Christmas on Conrad Street by Marcia Evanick

Doctor Sydney Fletcher thought her life was perfect: she had a job she loved as a pediatrician, she had had a live-in boyfriend for the last four years and she should be well on her way of getting her dreams of marriage and children happen. But nothing is ever as perfect as it seems, something she quickly realizes when she comes home one day and finds her boyfriend, Richard, playing 'hide the salami' with a big breasted ER nurse.

Suddenly, all the things that had never worked between her and Richard reared their ugly head and Sydney decided to leave behind her life in Baltimore and move to Misty Harbor, Maine - where her sister Gwen recently opened a restaurant called Catch of the Day - to open her own family practice.

Once there, she becomes friends with one of the town's famous Vikings - a pair of hunky Norwegian twins - surprising everyone and herself because she's always able to tell them a part though he never admits why - as in only Erik makes her heart beat really fast. Scorched after her experience with Richard, Syd has no intention on pursing what she feels for Erik and Erik, though very attracted to her, doesn't wish to re-live his parents experience (as in his mother came from money while his father was a simple fisherman like him).

But when Hans, Erik's grandfather, begins to forget things more and more often, Erik asks Sydney to pretend to be his girlfriend so she can check on Hans - who is scared there is something wrong with him, so he won't go to the doctor - bringing them together just in time for Christmas.

I did say there were TWO Vikings, right? Well, here you also find Gunnar's story, who falls in love with single mother Maggie Pierce, and that's a sweet story all of their own.

Okay, so I really liked this book, it was the last one I had yet to read of the Misty Harbor/Fletcher Sisters trilogy and it was a big to do to find it because it's out of print. What I can tell you is that it's a very sweet story about love - in a family and in a relationship - and about this little community that takes care of its own. I would definitely say this story is about second chances.

It's a funny, lighthearted story with a Christmas-y feel. It's very 'slice of life' and I liked it here because it works.