Review - - Home With You

Home with You

By Shirlee McCoy

Publisher: Kensington/Zebra

Release Date: February 27, 2018

Reviewed by Janga

 

When Sullivan Bradshaw’s brother Matthias is killed in an automobile accident that leaves Matt’s wife Sunday in a coma, he and his brothers, Flynn and Porter, agree to work together to care for Matt and Sunday’s six adopted children: Heavenly, 12; Twila, 10; Maddox and Milo, 7; Moisey, 6; and baby Oya. They decide it is best for the children if they remain in their home on their parents’ Pleasant Valley Organic Farm near Benevolence, Washington. Sullivan, an art history professor on sabbatical, is elected to be the on-site caregiver, with Flynn, a Texas cattle rancher, and Porter, a private security agent in Los Angeles, flying in on weekends to help. But Sullivan soon finds that housework, gardening, preparing meals, baking birthday cakes, and other sundry tasks associated with caring for six children means they are all living in chaos, and he has no time to work on the project for which he was granted the sabbatical.

Rumer Truehart took a leave of absence from her teaching job in Seattle and returned to Sunshine Acres, the farm where her grandmother trains horses for therapeutic riding, when her grandmother had a heart attack. Lu, as Rumer calls her grandmother, needs someone to see that she doesn’t overdo after her triple by-pass surgery, and Rumer is determined to pay her grandmother’s medical bills before she returns to Seattle. Facing hefty bills even after exhausting her savings, Rumer answers an ad in the local paper for a housekeeper/gardener/cook with experience with children. But once she meets the six needy Bradshaw children and their hunky uncle, she can’t get away fast enough. She is afraid of the emotional involvement that the job will exact. However, when the Bradshaws face another crisis, Rumer offers her help. Soon, with a bit of a push from Byron Lamont, the patriarch of Benevolence’s chocolatiers, and the tempting salary Sullivan offers, Rumer become the Jill of all domestic tasks for Sullivan and his charges.

Rumer’s own childhood as the child of an addict who was in and out of foster care and her degrees in child development make her the ideal person to care for the young Bradshaws. She identifies particularly with the tough-talking, tender-hearted Heavenly. Soon each of the kids has claimed a piece of Rumer’s heart, and Sullivan proves irresistible as well. But Sullivan bears scars from an abusive childhood as well. Can two wounded people trust one another enough to risk their hearts?

McCoy introduces a new series, a spinoff of her popular Sweet home series, with Home with You. Sullivan and Rumer are both interesting, sympathetic characters who deserve happiness, and most readers will find it easy to root for their HEA. The real test of how much a reader enjoys this book may rest more on how she feels about kids in contemporary romance than it does on the central love story. The six Bradshaw children are a central part of this book, both in terms of the plot and in terms of emotional power. Given the pasts of Sullivan and Rumer, the sad stories of the six children before they became Bradshaws, and the death of one parent and the incapacity of the other, the pathos may seem overdone to some readers.

Nevertheless, fans of the Sweet Home series will enjoy a return visit to Benevolence and the cameos by some of the characters from that series. The sense of community is strong as members come through to help meet the needs of a hurting family.  This is a sweet romance with a touch of the inspirational. As such, it will not appeal to everyone, but if you like your romance heavy on heartwarming qualities, you will likely enjoy Home with You. Security expert and former Navy SEAL returns to take his turn parenting his nieces and nephews in Home Again, an October 30, 2018 release. I plan to make a return trip to Benevolence then.

Review - - Bittersweet

Bittersweet

By Shirlee McCoy

Publisher: Kensington/Zebra

Release Date: July 25, 2017

         

Willow Lamont left her hometown, Benevolence, Washington, nearly fifteen years ago. Yielding to her grandfather’s manipulation, she has reluctantly returned to help in the family chocolate shop while he convalesces. She insists that her visit will be limited to two weeks, at which time she plans to return to Seattle and her job as a prosecuting attorney. Willow is the sister who had the deepest love for Chocolate Haven as a child, and it was she that family members expected to take over the business. But she experienced trauma so severe that just being back in the shop where it occurred is enough to trigger PTSD episodes. Because her attacker threatened her younger sisters, Willow told no one what had happened to her, and because her father died about the same time, family members attributed changes in Willow’s behavior to her loss. They remain unaware of how her return to the shop is affecting Willow.

