While the weather isn't even close to snowy, holiday romances are filling the shelves with plenty of good cheer to spare. Many include furry, four-legged companions to spice up the entanglements of the two-legged types featured in these novels.

Authors like Annie England Noblin know firsthand the joys (and pitfalls) of having doggy friends, and she shares both in CHRISTMAS AT CORGI COVE, a lovely romance with (forgive the pun) at least one underdog we all will be rooting for. I'm willing to bet, though, that Noblin also has experience with the allegedly nobler four-legged companions, cats, because of her inclusion of one along with the adorable corgi duo of Bonnie and Clyde.

"Readers will turn the last page and give a deep sigh for a story well told and a happily-ever-after as nicely tied as any gift under the Christmas tree."

It's a rather inauspicious visit the first time that the male love interest, Everett St Claire from New York, meets Rosie Reynolds and her Aunt Mary and Uncle Joe. Joe ends up having a heart attack, and Everett delivers CPR. Rosie's distaste for Everett has nothing to do with his handsome looks but everything to do with the fact that he's trying to get her aunt and uncle to sell their B&B to his company so he can turn it into a fancy resort.

Rosie has a bunch of baggage from her impossible teenage years when her mother left her with Aunt Mary. She and her mother haven't had a warm relationship since, and the two sisters barely talk. Mary and Joe seem to have provided Rosie with all the warm, loving family she's needed, and she resides in a cottage on the grounds of the B&B. While Bonnie and Clyde live with the "grownups" at the big house, Rosie's companion is her cat, Toulouse, whom she rescued after his owner moved away and abandoned him.

Noblin perfectly captures the personalities of the corgis and the cat. The scene with the purloined turkey on Thanksgiving is priceless. And while the animal antics provide much comic relief, there are also some heartrending decisions to be made. Even though Mary and Joe are of retirement age, and financial indications are such that they should sell and move on, what do they want? Being a part of something you love, even though it's work, is important, and Noblin handles that part of the story capably and with empathy.

Rosie has to discover what it is that will put all the pieces together: her various family members, including her mother, the community at Turtle Lake, and even Everett. And as we find out, it does, indeed, take a community to save a very special B&B. A community and perhaps a very special Yankee from New York.

While there's no snow to be found in most of Texas during the Christmas season, there’s no shortage of holiday spirit. CHRISTMAS AT CORGI COVE provides plenty of Southern charm and cooking, old-fashioned goodness and meet-cutes (or meet at the heart attack). Readers will turn the last page and give a deep sigh for a story well told and a happily-ever-after as nicely tied as any gift under the Christmas tree.