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WORK TITLE: We Need a Little Christmas
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: http://www.sierradonovan.com/
CITY:
STATE: CA
COUNTRY:
NATIONALITY:
http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/author.aspx/30546
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2004096963
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/no2004096963
HEADING: Donovan, Sierra
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010 __ |a no2004096963
035 __ |a (OCoLC)oca06462513
040 __ |a IAhCCS |b eng |e rda |c IAhCCS |d DLC |d IlMpPL
053 _0 |a PS3604.O5674
100 1_ |a Donovan, Sierra
374 __ |a Novelists |2 lcsh
377 __ |a eng
670 __ |a Love on the air, 2004: |b t.p. (Sierra Donovan) about the author (Sierra and her family live in the High Desert of Southern California; this is her first novel) t.p. verso (cprt. stmt.: Holly LaPat) jkt. (has written short stories as Holly Thomas)
953 __ |b lh38
[Author’s list of books is incomplete. I captured more from her site and elsewhere. Also, dates are wrong.–Marcia]
PERSONAL
Married; husband’s name Charlie, children: one son, one daughter.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Freelance reporter, Daily Press, High Desert, CA, 2009-13; independent writer and editor, 2003–.
MEMBER:High Desert California Writers Club, Romance Writers of America.
AWARDS:Golden Quill Award, Desert Rose Chapter, Romance Writers of America, 2015, for No Christmas like the Present.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Sierra Donovan lives with her family in the High Desert region of Southern California. She has worked as a freelance reporter and also as an editor, but her focus now is writing contemporary romance novels. Most recently she has written a Christmas-themed series, including No Christmas like the Present, Do You Believe in Santa?, We Need a Little Christmas, and Do Not Open ’Til Christmas. No Christmas like the Present won the Romance Writers of America’s Golden Quill Award for 2015 in the category Sweet Traditional Romance.
Meg's Confession and Love on the Air
Donovan’s first book, Meg’s Confession, came out in 2012. Meg Reilly is widowed and pregnant. Craig Stovall owns the local construction company. The two come together on opposite sides of a church confessional stall when troubled Meg goes in to tell her tale to the priest. Craig is there to fix the confessional, and Meg takes him for the priest. He does not reveal who he really is. When they later meet, they find an attraction. Will the romance bloom, and how will Craig deal with Meg’s secret?
Love on the Air came out in 2013. Christie Becket has a dream of becoming a radio disc jockey. She is willing to sacrifice for her dream, and she lands a job on the graveyard shift of a radio station. Rick Fox, her boss, finds himself falling in love with her against his conscience and against company policy. For her part, Christie feels the draw of romance but is concerned about succeeding in her new career. Lynne Welch, writing for Booklist, praised Donovan’s “well-crafted, leisurely, and refreshingly candid” story and also her “deft touch with characterization.”
No Christmas like the Present, Do You Believe in Santa?, and We Need a Little Christmas
In the first of Donovan’s Christmas-themed works, No Christmas like the Present, Lindsay Miller is immersed in a last-minute flurry of Christmas activity, all the while watching A Christmas Carol on her television and admiring the character and good looks of Fred, Scrooge’s nephew, as he explains the meaning of Christmas to his uncle. Then the doorbell rings, and she finds Fred standing on her doorstep, claiming to have been sent to help Lindsay find the meaning of Christmas.
In Do You Believe in Santa? Mandy Reese believes that as a child of eight she, in fact, saw Santa Claus. Now she works year-round at a Christmas store and regales her customers with the tale. Jake Wyndham arrives in town to scout hotel locations. The two are far from a perfect match, but they just may hit if off anyway. A reviewer in Publishers Weekly believed that this “chaste love story will appeal to traditionalists.”
The third book in the series, We Need a Little Christmas, features Liv Tomblyn and Scott Lereux, former classmates whose lives have taken them in different directions. Liv returns to town when her grandmother dies. She has no plans to stay until little things begin to go wrong at her grandmother’s house and she needs the help of town handyman Scott. A critic in Publishers Weekly remarked that “their interactions feel natural” and found that the “Christmas cheer and sense of love will melt the heart of any reader.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, September 5, 2016, review of We Need a Little Christmas, p. 60.
Booklist, December 1, 2004, Lynne Welch, review of Love on the Air, p. 641.
ONLINE
Publishers Weekly Online, https://www.publishersweekly.com/ (May 26, 2016), review of Do You Believe in Santa?*
I live in the High Desert of Southern California with my husband, Charlie, and our daughter. Our son now lives a few blocks away, so group photos like this New Year's selfie are getting harder to come by!
