"The Toymaker had a small secret"

Samantha Woodall believes that life can't get any worse since her no-good husband left. He had cleaned out their meager savings and run off with a woman 10 years younger and a lot smaller. All Samantha had left was a scrap of a farm and two kids. She had just received a telegram that her husband had been killed. It was time to just try to stay alive. The cows had dried up, the chickens weren't laying anymore. There was not much left in the cupboards and a storm was coming.

In the middle of the night she hears a horse in front. She offered to allow the rider to put his horse in the barn and come into the warmth of the house. Claudius Elfenstine was tall with a full head of long flowing white hair. There was something about him that made her totally relaxed, but very attracted sexually to this stranger. Samantha finds out he is a widower who is toymaker. He was delivering toys for Christmas when the storm hit.

Things start to change, cows start to give milk, the chicken eggs, and a neighbor drops by with food. Who is this man? And what will happen to them when he leaves.

THE TOYMAKER is a powerful story of courage, hardships and magic. Claudius is perfect for Samantha. I have not read anything else by R. Casteel, but be I will be looking for this author's other works. This is a great frontier quickie with not-to-be-forgotten characters. Book 6 of Ellora's Cave's 12 Quickies of Christmas.

Reviewed by Patricia McGrew
Courtesy Sensual Romance Reviews
Posted December 22, 2003

Summary

Samantha, widowed with two small children on the Missouri frontier, struggles to survive through the harsh winter. When she gives the small toymaker named, Claudius, shelter from a storm, little miracles begin to happen. But, are they enough to restore love, and her belief in the Magic of Christmas.