As a Fairmont, W.Va. native, romance author Liza Jonathan set her first book, <em>Wrecking Christmas</em>, in Lewisburg, and featured many West Virginia attractions like The Greenbrier Resort. When that book won the 2020 HOLT Medallion for excellence in published romance fiction, Jonathan decided she’d keep the West Virginia theme going in her second series book, <em>The Christmas We Knew</em>, released on Amazon, Kindle Unlimited, and select bookstores this month. <img class=" wp-image-52464 alignleft" src="https://mountainmessenger.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2020/11/Book-1.jpg" alt="" width="445" height="668" /> “My romances feature magical elements—like enchanted towns, or Dickens-like time travel. It seemed to me that if magic was going to intrude itself onto our natural world, West Virginia would be the perfect place for it. It’s already pretty magical, isn’t it?” Jonathan said. Her second book, also set in Lewisburg, features numerous local attractions, including The Greenbrier Resort, Snowshoe Mountain, and The New River Gorge Bridgewalk. “Staff at the featured locations have been so supportive of the books. It’s been such a pleasure showing people the romantic side of the mountain state.” Jonathan said the entire series will feature people who work in and around Holliday Hot Rods & Collision Repair, a fictional auto-shop in the Lewisburg area. Her first book, <em>Wrecking Christmas</em>, features Hunter Holliday, who tows the heroine off Potts Mountain, only to get stranded in the enchanted, impossibly quaint town of Christmas Pass, which appears like Brigadoon in a freak snowstorm. The second standalone in this series is <em>The Christmas We Knew</em>, which can be read in any series order. It features Hopper, a long-time employee of Holliday Hot Rods, who stops at a mysterious mountain Christmas shop that sends him back to the Christmases past he spent with his lost love. Both books deal with the themes of regret, forgiveness, and redemption. “It was so gratifying to win the HOLT from the Romance Authors of America, and know that this series stands up well against other published authors. Readers really seemed to enjoy <em>Wrecking Christmas</em>, and I can’t wait for them to experience Hopper’s steamy, second chance romance in <em>Christmas We Knew</em>.” [caption id="attachment_52465" align="alignright" width="504"]<img class=" wp-image-52465" src="https://mountainmessenger.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/13/2020/11/Book-2-scaled.jpg" alt="" width="504" height="336" /> Liza Jonathan[/caption] In addition to her holiday books, Jonathan also released another book last year, <em>Haunted by You</em>, also available on Amazon and in select bookstores. This book is part of Jonathan’s Charmed Series, a four-book series she hopes to release over the coming year. Jonathan grew up in Fairmont, WV, and obtained her degree in Professional Writing from Wheeling Jesuit University, where she also met her husband of many years. She currently lives in Indiana with her husband and two nearly adult aged sons. To read excerpts, find buy links, and sign up for her reader newsletter, visit her at www.lizajonathan.com, or follow her on GoodReads.
