Romance Review: Come Home to Me by Brenda Novak

Come Home to Me by Brenda Novak
Series: Whiskey Creek
Publisher: Harlequin
Format: ARC
ISBN: 0778315916
Genre: Romance
Release date: March 25th 2014
Number of pages: 416
Source: NetGalley

Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads

I received this book from NetGalley and Harlequin in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Summary:

When Presley Christensen returns to Whiskey Creek with her little boy after two years away, she has completely changed her life. She’s made peace with her past and overcome the negative behavior that resulted from her difficult childhood. Now she’s back in the small town that was the closest thing to home she ever knew;the town where she can be with the sister who’s her only family.

There’s just one catch. Aaron Amos still lives in Whiskey Creek, at least until he moves to Placerville to open a branch of the Amos brothers’ auto body shop. And no matter how hard she’s tried, Presley hasn’t been able to get over him. Seeing him again makes the longing so much worse. But she hopes she can get through the next few months, because she can’t fall back into his arms;or his bed. She’s come too far to backslide now. And there’s a secret she’s been guarding;a secret she’ll do anything to protect.

Review:

This story was not what I expected. This series always makes me cry in a good way, but in this book I couldn’t connect with anyone and that left me a little unsatisfied. With also got way to much side story, and that has never happened before. I was not happy with the way Cheyenne handled her problems and it felt like a betrayal to me. I loved her book and it was not necessary to me the way she acted.

The real story was more of the same with Presley still in love and now she decided to move back home, so her sister can help her. The problem is super simple, Aaron the father of her baby is still in town and of course it didn’t take a genius to see the huge disaster ahead.

I liked this couple, but didn’t the way the author chose to simply forget about their problems with drugs, Presley we can see suffered a lot to get back on her feet and start over, but not in one moment is mentioned what Aaron did, when in the previous books we can see he was worst them her with addictions. I wanted to know more about the way they changed in this past two years. but that’s only me.

 

Contact the Author: Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Series in Order

#0.5 – When We Touch
#1 – When Lightning Strikes
#2 – When Snow Falls
#3 – When Summer Comes
#4 – Home to Whiskey Creek
#5 – Take Me Home for Christmas
#6 – Come Home to Me
#7 – Untitled

Romance Review: Take Me Home for Christmas by Brenda Novak

Take Me Home for Christmas by Brenda Novak
Series: Whiskey Creek
Publisher: Harlequin
Format: ARC
ISBN: 0778315460
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release date: October 29th 2013
Number of pages: 400
Source: NetGalley

Amazon • Barnes & Noble • Goodreads

I received this book from NetGalley and Harlequin in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Summary:

Christmas is a time for remembering….

Too bad all memories aren’t pleasant. Everyone in Whiskey Creek remembers Sophia DeBussi as the town’s Mean Girl. Especially Ted Dixon, whose love she once scorned.

But Sophia has paid the price for her youthful transgressions. The man she did marry was rich and powerful but abusive. So when he goes missing, she secretly hopes he’ll never come back—until she learns that he died running from an FBI probe of his investment firm. Not only has he left Sophia penniless, he’s left her to face all the townspeople he cheated….

Sophia is reduced to looking for any kind of work to pay the bills and support her daughter. With no other options, she becomes housekeeper for none other than Ted, now a successful suspense writer. He can’t bring himself to turn his back on her, not at Christmas, but he refuses to get emotionally involved. He learned his lesson the last time.

Or will the season of love and forgiveness give them both another chance at happiness?

Review:

This series is my little secret romance weeping moment, because everytime a new novel is on NetGalley you can bet I’ll read it fast, and this book was no exection. I loved Sophie and never really understood why people bullied her so much when everyone can claerly see her life is way far from perfect.

This book was her most drasting time and she pulled throught with flying colors to me, managing to even make friends among those that hated her previously. Ted is back to brooding all day and I didn’t liked his attittude with Eve because everyone can see how much he still loves Sophie and it’s hurting them both.

But Sophie has a daughter and I loved the way Ted handled the teenager and even helped a lot. Christmas always makes the romances more sweet and cute, but this one made me cry several times. Just loved!

