Wild Iris Ridge

Wild Iris Ridge

By RaeAnne Thayne

Publisher: Harlequin HQN

Release Date: June 24, 2014

Lucy Drake has returned to Hope’s Crossing. It’s certainly not what she planned to do, but when her high-powered career as marketing director of a top software company crashed as spectacularly as it had risen, she had nowhere else to go. Subleasing her condo and packing up all her worldly belongings, Lucy left Seattle for Hope’s Crossing and Iris House, the silver baron mansion and home of her great-aunt that had sheltered a rebellious teenager seventeen years ago when Lucy’s emotionally distant father and stepmother had been delighted to find someone else to accept responsibility for a troubled adolescent. Annabelle opened her home and her heart to Lucy, and Jess became not just Lucy’s cousin but also her best friend. Annabelle and Jess are gone now, and Iris House belongs to Lucy. Maybe she will fulfill Jess’s dream of turning the house into a bed and breakfast, or maybe she will sell it. Either way, the house will give her a bolt-hole while she figures out what to do with the rest of her life, that is, if she doesn’t burn it down first.

Fire Chief Brendan Caine is astonished to see Lucy Drake when his department answers a call to Iris House late one April night. He’s grateful it’s only a chimney fire that his team can contain. Somehow chaos seems to follow in Lucy’s wake plus Brendan always feels stupid and awkward around her. She may have been his late wife’s relative and best friend, but even though Jess has been dead two years, Brendan can’t forget that Lucy thought Jess could have done better than tie herself to a “dumb jock.” Then there are his kids, Faith and Carter, who adore their Aunt Lucy. Brendan has no doubt that Lucy loves them as well, but he also has no doubt her presence will disrupt their peaceful routine. But he takes comfort in the thought that Lucy’s stay will be a short one in Hope’s Crossing will be short.

Lucy is unsurprised to find Brendan less than welcoming. Despite their shared love for Jess, animosity has always simmered between the two of them, with Lucy telling herself Brendan was more muscles than brain and Brendan telling himself that Lucy is a self-important, career-centered city girl who likes to boast of her achievements. Lucy is surprised the next morning when she confides in Brendan about her job loss, and Brendan is surprised at his impulse to comfort Lucy. These are just the beginning of the surprises in store for them.

Their mutual love for Faith and Carter forces them into one another’s company often enough for them to get to know one another better, often enough for a powerful attraction to grow. But Brendan is uncertain if he’s ready to make a commitment, and there’s the question of whether Lucy can settle in Hope’s Crossing. Of course, the citizens of Hope’s Crossing are not shy about expressing their opinion about the twosome. Lucy’s situation is complicated by an extended visit from her half-sister Crystal who is a near-clone of Lucy’s attitude-burdened teenage self. Throw in a couple of puppies who need a loving home, and you have the makings of a new family--or an emotional disaster.    

Wild Iris Ridge is the seventh book in the Hope’s Crossing series. There is nothing groundbreaking in this book, but it offers the likeable characters and warm, realistic setting that have made Thayne a favorite with many readers. Brendan is one of the sons of the appealing, large-hearted Dermot Caine, whose own romance moves forward in this story. Lucy has long been a favorite with Dermot, so predictably he approves of a relationship between her and Brendan.  

I have grown weary of the commitment-phobic hero who runs away from the heroine only to have an epiphany that his life without her is worthless. I found it refreshing that Brendan’s reluctance to commit is rooted in his lingering grief over Jess’s death and in his conviction that Lucy will never settle in his small town, a conviction based on a decade of her largely avoiding said town. I also appreciated that Lucy’s return is not a flight from the evil city to the perfect small town. Hope’s Crossing is not perfect, and Lucy’s return made sense because home is where many people instinctively head when their life falls to pieces. Thayne not only makes me like Brendan and Lucy; she also makes me believe in them.

Nine-year-old Faith and five-year-old Carter are not paper-doll kids. They too behave in believable ways, and each has a distinct personality. Teenage Crystal is an interesting character in her own right, and helping her is part of Lucy’s growth. Readers who have followed the series will likely enjoy the glimpses of other Hope’s Crossing characters, whose appearances seem more organic than contrived.

Although Wild Iris Ridge is not my favorite book in this series, it is another satisfying visit to one of my favorite fictional small towns. It can doubtless be read as a standalone, but I recommend that you read the series.

This novel marks the end (at least temporarily) of a series I have enjoyed without exceptions, and I’m sad to leave Hope’s Crossings. However, I’ve already read Snow Angel Cove, the first book in Thayne’s new series by the same title, and the hero is Aidan Caine, brother to Charlotte (Willowleaf Lane), Dylan (Christmas in Snowflake Canyon), and Brendan. Hurray for connections even amid change!

