This RITA® Reader Challenge 2016 review was written by Claire C. This story was nominated for the RITA® in the Short Contemporary Romance category.

Here is Claire C.'s review:

I’ve slowly been dipping my toe in the contemporary romance pool, and I’ve read another Kat Latham novella before, so I felt safe taking this one on to review. Plus the idea of a railroad engineer heroine and a park ranger hero (one of my high school dream jobs!) made Three Nights Before Christmas even more intriguing.

Spoilers full steam ahead! (train pun #1)

The book opens with Lacey starting her very last hours in prison. In just a few paragraphs we get a sense of how de-humanizing her experience has been – she sleeps in a room with 15 other women, on bunk beds, with an open toilet. She’s been through so many strip searches that they’ve lost all shock value, she’s put on weight because of the cheap, carb-heavy food and forced inactivity, and the maintenance staff get her to go their dirty work. It’s a very different way to open a romance, but I appreciated the starkness of Latham’s portrayal.

Who should Lacey run into on her first day back home but Austin, the man who helped land her in prison? He’s at the farm with his mom, picking out a tree, but he came straight from work so he’s still in his uniform, so Lacey initially panics at seeing him. Austin and Lacey deal mostly civilly with one another and both hope not to see much of the other in the future.

Side note – Austin has some interesting family history that looks to be covered in Latham’s other books.

Eventually Austin asks for her help in repairing an old train and she surprises both of them by agreeing – albeit with the caveat that she will not enter his personal space (he’s staying at a cabin by the train annex) and that he will decorate the annex for a full-blown Christmas. Of course they both have ulterior motives for working on the train – Lacey is desperate to do the thing she loves most in the world, but knows that she’ll never get another job working with trains now that she has a criminal record. The train will be used as part of a fundraiser to open a camp for disabled kids, including Austin’s soon-to-be nephew-in-law, who was paralyzed from the waist down when he fell in an abandoned mine shaft. The accident happened in Austin’s patrol area while he was on duty, so he feels a massive amount of guilt and is trying to atone for that.

From the beginning, sparks are flying between Lacey and Austin, but it isn’t until they have a bonding moment over an ugly Christmas sweater that Lacey gets up the courage to proposition him. Points for ladies taking charge! She’s figuring that it will take care of her weird feelings toward him and end her three years of forced celibacy. Austin reacts badly and the budding relationship seems to have gone off-track (train pun #2!) before it even got started. Luckily he comes to his senses when Lacey shows up to work that evening anyway, and the hanky-panky finally happens (and continues to happen, hoo-boy!).

The relationship builds due to more forced proximity (read the companion novella “His Christmas Gift” for details and the story of Lacey’s brother and her lawyer) and it seems like Lacey has finally found her footing and is rebuilding her life when she gets the news that her ex, Dave, has recanted his testimony and there is chance she can get a re-trial and have her record wiped. As the arresting officer, Austin is called by the DA and asked to testify against Lacey. This proves to be one step too far and she breaks it off with Austin.

This being a romance, there is a HEA for Lacey and Austin at the end of the line (train pun #3!), and one that I found believable and satisfying. Latham lets her characters be grownups who mostly avoid the problem of not using their words, and instead sets up real external conflict for them to overcome. I liked that her time in prison had a real affect on Lacey and impacted everything about her life. Austin is overall a kind and level-headed man who I would definitely categorize as a beta hero. He wasn’t as interesting a character to read about, but I also tend to be more into the heroine than the hero.

I was able to read this in a few nights and while it’s not the most moving or touching romance I’ve ever read, it’s a solid story with good characters and a plot line I’ve not seen before. Even though we’re warming up for spring, the winter setting had me wanting just a few more snowflakes and a cup of hot chocolate.