Contact the Author: Website | Twitter | Goodreads

Series in Order

#0.5 – When We Touch
#1 – When Lightning Strikes
#2 – When Snow Falls
#3 – When Summer Comes
#4 – Home to Whiskey Creek
#5 – Take Me Home for Christmas
#6 – Come Home to Me (Expected publication: March 25th 2014)

Romance Review: Home to Whiskey Creek by Brenda Novak

Sometimes home is the refuge you need-and sometimes it isn’t.  Adelaide Davies, who’s been living in Sacramento, returns to Whiskey Creek, the place she once called home. She’s there to take care of her aging grandmother and to help with Gran’s restaurant, Just Like Mom’s. But Adelaide isn’t happy to be back. There are too many people here she’d rather avoid, people who were involved in that terrible June night fifteen years ago.
Ever since the graduation party that changed her life, she’s wanted to go to the police and make sure the boys responsible-men now-are punished. But she can’t, not without revealing an even darker secret. So it’s better to pretend….
Noah Rackham, popular, attractive, successful, is shocked when Adelaide won’t have anything to do with him. He has no idea that his very presence reminds her of something she’d rather forget. He only knows that he’s finally met a woman he could love.

Title: Home to Whiskey Creek

Author: Brenda Novak

Series: Whiskey Creek

Publisher: Harlequin

Format: ebook from NetGalley

ISBN: 0778315452

Genre: Romance
Release date: July 30th 2013

Number of pages: 416

 

 

I read the third book and for me that was perfect, so after reading this one a few things sounded a little rushed, because this story touched several difficult matters. For once we have Adelaide, never heard of her before but it was explained why she left the town so many years ago. She returned to help her grandmother and her life hasn’t been easy since she step foot on Whiskey Creek. Several years ago, she was just sixteen when the football star and his friends gang raped her. That is a very tough issue to let it pass, but she had a few dark secrets too and ended up not talking about it.

 

But now she is back and someone decided to scare her and make her leave town, in that night she met Nathan. He was her knight in bicycle armor. He was training and heard her screams, but the best part for me was the fact she just didn’t’ want anything to do with him and she was the first one to dump him. Can you see the point now? He started after her just because she didn’t want him.

 

But he was also handling with Baxter coming out of the closed and telling about his love for Nathan all those years. So the book handled this part really well because it was a tough choice for Baxter and we could see how much it was hurting him since the previous book. But Nathan actually did good and their friends didn’t disappointed either. This group is really good and all of them come to Baxter help.

 

I didn’t liked the rushed ending and how the guilt person got away so easily. I can understand Adelaide forgiving them, but justice was too easy on them and they deserved more after the hideous thing the did years ago and how they tried to hide now.

Series in Order

#0.5 – When We Touch
#1 – When Lightning Strikes
#2 – When Snow Falls
#3 – When Summer Comes
#4 – Home to Whiskey Creek
#5 – Take Me Home for Christmas (Expected publication: October 29th 2013)

 

Romance Review and #Giveaway: When Summer Comes by Brenda Novak

Welcome to Whiskey Creek— Heart of the Gold Country!One day, Callie Vanetta receives devastating news…
She needs a liver transplant. But her doctors warn that, in her case, the chances of finding a compatible donor aren’t good.
Determined to spend whatever time she has left on her own terms, she keeps the diagnosis to herself and moves out to her late grandparents’ farm. She’s always wanted to live there. But the farm hasn’t been worked in years and she begins to fear she can’t manage it, that she’ll have to return to town.
One night, a stranger comes knocking at her door…
He’s an attractive and mysterious drifter by the name of Levi McCloud, and he offers to trade work for a few nights’ shelter. Callie figures she doesn’t have anything to lose. He needs a place to stay until he can fix his motorcycle; she needs an extra pair of hands. The arrangement seems ideal until what was supposed to be temporary starts to look more and more permanent. Then she realizes she does have something to lose—her heart. And, although he doesn’t yet know it, Levi stands to lose even more.