Thayne, like Robyn Carr with her Grace Valley, Virgin River, and Thunder Point series, links a popular series to a new one. Some call it good world building; others call it smart marketing. What do you think?

Tuesday Review: Island Promises

Island Promises

By RaeAnne Thayne, Marie Ferrarella, and Leanne Banks

Publisher: Harlequin

Release Date: 

January 7, 2014

If you are shivering through these record-breaking January temperatures, as many of us are, this anthology may be just the book to provide a pleasant escape as you join the wedding party and guests in Kauai, Hawaii, for the destination wedding of Nick McNeil and Cara Russell.

“Hawaiian Holiday” by RaeAnne Thayne 

Megan McNeil is accompanying her seven-year-old twin daughters, Sarah and Grace, to Kauai so that the girls can be flower girls in their father’s wedding. Megan and Nick amicably ended their brief marriage five years ago, and they have remained friendly, both dedicated to parenting the twins. Even so, Megan would have skipped the wedding if Grace’s medical needs had not required that Megan travel with her daughter, who has moderate cerebral palsy. She knows the nine-hour flight from Chicago to Hawaii will be exhausting for her and the twins, but she doesn’t expect to share the journey with Shane Russell. Who knew the sexy cop that she flirted with several months ago when a bullet wound sent him to the ER where she works as a nurse would turn out to be the brother of the bride? 

Shane has not forgotten Megan or the sting of rejection when the phone number she gave him turned out to be fake. The initial spark between them is even stronger now, and he appreciates her honesty about why she gave him the fake number. He is also captivated by the charms of the twins. But Megan thinks her responsibility to her daughters doesn’t leave room in her life for a romantic relationship, and Shane, with his parents and their serial spouses, swore long ago never to date women with children because he didn’t want other children hurt as he and Cara were. Are the romantic setting and the bliss of Nick and Cara enough to persuade these two to believe in a love that lasts a lifetime, not just for a holiday?

I loved the warmth and sweetness of this story. It was refreshing to see exes who sincerely wished each other the best and worked together for their children’s best interests. Sarah and Grace came across as real and appealing, and I especially liked seeing a special-needs child whose health issue did not define her as a person. Thayne is an author whose work I find consistently engaging, and I thought this novella was the best in the anthology.

“Hawaiian Reunion” by Marie Ferrarella

Devlin Marshall, Nick’s best man, does not want to spoil his friend and fellow firefighter’s wedding with the news that Devlin’s own marriage is ending, so he strikes a deal with his estranged wife: if she will attend the wedding with him and play the role of the happily-married Mrs. Marshall everyone thinks she is, then Devlin will sign the divorce papers.

Amy Marshall is eager for her divorce to be final before Devlin discovers a secret she is determined to keep from him as long as possible. Cara and Nick’s happiness reminds her of how deeply she and Devlin were in love once, and sharing intimate space with Devlin again reminds her that she finds him as sexy as ever. But she stubbornly refuses to accept Devlin’s assurance that she is the only woman he has ever wanted and that he has always been faithful to her.

Marie Ferrarella has written some terrific stories over the past three decades, but I regret to say this is not one of them. Devlin is a dream hero—handsome, tender, and faithful with a sense of humor. But I actively disliked Amy. I thought her jealousy was irrational and obsessive, and I thought the reunion came too quickly. The jealousy issue was resolved too simplistically to be credible, and I didn’t believe in this HEA. Frankly, I thought Devlin deserved better.

“Hawaiian Retreat” by Leanne Banks

Gabi Foster is the half-sister of the groom. She and Nick have always been close, and she knows she can’t miss his wedding. But she is not enthusiastic about attending. First, it is an awkward time for her to be away from work where she thinks she is on track to finally win a promotion and the approval of the CEO, who also happens to be her father. She also has reservations about Cara and her ability to measure up to Megan. Finally, she is not at all looking forward to meeting her ex, a friend of Nick’s and a fellow fighter, or the ex’s pregnant wife. To make things worse, the friend who agreed to be her date for all the wedding festivities can’t get out of Chicago because of the weather. Things start to look more promising when she meets a surfing instructor who volunteers to be her date.

Finn Beckett left a successful Wall Street career to move to Hawaii when he became the guardian of his orphaned nephew Kai. He though Kai needed the security of a familiar place and his mother’s extended family, and so Finn exchanged his suit and laptop for shorts and a surfboard. Finn knows workaholic Gabi is headed back to Chicago, and he tries to protect his own heart and Kai, who bonds with Gabi right away—to no avail. Finn and Kai both fall fathoms deep for Gabi, who finds they are both occupying her thoughts to the exclusion of things that have been all-important to her. But neither Finn nor Gabi is expecting her to start questioning whether she really wants to leave Paradise after all.

