Christmas Extravaganza: Christmas Lights

by Tanya Hanson

The Christmas party at Hearts Crossing Ranch is the highlight of the Season in Mountain Cove, Colorado, but Lori Lazaro longs to be anywhere else...until a handsome cowboy driving a one-horse open sleigh starts a journey of the heart. Deep down, she doesn't want it to end, but it must. Heston Calhoun lives life in the spotlight, and after past trauma, Lori needs the comfort of a life in the shadows.

Lori Lazaro stirs Heston like no woman ever has before. Sure, his family stars in a popular unscripted television show about ranch life, but he’s not going to let Lori’s skittishness end their story before it even begin s. Having faced dark moments in his own past assures him God can brighten her future. He simply needs to convince Lori that together, they’ll write a happy ending after all.

Kindle          Nook             ePub/Adobe/Mobi

About Tanya Hanson

California beach girl and country grandma Tanya Hanson lives on the Central Coast with her firefighter husband and enjoys family, travel, and volunteering  at the local horse rescue. 

Review

I love a good Christmas tale, and especially enjoy novellas—short and sweet, for the busy holiday season. CHRISTMAS LIGHTS is a short, sweet Christmas tale…a really good one. But it’s so much more than that.

I’m becoming increasingly impressed with Tanya Hanson’s style of writing. No one writes prettier descriptions of scenery. But this author is more than description. Turns of phrase. Humor in the most unexpected places at the most unexpected times. Heart and soul.

Magic. Her writing is magic.

In CHRISTMAS LIGHTS, Hanson tackles a subject not often seen in Christian fiction, and certainly not in a holiday romance. It's not a cheery subject. It isn’t a topic discussed around the fireside over mugs of egg nog and hot cider. Yet it's a situation in which this amazing author places her character and brings a loathsome crime into play. She does it with grace and tact and finesse.

The hero is a cowboy whose family ranch is a reality show. He's utterly perfect. Then again, not exactly. But his imperfection isn’t even worth mentioning…or is it?

The heroine is a writer with a load of emotional baggage, who guards her privacy with fierce determination. She hides a horrifying secret—and a suddenly misbehaving heart...at Christmas time, with her 6-year-old niece in tow, and television cameras in every corner. She’s more than a little camera shy, and with the best of reasons.

Hanson turns the task of creating a happy-ever-after for these unlikely characters into a beautiful, romantic, interesting journey. CHRISTMAS LIGHTS is well and truly worth the read.


Mini-interview

Which character in your new release did you most enjoy writing? Why?

It’d have to be Heston. Not only do I find that cowboys make terrific heroes, I also love his sensitivity and patience with Lori. He’s curious, but he doesn’t push, and is respectful of the darkness that’s derailing her. I’m so glad the Lord let him help her find the Light.

   

What makes you laugh out loud?

I find most sitcoms inane , but The Big Bang Theory makes me laugh out loud. I’m still chuckling at the recent episode when the guys want to avoid answering their ladies so they speak to each other in Klingon. I also laughed out loud years ago when I was in the school library on a translation website trying to find a Latin phrase. When I scrolled down the list of actual languages, there it was in the mist of them: Klingon. Sheesh.

Please share a verse of scripture that is especially meaningful to you, and why it is special.

It has to be Psalm 121:1—I will lift up my eyes to the hills from whence cometh my help. Nine years ago, my husband was battling testicular cancer and nearly lost his life to complications from chemotherapy. Although this particular chemo protocol often cures this horrific disease, it takes a miserable toll on the human body, and there were far too many mornings when I thought he’d died in the night. But each morning, the TopaTopa mountains near us caught my eye ,and I’d just recite this verse over and over, and pray and cry until there was almost nothing left. But there was—my Lord and Saviour who saved me yet again.

And my sweetheart, too. Three years ago, he reached the point of remission where he can now say he is cured. Every day, he enjoys being a grandpa to the world’s three most amazing little ones. LOL.