Jax Gordon, a veteran of ten years on the Los Angeles drug force, returned to Benevolence four years ago when the aunt and uncle who cared for him after his parents’ deaths needed his help. Jax too was traumatized as a child. His parents and siblings were murdered by connections of his law-enforcement father’s corrupt partner. Jax was wounded trying to save his baby sister. The scars he bears on his body testify to his experience; the scars on his soul are deeper and rawer. He has grown accustomed to the slower pace of Benevolence during his years as a deputy with the county sheriff’s office, but his obsession with justice and his need to see the guilty held accountable still burn within him.

When a knock on her apartment door in the wee hours on her sixth morning back in Benevolence terrifies Willow, she calls 911. Jax responds to her call. They investigate a noise they think is an abandoned animal and find a newborn baby left in a fruit crate behind a trash bin. Paramedics, noting the blueness of the infant’s skin, suspect a heart condition, a suspicion that doctors soon confirm. Both Willow and Jax bond with the baby whom the nurses name Miracle, and that bond plus their involvement with the investigation into who abandoned the baby throws them into each other’s company. The time they spend together intensifies the attraction that sparked that first night. Jax recognizes a fellow survivor in Willow. His steadiness comforts her in her most vulnerable moments, and her vulnerability strengthens Jax’s desire to be there for her when she needs someone. But Willow, having just ended an eight-year relationship because she wants the kind of love her sisters have found, is looking for the promise of forever, and Jax is too afraid of more loss to risk that kind of commitment.

In the conclusion to her Home Sweet Home trilogy, McCoy has given readers an emotional story that balances the darkness of real-life evil and its destructive powers with persistent hope and the healing promise of love. The cost exacted by such evil is not minimized. Jax was eleven and Willow was thirteen when they underwent their separate, life-altering traumas. These events shaped the adults they became and still affect them. It doesn’t take a psychologist to understand that their experiences are directly related to their career choices. Their reactions to Miracle and to the teenage mother who abandoned her are also colored by their experiences. Jax says to Willow, “When you go through hell, sometimes the demons follow you out. That’s just the way it is. Every survivor knows it.” Love has the power to strengthen one to fight the demons and to fill the future with hope, but it does not eradicate the past. That McCoy makes this clear is one of the strengths of this novel.

Willow and Jax’s story is told within the contexts of familial ties. Willow’s love for her meddling grandfather and her bond with her sisters are vital, as is Jax’s affection for his uncle and his matchmaking aunt. Willow’s somewhat fraught relationship with her mother improves during the course of the story. The abandoned baby thread is interesting, but I thought the loose ends at the novel’s conclusion made it seem too much mere plot device. In fact, the ending generally felt less than satisfactory to me. It was that which dropped my ranking to four stars. McCoy’s next series features the Bradshaw brothers, who also return to Benevolence. Perhaps some of the loose ends will be tied up yet.

Although Bittersweet is the third book in the series, it works well as a standalone. Discerning readers will certainly be aware that the stories of Willow’s sisters have been told, but that awareness is not enough to detract from this story. If you require steam in your romance reading, this novel is not for you. It is strictly kisses only. But if you appreciate sweet romance in a small-town setting with rich family dynamics and emotional power in the central love story, I recommend this book.   

Review - - The Most Wonderful Time

The Most Wonderful Time

By Fern Michaels, Stacy Finz, Sarah Title, Shirlee McCoy

Publisher: Kensington Zebra

Release Date: October 25, 2016

The forecast for October is a flurry of Christmas romances, many of them anthologies. This book is one of the latter group with a quartet of stories from popular Kensington authors. Overall, my reaction was mixed: one story was a big fail for me, one was disappointing, one was an enjoyable read that left me looking forward to other visits to a new California town, and one was a satisfying addition to a series I like a great deal.

“Christmas Passed” by Fern Michaels is the story of Brandy Heyers who is still mired in grief three years after the death of her husband. Her grief is so paralyzing that she is oblivious to the needs of her two teenage children, and she sees no reason to celebrate the holidays without her husband. The reality of diminishing resources and a live-wire best friend who refuses to give up on her force Brandy back into the land of the living. She gradually becomes aware of what she is doing to her children and even, with the help of a widower with a big heart and a charming young daughter, begins to believe that she has a second chance at love. I really disliked this heroine, and even a sympathetic hero and likeable secondary characters were not enough to make up for that irritant. I also thought the quick wrap-up to the idyllic, everybody’s-happy conclusion was beyond belief.

