“The Snow Lies Deep” and perhaps nowhere deeper than in a small village in rural Vermont at Christmas. Paula Munier takes us right into the heart of the small, picturesque town of Northshire as the town celebrates the holiday season in grand style. The village is hosting the “Solstice Soirée,” “twelve days of eating, drinking, and making merry, beginning on the winter solstice and continuing through Hanukkah and Kwanzaa and Christmas right on to New Year’s Day.”

A really good series, like Melinda Leigh’s Bree Taggert series, has novels that stand alone but also has characters who grow and change from the first novel through the procession and the progression of stories. This series story arc, combined with the individual gripping novels, is what keeps readers coming back to read book after book. With this series, author Melinda Leigh manages to accomplish all that and more. In addition to a really likable, vulnerable but strong main character, sheriff Bree Taggert, there is a romantic partner, and a family. And one of the things I love about this series is the dogs, lots of dogs. Rescue dogs. Rescue dogs who save lives.