Last Christmas I read Brenda Novak's A California Christmas (my review is here), the seventh book in her Silver Springs series and was pleased to see we return to Silver Springs again this Christmas for Keep Me Warm at Christmas.

Tia Bennett is a young actress recovering from a terrible car accident that left her face disfigured. She is recuperating at the home of Maxi, the producer of her breakout film, which has just been released and is garnering Oscar buzz for Tia and the movie.

The paparazzi swarmed her Los Angeles condo, so Tia takes Maxi up on his offer to hide out at in the guest house of his gated home in the small town of Silver Springs. All she has to do is feed and care for his pet parrot while is he out of the country.

While Tia is severely depressed about her situation, she discovers that Maxi has also invited Seth, a reknowned artist and sculptor, to stay in the main house. Seth is still mourning the loss of his young wife three years ago. He grew up in Silver Springs, one of many young boys adopted by Aiyana, the woman who runs a school for troubled teens.

Seth is back to teach an art class Aiyana's school. While he loves Aiyana, he is still troubled by his past. His birth mother gave him and his two brothers up, and later reclaimed his older and young brother but not him. As a young teen, Seth had problems with the law, but straightened his life out.

After Seth sees how depressed Tia is, he becomes determined to reach out to her. He cooks for her, encourages her to exercise, and when a paparazzi comes looking for her, Seth protects her.

Tia and Seth are both going through difficult times. Tia fears her burgeoning career is over, and her Mennonite family is pressuring her to come home to Iowa. Seth is missing his wife and dealing with his in-laws who see him as only an ATM. Can they bring each other out of the depths of their sadness?

Keep Me Warm at Christmas is about forgiveness. Seth has to decide if he can forgive his birth family and in-laws, Tia has to work on forgiving her family, and Tia has to think about forgiving Seth for something he says that hurts her deeply.

We learn a little bit about the Mennonite religion in this novel, something I found interesting as I don't know much about the relgion. We don't see much of Aiyana and her family as we did in the last book, this one really revolves around Tia and Seth. I hope to revisit Silver Springs again next Christmas and see more of Aiyana and her family. ( )