So this book wasn't as Christmas'y as I would have liked but the story was so great.

Shane is getting over the death of her grandmother and using her home to start a antique museum and shop.

As she is getting ready to revamp it Vance Banning moves into the broken down place near her. He has actually ran away from his corporate job.

He has ran away from a terrible past relationship as well, so when he and Shane met and the zing is instantaneous he is as prickly as possible. Shane on the other hand is drawn like a moth to a flame.

Her genuineness draws Vance in right away. They fight and play and fall in love. The difference between what Vance was used to and Shane is polar opposites. They fight in the mud and Shane just laughs. They can't stay away from each other.

Unfortunately Shane has a horrible mother that she only calls by her first name. That should show us and her really that these two are not family at heart. She comes in and fakes feelings and then quickly turns into a viper.

When Vance finds out he goes and puts Ann in her place. Unfortunately she is a sneaky viper and unearths all of Vance's secrets. Then she throws them in Shane's face.

The strength of their connection, the way they turn everything into fun, they searing sweetness of the love making made this book nearly impossible for me to put down.

I fell in love with Shane while reading this book. Her independence, energy, work ethic and her resilience. Despite the things that she had to deal with in her life ( break up months to her wedding, loss of her granny, giving up her career in teaching, lack of a mothers love and being new in town) she was more determined to succeed and always maintained a positive spirit.

Her ability to work over and above including chores considered to be for males, makes her unique. Her determination to succeed in her new field despite discouragement from others on the difficulties of running a business is an indication of her resolve.

In as much as she doesn't consider herself practical, she's very practical in the way she analyzes her career path and decides what's best for her as well as accepting that she was not meant to be with her ex. Those who believe in luck would say its luck that pushed her to leave her teaching job so as to connect to Vance.

The book is filled with humor. Am happy she finally gets to travel to her dream destination.

Admittedly, my dislike for this book may be partially attributable to my having read a bunch of thrillers before starting on this book, so a part of me had been straining for any action. However, this book took work to get through. There was a great moment in the beginning, and then the story plodded along. There was a moment when the hero and heroine were making love, and the author interjected with the wind in the fireplace (I was sort of perked up at the thought of a fire, but no). I've enjoyed most books by Nora Roberts that I've read, and I've rated some with five stars, but this is not one of them. The story dragged on, and then there was a very quick resolution with the idea of HEA, and the story was done.

Nora where did you learn?

Only one or two authors-Roberts & Grace Burrowes & Wiggs and a few others can involve you with romance so that you need to stop a minute to study the beauty in just the written words. I don’t think it can be taught it’s a gift. My professor, father-in-law said the same about teachers( you can teach teachers the material but you are born with the ability to give it as a gift of love). Great authors have the gift!

It was pretty blah.

I guess I'll quit reading the 1980s Roberts. Her later work is so much better. This one, is copyrighted 1982. (She was born in 1950.)

It let me down because Roberts is so thorough about her research!

A half dozen characters, one owns a ski chalet, go north from NYC for a ski weekend. At least five of them have never been on skis. The chalet is described in loving detail. But the skiing ?

Beginners on skis do not carve graceful curves down the mountain. Actually, they end up in the snow. Covered in snow. I was looking forward to the humor and, being an Eastern skiier, going back to one of my favorite mountains. Nope. No skiing at all. I guess Roberts simply won't write about anything she doesn't know about. This is a good thing, usually. I expected the owner of the chalet would have been carving graceful curves down the expert trails while his newbie guests were planting their faces. Nope. No skiing at all.

The rest of the novel? It's a Nora Roberts romance. The characters come to life. And the heroine does what heroines do with their heros. Though with a bit less detail than they do it this century.

This book has the qualities of a fairytale and I love that. The hero literally sweeps the heroine off her feet.

It has the usual contemporary romance feel - he loves me, he loves me not, he loves me, he loves me not...Then, oh, HE LOVES ME! It was sweet. I laughed out loud several times during the story. Nora Roberts is so clever with the interaction she has between the two characters.

The hero is a disguised prince, note that he is rich and he ends up falling for a small town girl with little possessions. Sigh... Isn't that what all girls dream about?

What I liked:
I liked Shane's backstory.
I grew to like the romance.
I like how Shane had a strong personality.

What I didn't like:
The sex scenes made me laugh out loud.
Insta-love

So, I was looking for a mindless, fluffy, Christmas romance book just because I wanted to feel Christmassy without working too hard. I found this on the "light-hearted Christmas tales" display shelf at the library. The name Nora Roberts was familiar. I thought for mindless, fluffy romance perhaps. This was definitely a mindless, fluffy, melodramatic, predictable, false-drama infused romance. What I did not realize is that Nora Roberts writes mindless romance WITH STEAMY SEX SCENES, lol. And that's if "steamy" means unintentionally comical (hey, these scenes start early in the narrative, don't judge me). So, now I know what to expect from Nora Roberts. Oh and yes, the Christmas depicted was positively magical.

Love story with some callous characters causing turmoil. The main characters (not callous) were mostly likable if not entirely believable. Shane definitely came across as more of an idealized, open hearted person. Her less positive quirks (we all have them) weren’t referenced. Which is fine, the story is meant to be a heart fluttering romance.

What I really didn’t like was the statement that it’s okay for men to physically pick up a woman, throw her over their shoulder, and haul her away. The implication being they can change her mind. That she really doesn’t mean no when she is telling him No and to stop. This is not okay. At all. This is how rape culture gets washed over and downplayed.

No means no even in romance novels.

Typical 80s romance book but unfortunately I'm listening to it in 2025 and it's just not good now. Shane doesn't know anything about Vance and even claims that he'll never be easy & likely break her heart but she's known him less than a week and declares she's in love & will marry him......seriously?? Then she again shows what a moron she is by giving her gold digging mother money after the mother threatens her with a lawsuit and is generally horrible to her. It's kind of pathetic how bad of a character Shane is. Overall, just not a good book for listening to/reading now.

I'm a 18 year old college teen and so far liking the book. Im up to the part where Vance brought Shane into the house so that he would make love to her. Screw Cy, Shane deserves Vance. ❤️. Forget Twilight, First Impressions is a way better love story. I would compare myself to Shane because she would always laugh all the time, and I would laugh all the time. She even almost hysterically laugh when Vance was talking off his clothes!