“A Glory Junction Christmas” by Stacy Finz is an interesting twist on a friends-to-lovers story. Hannah Baldwin has had a rough year. Her husband of nine years asked for a divorce when she picked him up after his ninety-day stint in rehab, and now she is the only person in Glory Junction not attending his wedding to his new love. She also lost her beloved aunt to ovarian cancer. Still, Hannah is working hard to make her first Christmas in charge of Glorious Gifts, the shop she inherited, a spectacular one. Josh Garner, her ex’s best friend, is back in town, but Hannah, who is convinced Josh never liked her, questions whether she should be part of his homecoming celebration.

Josh is uncomfortable with the hero’s welcome his hometown insists on giving him after his return from Afghanistan. He just wants to focus on his physical rehabilitation. A war wound left him with a leg held together with plates and rods, and Josh is not sure what that means for his future with Garner Adventure, the extreme sports and adventure business his family owns and operates. In any other circumstances, Josh would be elated that Hannah is free. She has had a claim on his heart for years, but his best friend Chip charmed her and married her. Josh tried to forget her, with little success. If only his future didn’t look so uncertain, maybe he’d have a chance with Hannah.

If these two can let go of misperceptions and fears, they just may find an HEA in the new year.

This novella introduces Finz’s Glory Junction series, a spinoff of her Nugget series. Hannah and Josh are engaging, substantive characters who deserve an HEA. And, despite the limitations of the novella’s length, Finz gives her readers a clear sense of the town and provides glimpses of some very interesting secondary characters, especially Josh’s brothers. I will definitely be on the lookout for more of Glory Junction and its citizens.

“Moonshine and Mistletoe” by Sarah Title is another of this author’s librarian tales. Only her dissertation separates Emma Fallader from a PhD in library science, and she hopes she will find some time for work during her stay in Coral Bottom, West Virginia, where she is spending a few days before Christmas to attend the country wedding of her friend and fellow librarian Kevin to his long-time partner, architect Daniel. Emma doesn’t expect the wedding to be a life-changing event for her, but a certain fiddler and a tiny, charming library have Emma rethinking what she wants to do with her life.

Abe Tate, a musician with genuine talent and a love of the traditional music of his region, is happy to be back in Coral Bottom. He would never miss the wedding of his cousin Daniel who is as close as a brother, but he has also missed home. The reality of Nashville has fallen short of even his modest dream of earning a living with his music. This time at home has him reconsidering old choices and thinking about new ones involving the pretty librarian who has captured his heart.

I like Sarah Title’s voice, and I find her humor and her quirky characters enormously appealing. However, this story felt incomplete. Both Emma and Abe are experiencing career conflicts, but the novella length prohibits any real exploration of these issues. Emma and Abe meet and fall in love quickly, and there is no conflict to their love story other than the distance that will separate them once they leave Coral Bottom. The perfect ending came too soon, and it felt unearned. I finished the novella wishing for the more that a novel would have offered.

 “An Apple Valley Christmas” by Shirlee McCoy features Emma Baily, a secondary character in McCoy’s Apple Valley trilogy, and Jack McAllister, a man from Emma’s past. Emma has just buried her father after four years of caring for him while Alzheimer’s slowly destroyed him. Emma is the only one of the ten Baily siblings who is present for their father’s funeral. None of them shed a tear for the mean-spirited, selfish man who had blighted their lives. Emma returned to care for him only because of a promise made long ago to her mother. Now Emma, who is the only heir to her father’s considerable estate, wants to sell the house that has been in her family for generations and leave behind Apple Valley and her unhappy memories.

Jack McAllister walked away from Emma six years ago because she could not trust in their forever, but he is in Apple Valley now. He is there because his friend and Emma’s brother Adam asked him to be there for Emma, but he is also there because he has never forgotten Emma. This time he has vowed to be more patient. This Time he won’t give up; he will take the time to show Emma that Christmas is for celebrating and love and life are for sharing.

This was a lovely Christmas story. I read and enjoyed McCoy’s Apple Valley books, and I thought, particularly after reading The Cottage on the Corner, that Emma deserved her own HEA. Emma’s caution was credible given all that she had been through, and Jack is a wonderful beta hero. He woos Emma with understanding and tenderness and wins the reader’s heart as surely as he wins Emma’s. The touch of Christmas magic and the warmth of the Apple Valley community even in the depths of winter made the story even more special. I thought this one was an unqualified winner.

~Janga