Sierra Donovan is a wife, a mother of two and a writer, though not always in that order. Her greatest joy is helping people find true love on the printed page. She believes in classic movies, Christmas, happy endings, and the healing power of chocolate.
Sierra's first novel, LOVE ON THE AIR, was a Holt Medallion finalist. Her Kensington debut, NO CHRISTMAS LIKE THE PRESENT, won the Golden Quill for Sweet Traditional Romance.
Her series of Evergreen Lane novels begins with DO YOU BELIEVE IN SANTA?, a finalist for the SnowGlobe Award. The series continues with her latest romance, WE NEED A LITTLE CHRISTMAS.
You can email Sierra at sierra_donovan@yahoo.com, or visit her website at www.sierradonovan.com.
We Need a Little Christmas
Publishers Weekly.
263.36 (Sept. 5, 2016): p60.
COPYRIGHT 2016 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
We Need a Little Christmas
Sierra Donovan. Zebra, $7.99 mass market (311p) ISBN 978-1-4201-4150-4
Donovan (Do You Believe in Santa?) keeps the Christmas magic going in her third tale set in the small California city of Tall Pine, where cell
service is minimal and holiday-themed businesses thrive. Liv Tomblyn left Tall Pine for Dallas, Tex., where she works as a professional home
organizer. When her grandmother dies around Thanksgiving, she's drawn back and finds that Scott Leroux has ties to her family that he would
love to strengthen ' by putting a ring on her finger. Donovan really keeps Liv and Scott apart despite Liv's sister's matchmaking, putting a nice
spin on the usual pacing of a romance's obstacles, though the long delay makes for an abrupt ending. Scott and Liv are very likable, and their
interactions feel natural, without unlikely coincidences. Those looking for heat won't find it here, as Donovan barely allows the lovebirds to kiss
once or twice, but the Christmas cheer and sense of love will melt the heart of any reader. Agent: Jonathan Clements, WheelhouseLiterary. (Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"We Need a Little Christmas." Publishers Weekly, 5 Sept. 2016, p. 60. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA463513562&it=r&asid=c1267106e81d62995707fada069fd129. Accessed 14 May
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A463513562
---
5/14/2017 General OneFile - Saved Articles
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/marklist.do?actionCmd=GET_MARK_LIST&userGroupName=schlager&inPS=true&prodId=ITOF&ts=1494819269548 2/2
Donovan, Sierra. Love on the Air
Lynne Welch
Booklist.
101.7 (Dec. 1, 2004): p641.
COPYRIGHT 2004 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/ala/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist_publications/booklist/booklist.cfm
Full Text:
Donovan, Sierra. Love on the Air. 2004. 192p. Avalon, $21.95 (0-8034-9674-5)
Christie Becket has the fever, and she has it bad. She is willing to give up a steady, if boring, job as a loan processor for lousy pay and terrible
working hours, not to mention a complete lack of time for a social life, to make a name for herself in radio as a disc jockey. Rick Fox is the
program director who sees her potential and hires her right out of school for the graveyard shift, but professionalism demands that he not reveal
his growing attraction to her as a charming and lovely person. Christie, for her part, struggles with Rick's chameleon-like mood changes while
learning to do her job. Donovan's debut novel shows a good grasp of the broadcasting industry as well as a deft touch with characterization. Her
well-crafted, leisurely, and refreshingly candid inside glimpse at the realities of this outwardly glamorous industry appeals because this gentle
romance captures the camaraderie, as well as the competitive nature, of radio's personalities.--Lynne Welch
Welch, Lynne
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Welch, Lynne. "Donovan, Sierra. Love on the Air." Booklist, 1 Dec. 2004, p. 641. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?
p=ITOF&sw=w&u=schlager&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA129710891&it=r&asid=07924fd6f335f2358faca6a593a13a95. Accessed 14 May
2017.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A129710891
Donovan (No Christmas like the Present) puts the titular question at the heart of a romance that leans heavily on old-fashioned values. Provincial Mandy Reece firmly believes Santa Claus is real. When she falls in love with Jake Wyndham, a visiting businessman who wants to bring her small community into the corporate world, both will have to reexamine their beliefs. Jake is a caricature of traditional masculinity: he insists on opening doors for Mandy, jumps to immediate jealousy, has the more powerful job, thinks of Mandy in terms of her ability to bear and raise his future kids, and is more sexually experienced. This conventional portrayal is balanced somewhat when he realizes he has to change in order to reach his professional and personal goals. The dual arcs blend well together—Jake’s plan to commercialize Mandy’s town may cost him her heart—and the Christmas theme is central to the conflict keeping Mandy and Jake apart. This chaste love story will appeal to traditionalists. Agent: Jonathan Clements, Wheelhouse Literary Group. (Oct.)