Book Review: The Neighbor and the Gifts by Danielle Grandinetti

The Neighbor and the Gifts JustRead Blog + Review Tour

Welcome to the blog tour for Danielle Grandinetti’s Christmas Historical Romantic Suspense Novella, The Neighbor and the Gifts, hosted by JustRead Publicity Tours.

About the Book:

Title: The Neighbor and the Gifts
Series: A Christmas Cabin Novella
Author: Danielle Grandinetti
Publisher: Hearth Spot Press
Release Date: July 15, 2025
Genre: Christmas Historical Romantic Suspense

Twelve days. Twelve gifts. One unlikely hero.

Wisconsin, 1930—When Manitowish Waters librarian Olivia “Ollie” Larson finds a package on the library steps, she expects the children’s books she ordered, not a taxidermied partridge. By the fourth gift from her unknown and unwelcome True Love, disappearing to her grandfather’s isolated cabin in the Northwoods is the only way she can escape him.

Deputy Titus Wilburn is happy to escort the lovely librarian to her grandfather’s house on his way to the neighboring Yarwood cabin. After all, he’s been smitten with her since they attended school together, and she needs his protection. However, the plan fails when Ollie’s uninvited suitor discovers her new location.

As the man’s actions become more desperate and his gifts more dangerous, an unexpectedly bedridden Titus decides to free Ollie from this menace, which puts the enemy’s sights directly on him. Ollie refuses to let her injured hero sacrifice himself, but with the days ticking closer to Christmas, she may have no choice but to accept whatever fate her suitor has in store for her if she wants to save Titus’ life.

One cabin in the Northwoods … a decade of Christmas miracles.

More in This Series:

Listen to The Sheriff and the Outlaw audiobook on YouTube

About the Author

Danielle Grandinetti is an award-winning inspirational romance author fueled by tea, books, and the creative beauty of nature. Her stories combine romance, mystery, and suspense against the backdrop of the 1930s to tell the tale of finding home and hope in hard times. With a master’s in communication and culture and a passion for intercultural communication, storytelling has been her heartbeat for as long as she can remember. Married to her hero, Danielle is a second-generation Italian-American, a dairy farmer’s granddaughter, and a boy mom from Chicagoland who now lives along Lake Michigan’s Wisconsin shoreline. Connect with Danielle by visiting daniellegrandinetti.com to follow her on social media and subscribe to email updates.

My Review:

Oftentimes when I think of Christmas books and movies, I imagine Hallmark style cozy romances. The Neighbor and the Gifts is like a Hallmark Christmas show–only with suspense, and thriller elements added, which I absolutely loved.

Our main characters, Olivia Larson and Titus Wilburn, have harbored crushes on each other since they were children, but Olivia’s too shy to face him, and Titus believes his crush is unreciprocated because of it. When Olivia starts receiving a series of strange gifts mirroring the gifts in the Christmas song, The Twelve Days of Christmas from her unknown and unwanted “True Love”, the two are unexpectedly thrown together to figure out who is targeting Olivia–and to face their own feelings for each other.

The book does a good job of introducing each of the characters and setting up the historical time period. We have sheriffs, boarding houses, a small community library, and the secretly reciprocated love on the part of both main characters. Add in the strange package Olivia receives on the library steps, and boom, I was sucked in.

For being a novella, the characters were very well developed. We got a small glimpse into Olivia and Titus’s backstory, as well as that of the other character through the author’s skilled use of inserting little details here and there that came naturally without info-dumping. Even the villain, who didn’t really seem to pop up until the very end, seemed well-developed for the brief part in the story he appeared in. Olivia especially had a well-rounded character arc, starting off timid and becoming braver–yet still remaining introverted and feminine–throughout the story.

The dialog was well done and I didn’t notice an overuse of dialog tags. Olivia used several bookish references which made sense as she is a librarian, so I felt that was a neat addition as well.

Romance is typically the part of a book I critique the harshest and take the most issue with. Usually, books I read have characters meeting and falling in love all in the span of a few months–or even weeks. I always question the plausibility of that, even if it seems to work in the story. But in this novella, I didn’t have that issue. The relationship between the two main characters has already been set up before the book begins–and subsequently, I really enjoyed this one. Despite going quickly in the novella, it was plausible because they’d liked and known each other for years. I also appreciated how Olivia’s grandfather, her guardian, approved of the match and actually pushed Titus to court her.

The suspense in the story was also well done. Day by day, the gifts left at the door of where Olivia was staying worked as a constant reminder of the threat of her unwelcome suitor, and they grew more and more dangerous as time goes on. Add into that the fact that Titus gets injured and is not able to protect Olivia as well as usual, and that nobody knows who this stalker is, and this novella is chock full of suspense.

Of course, packing the suspense and romance all into a single novella means this book was fast paced with nary a dull moment–which is exactly what I like. It captured my attention from the get-go, and personally, I felt it was the perfect size for accomplishing what it did! My only critique would be that sometimes I felt the fight scenes were a bit unclear and could have stood to have a few more details as to what was going on, as I had to go back and reread them both a couple of times. This also could’ve been me reading so quickly to find out what happens next, though, so there is the chance it was just me.

In all, The Neighbor and the Gifts is a fast-paced Historical Romantic Suspense set during Christmas with great characters, a clean and sweet romance, and awesome suspense which will keep you turning the pages well into the night. I would recommend this to young adults and older who enjoy romantic suspense, Christmas Hallmark movies, and those who enjoy fast paced, action packed historical fiction.

Rating: 4.75/5 Stars

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author and a positive review was not required. All views expressed are my honest opinions.

Tour Giveaway

(1) winner will receive a paperback copy of both The Baby and the Guardian & The Neighbor and the Gifts plus 1 set of series-inspired earrings!

Full tour schedule linked below. The giveaway begins at midnight July 15, 2025 and will last through 11:59 PM EST on July 22, 2025. Winner will be notified within 2 weeks of close of the giveaway and given 48 hours to respond or risk forfeiture of prize. US only. Void where prohibited by law or logistics.

Giveaway is subject to JustRead Publicity Tours Giveaway Policies.

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