Title: When Summer Comes

Author: Brenda Novak

Series: Whiskey Creek

Publisher:  Harlequin MIRA

Format: ebook from NetGalley

ISBN: 0778314235

Genre: Romance
Release date: January 29th 2013

Number of pages: 400

 

I’m completely in love with this series, and this book brought me to tears more times than I can count. There’s something so good and romantic in this series. The couples always have some issue to work on and this time it was a matter of life or death and I enjoyed getting to know more of Callie because in the previous books she was usually on the sideline. And this time the group of friends really showed of friendship means, because even in the hardest moments you could always see them helping and never giving up. I also liked getting to know more of Baxter. He’s a really nice guy and I’m hoping for some romance to come his way very soon. Fingers crossed.

Callie discovered that her liver is failing and now she’s little more than six months of life if she doesn’t get a transplant soon enough. So she decided to became an hermit and live on her grandparents farm, the thing she never told anyone about her health problems and the farm is completely isolated. There’s not a single soul living there and I thought foolish of her to just disappear when we can see she tons of best friends and her family loves her, but her reasons are good for me and she just wanted some moments without pity and fear.

Levi is a troubled soul and after his bike broke the only way to keep moving is to walk until the nearest shop, but a couple of rabid dogs attacked him and Callie was the angel that treated his bites. I liked him and understood his problems with a relationship and even with just staying, but he changed a lot and really helped Callie without asking for much. We can clearly see these two deserve a second change and the book portrayed such beautiful scenes.

Series in Order

#0.5 – When We Touch
#1 – When Lightning Strikes
#2 – When Snow Falls
#3 – When Summer Comes
#4 – Home to Whiskey Creek
#5 – Take Me Home for Christmas (Expected publication: October 29th 2013)

 

Giveaway: epub copy of When Summer Comes

To enter Giveaway: Please comment to this Q: Have you started this series? Do you like books than touch on a very dramatic problem?

Giveaway ends September 1st.

Romance Review: When Snow Falls by Brenda Novak

After growing up in cheap motels, moving from town to town with her sister and mother, Cheyenne Christensen is grateful to be on her own. She’s grateful, too, for the friends she found once her family settled in California. But she’s troubled by the mystery of her earliest memories, most of which feature a smiling blonde woman. A woman who isn’t her mother.Although Cheyenne has repeatedly asked for explanations, the people who could help aren’t talking. Cheyenne is set on finding answers, but without so much as a birth certificate, it won’t be easy.
Things get even more complicated when her closest friend is attracted to the man Cheyenne has secretly loved for years. For Eve’s sake, she decides to step aside—which lands her right in the arms of Dylan Amos, oldest and baddest of the hell-raising Amos brothers. He’s the kind of guy she’s sworn to avoid. She can’t afford to make a mistake, not when she finally has a chance to learn who she really is and change her life for the better. But…maybe there’s more to Dylan than she thought. Maybe letting him go would be a bigger mistake.

Title: When Snow Falls

Author: Brenda Novak

Series: Whiskey Creek

Publisher:  Harlequin MIRA

Format: ebook

ISBN: 0778313719

Genre: Romance
Release date: October 23rd 2012

Number of pages: 448

I love to cry with this series. Don’t get me wrong the stories are beautiful and there’s so much drama. But they are worth it. Brenda Novak made a little town full of romance and emotions.

 

Cheyenne was not my favorite from the group, mostly because we barely see her before this book and Dylan wasn’t even mentioned before, but these two are actually so pretty together. They are both outsiders, suffered so much and now are so normal.

 

I liked Dylan more, maybe because his life was more difficult, he had to grow up alone and find a way to support his four brothers, but he also had love.

 

Cheyenne suffered way to much in Anita’s hand and I cannot believe everything her family made her go through. But even after all these she’s a nice girl and thinks more of others. She deserved some happiness and Dylan was perfect because he understand her like no one else. I cried way to much with this couple but it was so good.

