Review: Take Me Home for Christmas by Brenda Novak

Publish Date: October 29, 2013
Kindle {p. 400}
Genre: Contemporary
Series: Whiskey Creek #5
Source: Publicist
Sophia DeBussi, Ted Dixon

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?

First, I'd like to start with how much I HATED Chief Stacy! He's the reason there are vulgar songs about the police. I never really liked him when he was first came on the scene trying to date Callie, but now he's totally out of control.

Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I really loved this installment. I've always rooted for Sophia and not really liked Ted because he was always a jerk toward her. I know she broke his heart and all, but fourteen years and he still couldn't manage a polite "hello"? I'm not suggesting they had to be BFFs but he didn't have to always go out of his way to be a jerk.

You can never judge/envy someone's life on the outside looking in, and Sophia was a true example of that. Everyone envied her money and beauty, but her life/marriage was a living nightmare. When it all unraveled, that's when the real Sophia emerged. She was such a well written character that you couldn't help but to want to get her happy ending. For a while there it seemed as if Ted was going to screw that up.

Eve, Ted's BFF and Sophia new-found friend, always seems to go after men who don't want her. And she falls so quickly "in love" with them that I don't believe she knows what love is. I feel that she's just hearing her clock ticking and jumps on anything with a pulse and calls it love. She's not mean or vindictive, so that's what's keeping her likeable, but I hope she matures a bit more when it comes to men because I truly do want to see her find the happiness that all friends have.

As for the citizens of Whiskey Creek, I'm appalled. The way that they treated not only Sophia, but her daughter!?! Granted they were upset about being swindled, but to treat a child so horribly for the sins of the father? Not cool. Even when they seen first hand that Sophia and Lexie had nothing left, the townspeople still wouldn't let them have peace. And the town pastor was among the ringleaders! I'm not sure if the people of Whiskey Creek will ever be redeemable to me.

With that being said, I still love the core group of friends that the books are based around, just not the background townspeople anymore. I look forward to continuing the series, but the two stories I'm most looking forward to are Eve's and Kyle's. I look forward to seeing who those two find happiness with.