Robin Bayliss

Trope: Grumpy/Sunshine

  • Deck the Halls with Daddy Issues

    Deck the Halls with Daddy Issues

    A grumpy single dad, a sunshine music teacher and a seven-year-old with a plan.

    Since losing his wife, Jack Ellison’s world has narrowed to two things: his work and his daughter, Maisie. He has no time for Christmas lights, community festivities or the ridiculously cheerful music teacher who seems to leave glitter wherever she goes.

    Noelle Santos believes there’s very little a ukulele and a dose of Christmas spirit can’t improve. Maisie’s father may be the exception. Jack is grumpy, guarded and determined to manage perfectly well on his own.

    Maisie has reached a different conclusion.

    Her solution is Operation Christmas Joy, a carefully planned campaign involving tinsel, carols, cookies and one strategically placed kiss. With Noelle unwittingly recruited as chief festive accomplice, Jack’s quiet garage soon fills with tangled lights, unsolicited music and suspicious opportunities for the three of them to spend time together.

    Noelle sees the devoted father beneath Jack’s defenses. Jack discovers that her cheerfulness comes with patience, kindness and a knack for making Maisie’s whole face light up. The more Noelle becomes part of their Christmas, the harder it is to imagine their home without her.

    Jack has already lost one great love, and opening his heart again feels like tempting fate. Noelle knows that caring for Jack and Maisie could leave her wanting a family that may never truly be hers.

    Maisie, meanwhile, has added “have a family Christmas” to the plan and sees no reason to amend the schedule.

    Deck the Halls with Daddy Issues is a sweet, closed-door Christmas romance filled with grumpy/sunshine chemistry, single-dad tenderness, child-assisted matchmaking, tangled fairy lights and a warm family happily-ever-after.

    Deck the Halls with Daddy Issues by Robin Bayliss, showing Jack tangled in Christmas lights while Noelle plays the ukulele and Maisie supervises Operation Christmas Joy.
  • Reindeer Games

    Reindeer Games

    Natalie King believes in schedules, festive knitwear and plans so detailed they have backup plans. She does not believe in sharing the trivia microphone with a man who thinks reindeer costumes are a cry for help.

    As Snowball Falls’s most determined librarian and the driving force behind the Twelve Nights of Cheer, Natalie is used to running the show. This year, she’s been paired with Theo Morgan, the broody new fire captain and older brother of her best friend, Holly.

    Theo is as warm as a snow shovel, as expressive as a brick wall and completely unmoved by Natalie’s color-coded cue cards. Community spirit isn’t on his Christmas list. Neither is the woman currently reorganizing it.

    Then a blizzard traps them at the Ginger Bell Inn with one bed, dwindling cocoa and an orange cat with no respect for personal space.

    Between snowman contests, cookie catastrophes and evenings spent far too close beneath the holiday lights, Natalie begins to glimpse the steady heart beneath Theo’s gruff exterior. Theo starts to wonder whether the woman who organizes the entire town might be the one person he doesn’t want to keep at a safe distance.

    Unfortunately, falling for her best friend’s brother wasn’t in Natalie’s plan. Theo has spent years making sure nobody gets close enough to matter. Snowball Falls, the blizzard and one determined cat appear to have other ideas.

    Reindeer Games is a sweet, closed-door Christmas romantic comedy filled with grumpy/sunshine banter, forced proximity, flannel-wrapped feelings, festive disasters and surprising tenderness.

    Reindeer Games by Robin Bayliss, showing Natalie with her Christmas plans beside firefighter Theo and a disgruntled orange cat outside the snowy Ginger Bell Inn.
  • Mistletoe and Mayhem

    Mistletoe and Mayhem

    Her perfect plan? A fake fiancé who felt too real.

    Eliza Carter had a plan for everything, including her future. As Snowball Falls’s resident event planner, she had the Twelve Nights of Cheer running on a tight schedule. The twinkle lights were hung. The cocoa bar toppings were alphabetized. And the investor she needed to take her career global was on the way.

    Enter Charlie Rivera, local brewery owner, flannel-wrapped trouble, and the man who would, given the chance, rearrange her bookshelf by color instead of author. When a chance encounter and a panicked lie make Eliza blurt out that they are engaged, Charlie plays along like it’s the best joke he’s heard all year.

    Now they are the town’s favorite holiday couple, and they have to keep up the act until after Christmas. But as staged kisses start sparking for real and late-night festival fixes turn into something softer, Eliza is beginning to wonder if her best plan was the one she never made.

    Clipboards meet craft beer in this feel-good Christmas romantic comedy with fake-engagement trouble, cocoa-fueled banter, meddling small-town neighbors, and a clean, swoony happily-ever-after.

    Perfect for fans of sweet, cozy romance, small towns, opposites who spark, and fake relationships that turn real under the mistletoe.

    Mistletoe and Mayhem by Robin Bayliss, with a warmly lit brick brewery in snowy Snowball Falls at Christmas.
  • Snowed In With the Grump

    Snowed In With the Grump

    When Holly Morgan gets stranded in a blizzard, she has exactly three options: freeze, walk three miles in sparkly mittens, or knock on the door of her brother’s best friend, aka the town’s grumpiest carpenter who ever lived.

    Caleb Dawson has a cabin full of firewood, a very judgmental cat, and absolutely no interest in holiday cheer. But when a snowstorm traps them together with a hundred cookies to bake for the town fundraiser, sparks fly, and not just from the fireplace.

    It’s sunshine vs. sawdust in this feel-good Christmas romcom, where a snowstorm romance turns into something warmer than either of them expected. A grumpy-sunshine holiday romance with cookies, second chances, secret softies, and the magic of staying, all wrapped up in a sweet romantic comedy.

    Promotional graphic for Snowed in With the Grump by Robin Bayliss. A snowy nighttime scene shows a cozy log cabin with lit windows, smoke curling from the chimney, pine trees, a starry sky, and red mittens hanging on a wooden fence. Large white title text reads “Snowed in With the Grump.” Smaller text says, “Stranded in a snowstorm. Trapped with the town’s grumpiest man. What could go wrong?” and “One blizzard. Two opposites. No escape.”