 

Series in Order

#0.5 – When We Touch
#1 – When Lightning Strikes
#2 – When Snow Falls
#3 – When Summer Comes
#4 – Home to Whiskey Creek
#5 – Take Me Home for Christmas (Expected publication: October 29th 2013)

 

Romance Review: When We Touch by Brenda Novak

You’re invited to a wedding in Whiskey Creek, Heart of the Gold Country
Unfortunately, it’s the wrong wedding. Olivia Arnold is arranging the festivities—and it’s the hardest thing she’s ever done. Because she should be marrying Kyle Houseman. They were together for more than a year…. But her jealous sister, Noelle, stole him away—and now she’s pregnant.
All their friends in Whiskey Creek know as well as Olivia does that Kyle’s making a mistake. His stepbrother, Brandon, knows it, too. But Kyle’s determined to go through with it, for his child’s sake.
Olivia’s devastated, but surprisingly Brandon—the black sheep of the family–is there to provide comfort and consolation. The intensity between them, both physical and emotional, shows Olivia that maybe Kyle wasn’t the right man for her….
But is Brandon?

Title: When We Touch

Author: Brenda Novak

Series: Whiskey Creek

Publisher:  Harlequin

Format: free ebook from Amazon

ISBN: B008JI9EHU

Genre: Romance
Release date: August 1st 2012

Number of pages: 102

 

This was actually a longer novella, from my standards, but I read after the first book, because it’s usually better to understand the town and the people with a longer book. So I already knew the characters and it was nice meeting them again, but this one it’s set before book one.

 

Olivia was such a nice girl, and she deserves a better family, because everyone treats her so bad and believe she’s just jealous half the time, plus she has to do everything for her spoiled sister. When you take a look in the reason she is back in town it’s extremely wrong the way her mother and sister treats her, but she actually got better with this dose of reality and Brandon was a great change for her.

 

She needed a change and Brandon was perfect with his bad boy attitude, but full of good intentions. The wedding weekend was a nightmare, but Olivia learned to trust herself and survived just fine with a new love.

Series in Order

#0.5 – When We Touch
#1 – When Lightning Strikes
#2 – When Snow Falls
#3 – When Summer Comes
#4 – Home to Whiskey Creek
#5 – Take Me Home for Christmas (Expected publication: October 29th 2013)

Romance Review: When Lightning Strikes by Brenda Novak

Simon O’Neal’s causing trouble again. And it’s up to Gail DeMarco to stop him.Gail DeMarco left Whiskey Creek, California, to make a name for herself in Los Angeles. Her PR firm has accumulated a roster of A-list clients, including the biggest box office hit of all—sexy and unpredictable Simon O’Neal. But Simon, who’s just been through a turbulent divorce, is so busy self-destructing he won’t listen to anything she says. She drops him from her list—and he retaliates by taking the rest of her clients with him.
Desperate to save her company, Gail has to humble herself by making a deal with Simon. The one thing he wants is custody of his son, but that’s going to require a whole new image. He needs to marry some squeaky-clean girl who’ll drag him off to some small, obscure place like Whiskey Creek….
Gail’s the only one he can trust. She agrees to become his wife—reluctantly. But she isn’t reluctant because he’s too hard to like. It’s because he’s too hard not to love!

Title: When Lightning Strikes

Author: Brenda Novak

Series: Whiskey Creek

Publisher:  Harlequin MIRA

Format: eBook from NetGalley

ISBN: 0778313514

Genre: Romance
Release date: August 28th 2012

Number of pages: 448

 

 

I had this book on my TBR for a very long time, but never actually read mostly because of the number of pages and you can see it’s actually huge, but this month I had a plan to read some NetGalley gems and this series was a must.

 

But I have to say it was even better than what I hoped for and I dived into this story, not even the pages keep me away. I loved Gail and Simon for very different reasons. He’s trying to be bad, but at the heart we can clearly see he’s just hurt. And Gail it’s such a good person, but also have some dark spots on her life.

 

These two as a couple was perfect, because we can see the connection since the start. Gail is public relations and they were supposed to get married for only two years, enough time to get the media off his back and believing he changed and became the good guy, all this because he wanted some visitation rights with his kid from a previous marriage, but everything turned better than I even expected because Gail is such a nice girl, but she can put a guy to his place without a problem.

 

There’s all the right thing in this story. Little town, friends meddling and a perfect couple with some issues from the past. loved this book and will dive into the rest of the series ASAP.

Series in Order

#0.5 – When We Touch
#1 – When Lightning Strikes
#2 – When Snow Falls
#3 – When Summer Comes
#4 – Home to Whiskey Creek
#5 – Take Me Home for Christmas (Expected publication: October 29th 2013)