Tis the season for a little white lie… What starts as a simple agreement to be a wedding date, soon becomes so much more in SNOW KISSED, a heartwarming novel about second chances and new beginnings—because risking your heart is the only way to live, especially at Christmas.
Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from RaeAnne Thayne’s Snow Kissed, which releases on October 7th 2025.
Christmas has always been single mom Holly Goodwin Moore’s favorite time of year. The twinkly lights on the tree, the cookies in the oven, the snow on the ground. But she’s just not feeling it this year. The wedding in her ex’s family is almost here, her daughter, Lydia, is bursting at the seams to be a flower girl…and Holly couldn’t be dreading it more. She told a little white lie about having a new boyfriend as her plus-one, hoping to save face. She needs a date for the wedding…and she needs it now.
Ryan Caldwell wants to be free this holiday season. So even he isn’t sure how he landed in Shelter Springs, looking after his niece, Audrey, with his estranged father down the road. But when he meets Holly, she makes him want to belong for the very first time. So they make a deal: he’ll be her date if she’ll help him give Audrey a true Christmas to remember while her mom is away.
Excerpted from Snow Kissed, by RaeAnne Thayne. Canary Street Press, 2025. Reprinted with permission.
Holly stuck in the spray of aster before looking at the name on the order form. “Dana Harris. I don’t know her. Do you?”
There was a time when she had been certain she knew every single person in their small Idaho town of Shelter Springs.
Hannah frowned. “Never heard of her. What’s her husband’s name?”
She looked at the form again. “I don’t know. I didn’t have a chance to speak with him. Ginger took the order before she left to make deliveries. She didn’t write his name down, only the words hot dad.”
Hannah laughed. “Well, that’s super helpful. Sounds like our Ginger.”
“Right?”
Ginger Martineau, one of four staff members at Evergreen & Ivy, might be scattered and easily distracted but she was also creative, loyal and hardworking. More importantly, her sunny attitude and whimsical sense of humor made Holly laugh in a world that sometimes didn’t feel all that funny.
She and her sister were chatting about Hannah’s work as a music therapist when the bells on her front door chimed and in walked the most gorgeous man Holly had ever seen in real life.
He was tall, muscular, with a hard jawline, short dark hair and stunning green eyes.
She was aware of a completely inappropriate flutter of awareness.
This must be the hot dad who had ordered the new baby flower arrangement, though how Ginger had managed to deduce he was gorgeous simply over the phone, Holly had no idea.
She did know she had never seen this man before in her life or she absolutely would have remembered him.
He looked around at her shop, bedecked for the holidays with three live trees, garlands, wreaths and fairy lights.
Somehow the inherently feminine surroundings, flowery and cheerful, only served to make him look more gorgeously masculine in contrast.
She gave him a bright smile. “Hi. You’re right on time! I just finished your order. Congratulations!”
She walked around the corner of the worktable holding out the lush arrangement in a pink container shaped like a large building block with the words It’s a Girl on the front.
He looked at it as if she had held out a live barracuda.
“Um, what’s this?”
She tried not to bristle at his blatant rejection of something she had considered lovely, perfect for the situation.
“This is what you wanted for your wife, who just had a baby girl this morning. Congratulations again. The holidays are such a fun time to have a new baby. You must be so thrilled. What’s her name?”
“I think there’s been some kind of mistake.”
She gazed down at her lovely creation then back at him, dismayed. “Oh no. Was it a boy? I’m so sorry.”
She seriously needed to have a long chat with Ginger about paying more attention to details. This wasn’t the first order the other woman had typed wrong into the system. Or even the first one this week.
“Don’t worry at all. I can change it. Give me five minutes. I’ve got some pale blue roses and some yellow aster that came in this morning. I can swap them out. And we can put everything in a different container.”
She hurried back behind her counter but before she could start undoing all her hard work, he followed her.
“No. I think you’ve mistaken me for someone else. I don’t have a wife. Or, God forbid, a newborn baby, girl or boy.”
Good heavens. How many hot strangers had moved into town when she wasn’t looking? And why did they all suddenly need flowers?
