. She so wasn't ready for those type of feelings! Fortunately, neither was he since he was just coming off from a bad break-up. They both decide friendship is best. How long that lasts? You'll have to read the book because I'm not telling. hehehehe
  
  Overall, I loved the book, really connected with the characters and their lives. I loved the humor that Holly Jacobs writes with and I also loved the changes she put Sam through. I felt like Sam was a close, personal friend and I was right there with her as she found herself and thrived. Great book, highly recommend, can't wait to read the rest of the series.
• 
  Connie N.

  A Harlequin romance of the best sort. It's sweet, with great characters, a little bit of heat, and a good story without a lot of angst. Samantha is a divorced mom of 4 kids, busy and kind of unfulfilled, but she's making it work by herself. Harry is the interim principal at the school, a home-town boy who has sworn off relationships with women with kids because of a painful experience in his past. When they work together on the third grade Thanksgiving pageant, they find that their feelings keep growing stronger, despite the obstacles. I liked the characters--intelligent, not too sweet, independent. My only complaint was Jacobs' insistence on including a couple of comments that Samantha made about being able to open car doors on her own or handle problems in her own life, thank you very much. It seemed unnecessary and kind of rude when Harry was just trying to be nice. There apparently are a couple more books in this "series" following the other mothers she met while working on the pageant which I'll probably follow up on.
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  Ann-marie

  Sweet novel just in time for thanksgiving. Samantha is recovering from a divorce and becoming a single mother of four. Samantha has no interest in romance but unexpectedly the new interim principal Harry who she knew as a child sparks interest in her and they decided to date until his time at the school is up. Of course just being friends never stays that way and eventually love place a part.
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  Love

  Funny Little Romance
  
  This is a great story with adorable characters and heartwarming story of real love and new beginning with new friendships and new love too .
• 
  Nancy

  Sappy great book in a series.
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  Quinn Fforde

  Very entertaining
• 
  Riki

  Samantha Williams has her hands full. After her husband left their family, she is raising four kids and one demanding cat all by herself. As if all of that wasn’t enough, she misses one little PTS meeting and all of a sudden she’s been volunteered to oversee the Thanksgiving pageant at her kid’s school. With all of this on her plate, falling into another relationship is the last thing on Samantha’s mind. But then she is reunited with sexy, single Harry Remington, who just happens to be acting as the interim principal at her kid’s school. Samantha welcomes Harry into her life and makes him realize how much he misses being part of a family. But how can he leave at the end of his term when Samantha and the kids are giving him the best reason to stay?
  
  This is a super sweet, squeaky-clean romance that is sure to get readers in the mood for celebrating Thanksgiving, with all of the wonderful food and activities that surround the day. The characters are well rounded and completely realistic, coping with the real life dramas that befall families in a modern day era. The romance that blossoms between Harry and Samantha is tender and careful, and develops at just the right pace for two adults who have been burned by love in the past. The slow burn romance is a real treat in a time when so many romance novels rely on an insta-love premise.
  
  Set around the holidays, readers will enjoy celebrating Thanksgiving with this warm love story.
  
• 
  Dina

  Samantha Williams, is a divorced mom with 3 boys, a daughter and a very demanding cat. So, as if trying to work and raise her family was not enough, she has now volunteered to do a Thanksgiving pagent at the kids school. So there is no time to even think about a relationship anytime soon or so she thinks until she meets up with an old childhood friend Harry Remington, who turns out to be the new interim principle at the same school. Harry is enjoying spending time with Samantha's family as friends, but he realizes how he misses what a real home can be.
  
  Samantha and Harry were very affectionate toward one another and they let their passions open up and not think about the past. I loved it how Harry was not afraid to show his feelings toward a woman with kids and that he could not love only Samantha, but her children too.
  
  I thought Holly did a wonderful job of making you feel part of the family, just with her words.
  
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  Nicole

  I love, love, loved this book. I fell in love with Holly's voice when I picked up the middle book to this series with the free reads Harlequin gave out. If they were hoping to generate sales out of doing that it totally worked for me. I went out and immediately bought the other two and have already started the third. I spent so much of this book in watery tears of happiness that it was hard to read! I've always been told that having kids in books is a big no and for some lines I suppose I can see why they say this but then I read a book like this and know that's just an out. It totally can be done and done well. Now to hunt down some more of hers. :-)
  
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  mandy

  My first foray into romance; I won't assign a star rating. I tried to start with the tamest of the 5 and I think I succeeded. Writing reminds me of the formulaic Sweet Valley High, Babysitters Club, etc that I read as a pre-teen. There was a well-developed, if not predictable, backstory to Samantha so there was a little more to the book than just the romance between she and Harry. Overall not as terrible as it could have been. Would be good for readers of gentle contemporary romance.
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  Shelley

  This was really solid writing. A great story, well rounded and actually completely realistic characters, and a logical ending not often found in romances. Awesome! I'll definitely check out the next in the series, about Michelle.
  
  (Okay, I thought that naming two of her children Stan and Stella was kind of weird and possibly creepy, but other than that, can recommend it without hesitation.)
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  Ellen

  Loveable characters with real conflict in their lives, a great small town setting and a cat called Grunge---what's not to adore!
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  Amanda

  FANTASTIC Thanksgiving/holiday read. This book has real life situations and makes you fall in love with everyone involved.
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  Amy V

  Fun romance set around Thanksgiving.. Single mom of 4 kids organizes the school thanksgiving pageant and falls for the principal :)
• 
  Sky

  Fun read - it was cool having the book set in Erie, PA.