I really liked these characters. Gabi is an endearing mix of confidence and vulnerability, and Finn’s big heart and high degree of self-knowledge coupled with his good looks make him a hero who appeals on many levels. Kai is a heart-stealer. This is also the most sensual of the three stories. My only complaint about this story is that it just moves too quickly. I wanted to see more of how the relationship between Finn and Gabi developed. I wanted this one to be a novel.

Overall, I liked the way the wedding theme connected these three novellas. With one excellent story and one good one, I recommend Island Promise as a quick, easy read with some characters contemporary romance readers will delight to see achieve their HEA.  

Destination weddings have become increasingly popular in romance fiction over the past several years. If you were writing a destination wedding story, where would you send the wedding party and guests?

Saturday Review: Two Heartwarming Holiday Tales from Harlequin

A Cold Creek Christmas Surprise

By RaeAnne Thayne

Publisher: 

Harlequin (Special Edition)

Release Date: 

November 19, 2013

The day after his only sister’s wedding to veterinarian Ben Caldwell, Ridge, the eldest Bowman sibling, is left with the detritus of the wedding and the empty space, literal and figurative, in his life now that Caidy will be living with her new husband and his two children. Ridge knows that he and his eleven-year-old daughter, Destry, will adjust. Perhaps he has depended on Caidy too much all these years since he was left alone with a baby to rear and Caidy stepped in to help. Eating wedding reception leftovers for breakfast certainly makes him realize how much he will miss the pancakes, bacon, and hash browns that Caidy cooked in the mornings. But he has too much work to do to get caught up in reflection. If only the clean-up crew he hired would show up to do their job, he could get started on his job. When the crew of one does arrive, however, the sight of her sparks an attraction that sends Ridge running scared.

First-grade teacher Sarah Whitmore is not happy about her journey to the Bowman ranch, but she has something that belongs to the Bowman family, one of their mother’s paintings, a particularly treasured one It’s not Sarah’s fault that Ridge Bowman jumps to the conclusion that she is employed by the cleaning company Caidy has hired, and he doesn’t really give Sarah an opportunity to explain before he disappears. Still, she didn’t have to start cleaning. If she hadn’t, she would not have tripped on the stairs and ended up with a concussion and a broken arm. Then Ridge would not have insisted that she recuperate at the ranch, and Sarah would never have fallen in love with Ridge, with his daughter, and with ranch life and the whole Bowman family and the Pine Gulch community. Ridge and his world offer everything Sarah has ever wanted, but the secret she is keeping means that she can never really belong in this world. Perhaps she can have Christmas, but only if she hides the truth a little longer.

A Cold Creek Christmas Surprise is book 12 in RaeAnne Thayne’s Cowboys of Cold Creek series that was introduced in April 2006. It also marks the conclusion of the four Bowman siblings’ stories (following Christmas in Cold Creek, A Cold Creek Reunion, and A Cold Creek Noel) and provides the resolution to the mystery of their parents’ murder. Fans of the series will be happy to see Ridge finally get his HEA—even if it does come with complications. For those new to the series, Thayne provides ample details to follow Sarah and Ridge’s story. And these two wounded, great-hearted people deserve happiness. It’s easy to root for them to overcome the one barrier that could keep them apart. This shorter tale lacks the substance of Thayne’s single titles, but it is a sweet, cozy Christmas read nonetheless.

Sugarplum Homecoming

By Linda Goodnight

Publisher: 

Harlequin (Love Inspired)

Release Date: 

November 19, 2013

Paige Turner, almost ten, and her eight-year-old brother Nathan know the legend of their hometown Whisper Falls, Arkansas: prayers whispered behind the falls are always answered. They have a really important request of God, so when their widower dad falls asleep on a family picnic, they take the challenging climb to the special spot and ask God to send them a new mom, one with brown hair like their first mom, and preferably by Christmas.

Lana Ross left Whisper Falls, back when the town was still Millersville and before the legend brought a name change and crowds of tourists. An eighteen-year-old party girl the small town expected to come to a bad end, she had dreams of hitting it big as a country singer and headed for Nashville as soon as she could legally leave home. Thirteen years later, she has returned to the house where she and her twin sister Tess grew up, a house haunted by memories darker than the haunted house tales the local kids tell to frighten themselves. The house her mother left to Lana and Tess is one of the reasons Lana has returned. Owning the house gives her a head start on giving nine-year-old Sydney the stable life she needs and deserves.

But memories are long in small towns. Lana knows that God has forgiven her mistakes, but she also knows human creatures are not so merciful. Some people don’t believe in second chances, and Lana has secrets to protect. Davis Turner proves himself a good neighbor, but Lana’s fears, Davis’s pride, and the relentless prejudices of some Whisper Falls residents threaten the new relationship that is developing between the two. Lana and Davis both must discover that God is bigger than all their fears and flaws before they can claim the happiness waiting for them

This is a tender story, the third in Goodnight’s Whisper Fall series, all of which center on the theme of a new life after an old one filled with bad choices. It is a Love Inspired book, so the Christian faith of the characters is central to their experience and to the story. But the story of a woman who turns her life around and the “Mr. Upright and Righteous” who discovers how far short he falls of his own standards is one that will touch hearts of readers regardless of whether they share that faith. The three kids are endearing without being unbearably cute and precocious, and the town is a believable mix of good people, small-minded people, and people who are a contradictory mix of the admirable and the deplorable.

