P.J. Bishop

Corrine Webb, former foster child and now five-star chef in Dallas, knows what she wants: her own restaurant and no emotional ties. Life has taught her that getting close to someone means loss and pain. So she jumps at the chance to miss the forced togetherness of Christmas in Virginia’s Allegheny Mountains the last two weeks of December.
Caught in a snowstorm, Corrie seeks shelter in the derelict Chesterfield Hotel where she is drawn to an old hope chest and its contents. Picking up the tin star with one broken point, she finds herself tossed back in time to 1886 where she’s expected to wait tables.

An antique hope chest containing five unique objects . . . five people inexorably drawn to the items inside . . . each sent to the past where they must accomplish a task and find their own path to true love with the help of a magical matchmaker determined to bring soul mates together, even across time.