PUCKER UP, HOLIDAY LOVERS! BQ STANDS NOT UNDERNEATH, BUT CLOSE ENOUGH TO MISTLETOE....THE MISTLETOE BOOKS BY RICHARD PAUL EVANS!

We unabashedly admit to wallowing in the whole onslaught of Christmas merchandising.....it NEVER gets old for us, no matter how manipulative and corny. The music? All hail Andy Williams, happy purveyor of "The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year." The movies?  Deck the TV with round the clock Hallmark Christmas movies....(which we promise to cover soon). Even the commercials....where Santa and his elves work tirelessly to sell us toys, clothing. new cars and chicken McNuggets......bring 'em on.  Beached Quill finds it all theraputic and as comforting as an extra blanket on a frosty winter night.

For holiday reading, the season's incomplete until you've inhaled (usually at one sitting) the charming little "Mistletoe" romances penned annually by Richard Paul Evans. He's up to three of them now and they're virtually identical in plot and formula.....which is why we embrace them. Each year, it's like breaking open and gorging on a box of red-and-green Dunkin Donuts. Basically, a Lonely Guy and a Lonely Girl (yes, they have names, but we'll simply refer to them as such), both shell shocked survivors of assorted divorces of toxic ex-mates, find each other and true love during the holidays.,

THE MISTLETOE SECRET has Lonely Guy enraptured by Lonely Girl's blog, in which she bemoans her fate as...as Lonely Girl. Lonely Guy, having no idea about her identity, sets out to track her down, travelling from his Daytona Beach home to Lonely Girl's tiny town in the middle of frigid Utah. Complications ensue, as Lonely Guy keeps knocking on the wrong doors in his quest, but....oh no, I dare not spoil the rest......

THE MISTLETOE PROMISE, has already been adapted as a Hallmark channel movie, This one presents a Lonely Guy and Lonely Girl so besieged by the social demands of the busy holiday season, that they make a pact to pose as each other dates at the many functions and parties they're obligated to attend. Before long, Lonely Guy and Lonely Girl succumb to the close proximity they've put each other in...and before you can say 'Joy To The World, the two of them.....no, no, our lips are sealed....

THE MISTLETOE INN places Lonely Guy and Lonely Girl, both aspiring writers, together at a writer's retreat in a snowy, picture postcard Vermont inn.(Which is why you'd never see these books taking place in Key West or Aruba....)  Lonely Girl hopes to meet the retreat's premier guest speaker, a reclusive romance writer but in the meantime she falls for Lonely Guy, another would be writer who harbors secrets of his own, including........ooops.....almost made the naughty list by spilling it.....

If the holidays frazzle you to the point of madness....we can't recommend these gems enough to calm you down, soothe your soul and maybe even make you tolerate the TV spots where Santa pitches used Suburus......they go down as smoothly as hot chocolate or pumpkin lattes....the books, we mean, not the cars. BQ jingles the bells for this series, giving them the FIND OF FINDS....and 5 bright red ornaments.......