I think have two more holiday reviews to write for this year. What is your favorite Christmas book of 2013?

The Twelve Days of Christmas in September: Day Four--Christmas in Snowflake Canyon

Christmas in Snowflake Canyon

By RaeAnne Thayne

Publisher: Harlequin HQN

Release Date: 

October 29, 2013

Genevieve Beaumont, Hope’s Crossing’s spoiled princess and former Bridezilla, and Dylan Caine, war hero who left a few missing parts in Afghanistan, have only two things in common. They both ended up at drinking at the Speckled Lizard on the Friday after Thanksgiving and they both really dislike the Christmas carols some patron with lousy taste in music keeps playing on the digital jukebox. When Genevieve decides to make her objections to the music known, she ends up in an altercation with a redhead with a fondness for Christmas carols and a job as assistant district attorney. The altercation turns physical, and when the redhead’s obnoxious male companion gets involved, Dylan can’t sit there and watch him manhandle Genevieve, even if she is a spoiled brat. By evening’s end, they have something else in common: they are handcuffed together in a squad car on their way to the police station.

Genevieve is in Hope’s Crossing only under duress. She’s spent the last two years in Paris spending money and enjoying time with people who know nothing of her family or the humiliation of the perfect wedding that never was. Her parents sent her a ticket to fly home. Genevieve thinks she’s home for the holidays, but once she’s in Hope’s Crossing, she learns that her indulgent daddy has had enough of his extravagant princess spending money as if there is no tomorrow. Genevieve’s tomorrows for the foreseeable future will be spent in Hope’s Crossing. Her father has canceled her credit cards and blocked access to her trust fund. All Genevieve has is the ugly house at the mouth of Snowflake Canyon that she inherited from her grandmother. She has hopes of selling it, but it will take some work first. And work is a new experience for Genevieve. It’s enough to cause a girl to drink.

Dylan Caine lost an eye and an arm in Afghanistan. He almost lost his life. The youngest of Dermot Caine’s six sons, Dylan knows his father, his five older brothers, and his sister Charlotte, the baby of the family, are thankful that he survived and eager to see him integrated back into the close family life of the growing Caine clan and into the Hope’s Crossing community. They are troubled and worried by Dylan’s drinking and the seclusion he clings to in his isolated cabin deep in Snowflake Canyon with only his dog Tucker for companionship. Dylan hates to hurt them, but there’s no way he can make them understand that he just wants to be left alone to face what his life is going to be with a shattered body and a shattered soul.

That one night at the Lizard changed the lives of Genevieve and Dylan. Thanks to a little interference from Dermot and Henry Lange, the only man in Hope’s Crossing richer and more powerful than Genevieve’s father, Mayor William Beaumont, Dylan’s lawyer brother Andrew arranges to have their “crime” wiped off their records if, before New Year’s, they serve one hundred hours of community service at the Warrior’s Hope, the new recreational therapy facility for wounded veterans that is the brain child of former baseball star Smoke Gregory and his beloved, Charlotte Caine (Willowleaf Lane). Dylan thinks their dream of helping traumatized vets with recreation is foolish and has already refused to have anything to do with it. Now he has little choice about spending time at The Warrior’s Hope or with Genevieve, who proves to be more human and far more tempting that Dylan expected. Dylan and the Warrior’s Hope are both new experiences for Genevieve, and they are making her believe she can be different—and better—than she ever dreamed. Reason says two such different people are all wrong for each other, but the heart is no organ of reason. And Christmas is the season for proving love offers greater gifts than the mind can conceive.

Christmas in Snowflake Canyon is the sixth book in RaeAnne Thayne’s Hope’s Crossing series, which has been one of my favorite contemporary series since I read the first book, Blackberry Summer, in the spring of 2011. Each book has offered a rich emotional experience that evoked laughter and tears and earned a spot among my keepers. This one is one of the best, as emotionally wrenching in a different way as Maura McKnight’s healing from her grievous loss and first steps into a new life in Sweet Laurel Falls (2012).

It is all the more remarkable because Genevieve and Dylan are not likeable characters. Dylan, of course, is a hero, and he sacrificed enormously in service of his country. It is impossible not to feel sympathy for him, but it’s also difficult to really like him when he is all wounded animal who snarls and tears at his loving family who are brokenhearted over his losses but whose gratitude that Dylan’s life has been spared is even greater. However, with Dylan, readers familiar with the series recognize from the opening scene that his psychological healing has begun, albeit in infinitesimal increments. The Dylan of earlier books would never have agreed to meet his brother Jamie at the Lizard.