She winced. “I’m sorry. I jumped to conclusions. I assumed you were here to pick this up. How can I help you?”
“I’m looking for my niece. I was told to meet her here.”
“Your niece?” Holly exchanged a look with her sister, who had been following the interchange with interest. “Why would she be here?”
He shrugged, wide shoulders rippling inside his black jacket. “I have no idea. I only know she texted me and said she was picking up somebody named Lydia and would meet me here.”
All the pieces suddenly clicked into place. “Oh! You’re talking about Audrey! You must be Audrey’s uncle. Ryan, isn’t it? I had no idea you were coming today. Audrey didn’t mention it. In fact, Kim said you wouldn’t be able to make it to town until next week.”
“I was able to rearrange some things back in San Diego. I texted Audrey this morning to tell her I was on my way.”
Why hadn’t Kim ever mentioned that her brother looked like he should be on the cover of some sexy military calendar?
“You’re Kim’s little brother?”
He turned his attention to Hannah when she spoke and Holly could see him do a double-take.
As for Hannah, she looked at him with an appreciative look that left Holly feeling oddly territorial, like when they were kids and Hannah wanted to play with one of Holly’s brand-new toys.
“Yes. Hi. Ryan Caldwell. You’re twins.”
“Have been all our lives. I’m Hannah Goodwin.”
Her sister beamed at him and held out her hand. After a beat, he shook it, looking bemused.
Not for the first time, Holly wished she wasn’t always the quiet sister, the serious, bookish one. Sometimes she wanted to be the fun, flirty twin who was comfortable talking to anyone.
“How kind of you to drop everything in San Diego and come out to help Kim with Audrey during the holidays,” Hannah went on.
He shrugged. “We’re family. Isn’t that the kind of thing family does for each other?”
“Definitely, though I would have thought Audrey could stay with your dad over in Haven Point.”
Something hard flashed across his expression but it was there and gone so quickly Holly thought she must have been mistaken.
“The colonel is busy taking care of Diane after the accident as well as running Caldwell Aviation. He doesn’t have time to run Audrey back and forth to school here in Shelter Springs.”
“How is Diane?” Holly asked, feeling great sympathy for the other woman. She couldn’t imagine being laid up over the holidays, with broken bones sustained in an accident a week earlier.
“She came home from the hospital a few days ago, apparently. I talked to her this morning while I was driving and she assured me she’s fine. I haven’t seen her yet. I was thinking I could take Audrey there this evening, after we pick up her things from your place. She has been staying with you, right?”
Audrey, Kim’s thirteen-year-old daughter, had been sleeping in Holly’s spare room since Sunday.
“She has. It’s been no problem.”
“Thank you for that. I know my sister is grateful.”
“There is nothing to thank me for. Audrey is a delight. I enjoy her company and she’s wonderful with my daughter. I was grateful her mother trusted me enough to let her stay with me while Kim gets the help she needs.”
His mouth tightened again and he gave a short nod. She hadn’t heard from her friend and employee since Kim checked herself into an addiction treatment facility in Boise the morning after the accident, the one that had injured Kim’s step-mother as well as the other driver, who had actually been at fault.
“I didn’t mind at all,” she said again. “In fact, she could have stayed with me the whole time Kim expects to be in Boise. I told your sister that. You really didn’t have to come out here.”
“I wish I could have made it earlier, but it took me a few days to arrange leave.”
Kim talked often about her younger brother while she and Holly were working together at the shop. Holly almost felt like she knew him. She likely knew far more about him than he did about her.
She was aware that Ryan Caldwell was a naval pilot who flew helicopters—a pilot who had been relegated to a desk job the past two months while healing from a knee injury sustained in the line of duty. It was one thing to know information about a man in the abstract. It was entirely different when the same man was standing in her floral shop, looking rough and masculine and gorgeous.
About the Author
#1 Publishers Weekly, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne finds inspiration in the beautiful northern Utah mountains where she lives with her family. Her books have won numerous honors, including seven RITA Award nominations from Romance Writers of America and a Career Achievement Award from RT Book Reviews magazine. RaeAnne loves to hear from readers and can be reached through her website at raeannethayne.com.
