The holidays can be very lonely, especially when you live in New York and your family lives in New Mexico. This is exactly what Rose Moreno thinks as she gets ready to leave work on Christmas Eve. She finds herself sneaking another glance at the glossy image of the summer office baseball game where her secret crush had his arm around her shoulders. This picture represented the best day of her life since moving to New York last April.

When Brian Garner, the man in the photo, calls Rose asking for some financial figures, she’s more than ready to help out. When he offers to share a cab with her on their way home, she’s thrilled with the offer. When the icy roads strand the two of them at Brian’s apartment, she’s hopeful that this could be a pretty good Christmas after all.

But when he asks her to accompany him to his parents’ annual Christmas Eve party, she’s not so sure. Her head wants her to say yes, but she’s still feeling the pain from another doomed holiday where she was snubbed because of her plain, middle class upbringing. And after overhearing a phone conversation between Brian and his mother, she’s certain his family will feel the same way as her previous boyfriend’s parents. But fate has other ideas about how the evening will turn out. Will Rose accept this gifted opportunity or let the past keep her from finding happiness with the man of her dreams?

Feliz Nueva York is a wonderful holiday story about the loneliness of single life. Helen Pilz does a wonderful job of setting a big city scene and draws the reader into the solitude Rose Moreno feels in this foreign world. Although I would have loved a bit more dialogue between the two characters, I was rooting for their relationship the whole way. I was given a peek into a world completely different from my own and I loved it. Ms. Pilz will be a definite add to my future reading list.

Reviewed by: Tami B.