No mitigating factors exist for Genevieve. She was a snob, and still is, though less of a one than readers might have supposed. She did behave horribly to some of Hope’s Crossing’s most noble characters. About the only thing she has going for her at the beginning is that readers of the earlier books can appreciate that she had the good sense to dump her rich, cheating, no-good political heir boyfriend. But Thayne shows her readers the family forces that have molded Genevieve into the pampered, petulant beauty she appears to be; she shows us that there is something worthwhile in Genevieve. She may be ill-equipped for transformation, but from the moment she has an epiphany that allows her to see herself as “small, selfish, and stupid,” she begins a journey that will bring her, the hope’s Crossing community, and readers to the understanding that can be great-hearted, giving, and smart in all the ways that matter most. This may be the best contemporary heroine redemption story since Susan Elizabeth Phillips gave the world Sugar Beth.

Dylan’s journey to health and wholeness is more complicated and more fraught, fittingly so, and he fights it with weapons honed in a hard school. But love works its miracle within him, love in so many facets—not just the love he and Genevieve share and finally confess, although that is central, but also his family’s love for him and his for them, the love he sees in the lives of other wounded veterans who have come to the Warrior’s Hope, and his community’s love for the many who need healing, helping touches. This is a Christmas book, and it has a plenitude of Christmas trappings: decorations, lights, gifts, and music. But it is most deeply Christmas at its heart, and I loved everything about it.

Thayne has said that there will be one more Hope’s Crossing series, the story of another Caine brother, Brendan, in the spring of 2014. I hate to see this series end, but I know I it will be one of those series that I revisit again and again. I highly recommend Christmas in Snowflake Canyon. You can read it as a standalone, although Genevieve’s redemption will not be as meaningful as it will be for readers who have seen her in her rich bitch incarnation.

  

Are there series that you are sad to see end? Or do you belong to the company who thinks series should be limited to trilogies and quartets?

Tuesday Review: Willowleaf Lane

Willowleaf Lane

By RaeAnne Thayne

Publisher: Harlequin HQN

Release Date: June 25, 2013

Charlotte “Charley” Caine has been a minor character in earlier Hope’s Crossing books, most notably in Currant Creek Valley as a woman Sam Delgado dates once before he and Alex McKnight become a couple. Charley has been overweight for much of her life, but within the last eighteen months, she has made significant lifestyle changes that resulted in a substantial weight loss. A thinner, healthier Charley has more self-confidence and finds greater joy in clothes shopping, but her new svelteness has not healed all the damage from the years when she was shy, fat, awkward, and hopelessly in love with a cocky jock whose carelessly cruel words broke her heart.

Spencer Gregory grew up in Hope’s Crossing, working several jobs from the time he was twelve to keep utilities turned on in the small, dilapidated house where he lived with his alcoholic mother. One of those jobs was at Dermot Caine’s Center of Hope café. Dermot was kind to Spence, not only giving him a job but including him in activities with his own sons and helping pay for expenses connected with the sports teams that were the bright spots in Spence’s dismal life. Dermot’s only daughter, Charlotte, was kind to Spencer too. For four years, the younger Charlotte helped him with his English assignments, keeping his grades high enough to maintain his eligibility for football and baseball. Billie Gregory died of liver failure shortly before Spence graduated from high school, signed a multimillion dollar contract with the Portland Pioneers baseball team, and left Hope’s Crossing with no plans of ever returning.

Smoke Gregory, so christened by the media for his smokin’ hot looks and his fastball, enjoyed a decade of wealth, fame, and adulation before everything fell apart. First, a career-ending injury left him addicted to prescription pain medication, necessitating a bout in rehab. He had just returned as the Pioneer’s pitching coach when a scandal broke over charges he was selling steroids and other drugs, charges that almost led to a prison sentence. The day the judge threw out the charges, his supermodel wife drowned in their swimming pool, and Smoke Gregory went from being a hero and media darling to being vilified as a drug dealer who may have been complicit in his wife’s death, an object lesson in all that was wrong with professional sports.

The man who returns to Hope’s Crossing with his twelve-year-old daughter Peyton is far removed from the arrogant kid who left. Humiliated and humbled, he is grateful to Harry Lange for giving him a chance as director of the town’s new recreation center. Although he doesn’t need the money, he does need the feeling that he’s accomplishing something with his life, and he needs a chance to repair his relationship with his daughter, who is still grieving for her mother and holds Spence responsible for her mother’s death. Spence is determined to reclaim a relationship he let deteriorate while his career soared and his marriage to his high-maintenance, needy wife disintegrated.

