Review: Come Home to Me by Brenda Novak

Publish Date: March 25, 2014
Kindle {p.416}
Genre: Romance
Series: Whiskey Creek #6
Source: NetGalley
Presley Christensen, Aaron Amos

Home is where her heart is...

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.

I lost all respect for Cheyenne in this installment of the series. Which is sad, because her book was my favorite of the series. The plotting she was doing behind her husband's back was unacceptable. Sure, she thought it was for a good cause, but it was not the way to handle it. It was downright deceptive and manipulative. What she was doing was grounds for a divorce in my opinion because how can you stay married to someone who's that conniving and you can't trust? I just couldn't bring myself to get past all the lying to truly enjoy this book.

Presley and Aaron never seemed able to get it together. Of course at the very end, Aaron finally has it all figured out. There was no chemistry with Presley and Riley, but she and Aaron just seemed to incompatible outside of the bedroom. I still feel that the core group of friends are so hard up to find that special someone that they latch onto anyone. Riley never cared or noticed Presley before, when she needed someone the most, but now all of a sudden he's truly serious and in love with her? Doubtful.

In the end, I just never really felt any love connection between Presley and Aaron. He was just jealous all the time whenever she was with Riley, but jealousy doesn't equal love.

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.

Review: Home to Whiskey Creek by Brenda Novak

Publish Date: July 30, 2013
Kindle {p. 416 }
Series: Whiskey Creek #4
Genre: Contemporary
Source: Publicist
Adelaide Davies, Noah Rackham

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.

How Addy was able to keep any semblance of sanity when she came into any kind of contact with the people involved in that tragic event from her past, I will never understand. I liked Addy, but I didn't really feel that the connection between her and Noah was all that strong. Yes, she claimed to have loved him all her life, but I didn't feel the chemistry between them like I did with the leads from the previous three books in this series.

The whole "whodunit" was more front and center while the romance of Noah and Addy took a backseat. Which I was fine with that, because I was a bit more interested in who kidnapped Addy than I was with the budding relationship between her and Noah.

I don't feel like I ever really connected with Noah. He was cool at moments, and then at others he seemed more like a petulant child. I didn't care for how he'd get upset when he was teased about his sexual exploits when that was the information or side of himself that he put out there.

One of his finest moments was dealing with Baxter and his family. That was enough for him to win me over. With that being said, I didn't dislike either of the characters, the chemistry just wasn't there with them. That all could be due to the subject matter the author was tackling. Overall it was a good book with strong secondary characters that draw you into the town. It's definitely a series I would love to read more of.