Take Me Home for Christmas
By Brenda Novak
Publisher: Harlequin MIRA
Release Date:
October 29, 2013
Sophia DeBussi was the meanest girl in Eureka High School
fourteen years ago, the one who stole boyfriends, manipulated swains, and
looked down on those less powerful and popular. Most of Whiskey Creek held her
responsible for the death of a popular athlete in a drunk driving accident, and
everyone knew she had broken the heart of Ted Dixon. None of it seemed to touch
Sophia. Beautiful, wealthy, and living a life of conspicuous consumption, she
seemed to have everything. No one saw the darkness—the physical and emotional
abuse from her controlling husband and the drinking that was out of control
until she spent thirty days in rehab. No one knew that she felt a secret relief
when Skip disappeared while the two of them along with their thirteen-year-old
daughter, Alexa, were cruising on Skip’s luxury yacht. But her relief turns to
fear when Skip’s body washes up on the Brazilian shore with a hundred thousand
dollars in cash strapped to his back, and home in Whiskey Creek the FBI wants
him for mail fraud, securities fraud, and other charges. It seems Skip cheated
investors, including a significant number of the citizens of Whiskey Creek, out
of sixty million dollars. And the feds suspect Sophia may have been involved.
Ted Dixon is a successful novelist who has chosen to settle
in Whiskey Creek, the town where he grew up. One of the perks of remaining in
his hometown is the opportunity to still enjoy the friendships that have been an
important part of his life since grade school. But as much as his friends mean
to him and as much as he usually looks forward to their Friday morning coffee
at Black Gold, he is not eager to hear all the speculation about the DeBussi
scandal, and he is even less eager to have his friends studying him to see how
he is reacting to the downfall of the woman who dumped him.
In material terms, Sophia has lost everything. What has not
been confiscated by the FBI is heavily mortgaged and in arrears. Sophia doesn’t
even have the money to bury her husband. With the life she knew destroyed and
with no skills or training to help her survive, she is drowning in depression.
Her daughter is the only thing that makes life worth living. Her in-laws have
never thought she was good enough for their golden son, and now they view her as
an enemy, holding her responsible for Skip’s crimes and threatening to sue for
custody of her daughter. Many of the citizens of Whiskey Creek demonize her as
the visible scapegoat to punish for their losses. Even those who feel pity for
her wonder if she somehow deserves her fate. But to Sophia’s surprise, two
former classmates stand by her. Gail DeMarco-O’Neal offers a substantial token
of her friendship, and Eve Harmon pushes Sophia to fight back and suggests a
job that might work for Sophia.
Once Ted realizes how desperate Sophia’s situation is, he
can’t help feeling sorry for her. But he surprises even himself when, after his
initial horrified reaction when Eve suggested he do so, he offers Sophia a job
as his housekeeper/assistant. Neither he nor Sophia has ever forgotten all they
once shared, and now that they are forced into one another’s company, they are
both about to discover that the surface never reveals the full story.
Take Me Home for
Christmas is the fifth novel in Brenda Novak’s Whiskey Creek series, and it
is another story filled with fascinating, imperfect characters who find the
strength to deal with all the problems life throws at them, grow through their
difficulties, and emerge as winners. Small-town books are typically seen as
comfort reads filled with warmth and coziness, but Novak shows readers that
small towns can harbor the narrowness, the hypocrisies, and the outright
meanness that human nature everywhere can exhibit. The greatest joy in this
book is watching the redemption of Sophia, a woman who accepts the
responsibility for her mistakes, becomes a stronger, better person than she
ever dreamed she could be, and realizes that she can get by with a little help
from her friends, her child, and an old love grown new.
Readers familiar with the series will enjoy seeing Ted
finally forced to confront his past and deal with the grudge he has nurtured
for fourteen long years. He may be the wronged figure in the old love story,
but he is far from perfect. Most of the other characters from the earlier books
in the series make appearances sufficient in length to please readers who have
grown fond of them and brief enough not to overwhelm readers who are being
introduced to Whiskey Creek for the first time. Novak provides the dramatis
personae at the beginning just in case a reader should feel lost.
My one complaint about the book is that the ending just
seemed too abrupt. For readers like me who love to bask in the glow of the HEA,
there is little opportunity to do so. But that’s not a flaw large enough to
outweigh the clear strengths of this book. If you like your small-town romance
a bit darker and edgier than the norm, I recommend Take Me Home for Christmas. It lacks the sweetness and light of
more conventional Christmas books, but the truths it hones fit right in with
the season.
Novak will return readers to Whiskey Creek in March 2014
when she releases Come Home to Me, a
reunion story featuring former bad-girl Presley Christensen, sister of Cheyenne
Christensen Amos (When Snow Falls),
and the baddest of those wild Amos brothers. Because When Snow Falls is my favorite in the series, I’m especially
looking forward to Whiskey Creek #6.
I consider myself a
true series addict, but even so in every series I love, there is a book or two
that touches me in a special way and becomes a favorite among favorites. Do you
have a special favorite story within your favorite series? Is it the one you
consider objectively the best, or is it a more personal choice?
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