Spence doesn’t even recognize Charlotte Caine when he first sees her, but he’s attracted to the curvy beauty immediately and uses every excuse to spend time with her. Charley tells herself that she hates Spencer Gregory for his betrayal of the fifteen-year-old girl who thought he was her friend and for the way he let down her father and all those in Hope’s Crossing who viewed their favorite native son as a hero. She wonders why of all the streets in all the world Smoke Gregory had to end up a few doors from her house on Willowleaf Lane.  But she can’t ignore him, the feelings he awakens in her, and even the reluctant sympathy she feels for a man in whose innocence she begins to believe. She also feels sympathy and kinship for Peyton since Charley remembers all too well what it was like to be a young adolescent girl who had lost her mother at a time when she needed her badly. But can Charley learn to trust Spence, and can Spence surrender all his secrets and find a permanent place in Hope’s Crossing?

Raeanne Thayne’s fifth Hope’s Crossing book is packed with sympathetic, complicated characters and an abundance of issues. Charlotte’s weight issues and her transformation are handled with impressive insight. First, her motivation to change her lifestyle stems from the emotions resulting from her brother Dylan’s brush with death from injuries sustained in battle in Afghanistan. Nearly losing her brother opens her eyes to the risks she’s taking with her own life with weight-related high blood pressure and a possibility of diabetes. Then, Thayne shows Charlotte’s self-awareness of the factors that contributed to her weight gain. Although Charlotte owns Sugar Rush, a gourmet candy shop, her downfall is not her famous fudge or hand-dipped chocolates but the comfort food her father serves in his café, food that represents for Charley the safe, warm, loving world of family life before her mother’s death. Also, although she has reached her goal weight, Charlotte is repeatedly described as “curvy,” suggesting that her ideal weight is what is right for her body type, not some model thinness unattainable for most women.

Some readers may grow impatient with Charley’s inability to forgive and forget an incident that took place more than a decade ago when she and Spence were teenagers, but Thayne makes clear that that vulnerable girl is still part of who Charlotte is. Charley can’t allow herself to believe that Spence is truly attracted to her because “the fat girl who still lived inside her skin” wonders if he’s using her again.

Except for learning to trust Spence and overcoming her fear of being hurt again, Charley’s growth occurs before the book opens. Spence is the character who grows the most. Although his earlier experiences have humbled him, it is what happens to him after he connects with Charley and begins to see Hope’s Crossing through her eyes, after he focuses on something larger than himself that he becomes the man he was meant to be. He was never the villain the media made him out to be, but he is a better, more complete human being by the story’s end.

Subplots involving Peyton and Dylan add further complications to a story already layered with Charley’s issues with weight and body image and the tangled, temptation laden world of professional sports that has been Spence’s life. Peyton’s eating disorder, her way of controlling a world that turned to chaos in the wake of her father’s disgrace, her mother’s death, and a move away from everything that was familiar, is resolved in Willowleaf Lane, but Dylan’s depression and adjustment to life with one arm and one eye remain to be addressed in a future book.  

Thayne has given her readers another Hope’s Crossing book that offers a richly emotional tale of people facing real problems in a real place. Life in Hope’s Crossing is no idyll. Bad things happen to good people, and while the town is filled with decent people who are caring and compassionate and eager to help, it also has its share of people willing to think the worst and quick to move to hurtful judgments. Both elements make it a town I believe in and look forward to visiting again. If you’ve read earlier Hope’s Crossing books, you should not miss an opportunity to see old friends and read a strong, moving story. If you haven’t read any of the Hope’s Crossing books, Willowleaf Lane can be read as a standalone. As for me, my Hope’s Crossing keepers now number five, and I’m expecting to add a sixth in late October when Dylan’s story, Christmas in Snowflake Canyon, is released.

Beginning with the success of Robyn Carr’s Virgin River series, almost every small-town series seems to have one or more characters who is a veteran dealing with the physical and psychological wounds of war. Do you see this trend as patriotic, or do you think it has reached the point of overkill?

Short Takes: A Handful of Harlequin Holiday Reviews

 

Rescuing Christmas 
By Vicki Lewis Thompson, Catherine Mann, and Kathie DeNosky
Publisher: Harlequin
Release Date: October 30, 2012

This anthology includes three Christmas stories—“Holiday Haven” by Thompson, “Home for Christmas” by Mann, and “A Puppy for Will by DeNosky—linked by their connection to the Haven, a no-kill animal shelter and featuring one or more of the animals from the shelter. 

Thompson’s “Holiday Haven” introduces readers to the shelter and to Tansy Dexter, its director. Tansy loves her job and she’s passionate about finding the right home for the animals. She meets she’s cameraman Ben Rhodes when she’s on a local TV show to plug her holiday adopt-a-pet campaign. She thinks she’s found a kindred spirit when Ben volunteers to take pictures of the animals for the Haven’s web site, especially when a grumpy cat who is not a people person bonds with him. But Ben, whose childhood was a troubled one, has had his heart broken by the loss of a beloved pet long ago and has refused to have a pet since. Despite the chemistry between them, Tansy can’t imagine a relationship with someone who’s afraid to even love a pet. Can Ben find the courage to take a risk?

