Minty's Kiss — P.C. Zick

When Molly retreats to North Carolina with Gracie, her ten-year-old daughter, she's surprised to find her childhood crush, Nick, still living in the area. Months before her retreat, Molly's husband announces he's leaving to sail around the world with his best friend, she's left wondering why she isn't his best friend. She divorces him and takes Gracie and Harold, her seventeen-year-old cat, to the Smoky Mountains where she spent many happy childhood vacations. The morning after her arrival, Nick shows up on her porch, and he is even more handsome than she remembered. She feels the flush of her adolescent crush heating up. But first, they must find Harold after he runs out the cabin door and into the woods. When Nick discovers Harold lying dead at the base of the tree where Molly always went to read as a child, they bury him. A broken-hearted Gracie and Molly return to the cabin and discover a gray furry kitty under the porch. Gracie names him Minty Gracie refuses to believe her father won't come back for them, so she resents Nick spending time with her mother and tries her best to pull them apart. Can a small kitty named Minty help Gracie accept the love developing between Nick and Molly in time for her first Christmas in the mountains of North Carolina? Minty's Kiss is a sweet romantic novella, filled with holiday cheer brought to life by an adorable kitten.