Mann’s “Home for Christmas” is a marriage-in-trouble tale that combines a returning soldier and a trio of adorable dogs. Shelby Dawson-Conrad knows that her marriage is over even if the legal formalities have yet to be completed. Infertility, miscarriages, and a husband who volunteered for combat duty rather than deal with the problems in his marriage have ended her dreams of happily ever after, but she’s still determined her husband Alex will not return home for Christmas with no one to greet him. Shelby, a volunteer at the Haven, has committed to transporting three dogs from the shelter to their new families in time for Christmas. She and Alex are both surprised when he agrees to go with her, dropping the animals with their new owners and joining Shelby’s father and step-mother for Christmas. Despite the presence of a cameraman, Alex and Shelby begin to communicate in a way they never have before. But is it in time to save their marriage?

DeNosky’s “A Puppy for Will” is a romantic comedy with some laugh-out-loud moments. Will Parker’s grandmother has convince the game designer to foster Harley, a five-month-old Saint Bernard and Bernese Mountain mixed breed puppy from the Haven, for the Christmas holidays. Harley is responsible for Will’s meeting Macie Fairbanks, a writer who has sworn off men since her former fiancé dumped her during the holidays a year ago. But Will is hot enough to melt Macie’s firm intentions, and Macie and Harley are claiming spaces in the heart that Will had marked “No Entrance.”

This anthology was one of my favorite Christmas reads. The animals are an addition guaranteed to win the hearts of pet lovers. The three couples are all appealing characters, and the authors create stories that have common ground but are distinctive in style and tone. I enjoyed all three stories and am especially pleased to have discovered DeNosky, a new-to-me writer whose backlist I will definitely check out.

A Snowglobe Christmas

By Linda Goodnight and Lissa Manley
Publisher: Harlequin (Love Inspired)
Release Date: November 1, 2012

This is a duet of Christmas stories set in a town called Snowglobe, Montana. In “Yuletide Homecoming” by Rita-winner Linda Goodnight, Amy Caldwell, with marketing degree and experience in Spokane in hand, has returned home prepared to gradually take over her mother’s gift shop. However, she had not counted on Rafe Westfield, her former fiancé, having returned to Snowglobe as well. Rafe broke Amy’s heart when he chose a career in the Marines over marriage to her. There’s no avoiding him. Friends, family, and church make sure the two are constantly being thrown together, and their insistence that the only thing linking them is their past fools no one.  But Amy’s fear of abandonment runs deep, with its roots in her father’s leaving when she was a child. Will her faith in God and her love for Rafe be enough to allow her to trust in their future together?

“A Family’s Christmas Wish” by Lissa Manley features single parents Sara Kincaid, owner of the Snowglobe Bed and Breakfast, and Owen Larsen, contractor. Both Sara, whose husband left her when she was eight months pregnant, and Owen, who was widowed a year ago, have three-year-old daughters. A friendship develops when they agree to exchange Owen’s completing some much needed repairs on the inn for Sara’s home cooking and babysitting services. As they spend time together, the children bond and Sara and Owen begin to fall in love. But can these two wounded people find a happy ending when Sara can’t leave Snowglobe and Owen is convinced God is leading him to another town?

The stories are linked by setting and theme, and they are both sweet stories in which the religious faith of the characters is central.  Character development is slight, and conflict is resolved quickly and simplistically. I didn’t dislike these stories, but I wanted them to have more substance. I’ve read other stories by Goodnight that I thought had more heft to them. These are like Christmas ornaments that look pretty but are too fragile to survive close examination.

A Cold Creek Noel 
By RaeAnne Thayne
Publisher: Harlequin (Special Edition)
Release Date: November 13, 2012

Caidy Bowman is the youngest of the four Bowman siblings whose parents were murdered in a home invasion a few days before Christmas eleven years ago. The murders changed Caidy’s life forever. She gave up her dream of becoming a veterinarian and settled for staying close to home on the family ranch, she stopped singing, and she lost the joy in Christmas.

Ben Caldwell, a widower, is the new vet in Pine Gulch, Idaho, having moved there from California in search of a more peaceful life for himself and his two young children. He hopes Idaho is far enough from his former in-laws to limit their influence over his children, especially his nine-year-old daughter who has adopted some of her grandmother’s less pleasant attitudes.

Caidy meets Ben when a bull gores one of the ranch dogs. After some initial misunderstanding, the two gain a respect for one another. By their second meeting, it’s clear that the chemistry between them is potentially explosive. But Ben still has issues concerning the diabetes-related death of his wife, and Caidy blames herself for her parents’ deaths. Both of them have to resolve their pasts before they are ready for a new life.  

This is the eleventh book in Thayne’s Cowboys of Cold Creek, a series that has yielded three earlier Christmas books with a fifth one, the story of the fourth Bowman sibling, scheduled for 2013. Although I prefer Thayne’s non-category books because I like a longer, more developed story, she has a gift for creating characters that I care about. I’ve read most of the Cold Creek books and found them engaging. This one is no exception. It’s a heartwarming story of two wounded people, two believable kids, a generous serving of extended family, and lots of dogs. Add the touches of Christmas, and it’s a satisfying holiday read.

The Spirit of Christmas  

By Liz Talley  
Publisher: Harlequin (Superromance)  
Release Date: November 27, 2012
 
Mary Paige Gentry may be late for a family Christmas party, but even so she can’t ignore the homeless tramp she discovers outside a convenience store. She intends to give him only a cup of coffee, but when she realizes he’s barefooted, she gives him the novelty Christmas socks she’s just purchased as a white-elephant gift for the party. Her giving spirit changes Mary Paige’s life because the tramp is actually Malcolm Henry, Jr., a post-transformation Scrooge who rewards her act of genuine selflessness with a check for two million and a request that she become the public face of Henry Department Stores’ Spirit of Christmas Campaign to make New Orleans aware of the true spirit of Christmas.
 
Brennan Henry is a younger, still unrepentant Scrooge. He loves his grandfather, but he hears that all the changes that have occurred in the old man since a heart attack six months ago, especially his determination to give away money, are signs that he’s had a stroke or is suffering from senility. He reluctantly goes along with his grandfather’s spirit of Christmas idea because the old man is still in charge after all and because he is persuaded the campaign will prove good for the bottom line, his major concern.
 
Mary Paige and Brennan are opposites in every way. They recognize their differences, they are convinced they are all wrong for each other, but there is an attraction between them that can’t be denied. Brennan is intrigued by Mary Paige and the kindness and empathy that are so much a part of who she is, but he’s a cynic when it comes to Christmas. It will take something out of the ordinary to persuade him that life is more that the satisfaction of seeing the dollars rolling in.
 
The elder Henry and his romance were my favorite part of the story. It’s a nice Christmas tale, but it’s predictable, another variation on a story often retold. Just in case you miss the parallels to Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, there are ample reminders such as this one:
 

 “Remember the children beneath the robes?”  

“Ignorance and Want,” Brennan said to himself, his mind clicking as he grasped the implications.”

“Don’t let them win.”

 
It’s a lesson that bears repeating, and it’s sweetly seasoned with romance. Not a bad choice for reading beside a Christmas tree with a cup of hot chocolate or a glass of wine.

 

Countdown to First Night (an anthology)
By Jillian Hart, Margaret Daly, and Brenda Minton
Publisher: Harlequin
Release Date: January 2, 2013

This holiday anthology celebrates New Year’s rather than Christmas. The three stories are set in Snow Falls, Colorado, as the town readies for First Night, its annual countdown to the New Year.

“Winter’s Heart” by Jillian Heart is the story of Shelby Craig, a young, down-on-her-luck widow who returns with her two children to Snow Falls. Her grandmother offers her sanctuary while Shelby searches for a new job that will allow her to support her small family. But an unexpected meeting with Ronan Winters, a friend from her childhood, leads not only to a new job but also to the possibility of a new life for the new year.

“Snowbound at New Year” by Ellie Summer features Ellie Summers, author of a series of children’s books who has come to Snow Falls to meet with her new illustrator. Brody Kincaid was recommended by her former illustrator with whom Ellie had enjoyed perfect understanding, but things aren’t going so well with the new guy. Ellie hopes a face-to-face meeting will improve their communication. Brody, a widower, has retreated with his twin daughters to an isolated home atop a mountain outside Snow Falls, convinced there is no room in his heart for anything other than his love for his children and his memories of his wife. That face-to-face meeting brings a connection neither author nor illustrator anticipates.

“A Kiss at Midnight” by Brenda Minton offers the tale of Jolie Goodwin and Jake Wild, natives of Snow Falls with a history between them. Jolie is the daughter of an alcoholic who stole from Jake. Jake is the son of shallow mother who almost destroyed his legacy from his father. They are both weighed down by their pasts and wary of trusting the feelings that spark between them.  And neither can forget the kiss they shared last New Year’s Eve? Do they dare go for a replay at the ball that is the culmination of First Night festivities?

These are all sweet second-chance stories with kids as secondary characters. They are conventional stories with no surprises, but they are heartwarming and the New Year’s connection makes them a bit different.

Are you still reading holiday stories? Or have you had you fill until 2013? 

MERRY CHRISTMAS! HAPPY HOLIDAYS!