Review: Coming Home for Christmas, by RaeAnne Thayne

24 September 2019 by Melissa

About the book, Coming Home for Christmas

Series: Haven Point (Book 10)
Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: HQN; Original edition (September 24, 2019)

Hearts are lighter and wishes burn a little brighter at Christmas…

Elizabeth Hamilton has been lost. Trapped in a tangle of postpartum depression and grief after the death of her beloved parents, she couldn’t quite see the way back to her husband and their two beautiful kids…until a car accident stole away her memories and changed her life. And when she finally remembered the sound of little Cassie’s laugh, the baby powder smell of Bridger and the feel of her husband’s hand in hers, Elizabeth worried that they’d moved on without her. That she’d missed too much. That perhaps she wasn’t the right mother for her kids or wife for Luke, no matter how much she loved them.

But now, seven years later, Luke finds her in a nearby town and brings Elizabeth back home to the family she loves, just in time for Christmas. And being reunited with Luke and her children is better than anything Elizabeth could have imagined. As they all trim the tree and bake cookies, making new holiday memories, Elizabeth and Luke are drawn ever closer. Can the hurt of the past seven years be healed over the course of one Christmas season and bring the Hamiltons the gift of a new beginning?

Buy, read, and discuss this book:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About the author, Raeanne Thayne

New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne loves words. Her love affair started as soon as she learned to read, when she used to devour anything she could get her hands on: cereal boxes, encyclopedias, the phone book, you name it! She loves the way words sound, the way they look on the page, and the amazing way they can be jumbled together in so many combinations to tell a story.

Her love of reading and writing those words led her to a fifteen-year career in journalism as a newspaper reporter and editor.

Through it all, she dreamed of writing the kind of stories she loved best. She sold her first book in 1995 and since then she’s published more than 40 titles. Her books have won many honors, including three RITA® Award nominations from the Romance Writers of America and a Career Achievement Award from RT Book Reviews.

RaeAnne finds inspiration in the rugged northern Utah mountains, where she lives with her hero of a husband and their children. She loves to hear from readers and can be reached through her website at www.raeannethayne.com.

My Thoughts

Cracking open a RaeAnne Thayne book, even when it’s a virtual ‘cracking’ because you’re reading a digital copy, is like hanging out with an old friend. The story will be new and exciting, but the voice telling it will be familiar.

This is especially true of Coming Home for Christmas, which isn’t just Thayne’s most recent release, but is also the tenth novel in her delightful Haven Point series. And while some may think the second day of autumn is a touch early to be reading a story set over the holidays, I found it a lovely respite from the heat and humidity of late summer.

As always, Thayne brings us a story rooted in family and relationships. Luke and Elizabeth are an estranged husband and wife, the latter having been missing for seven years when the novel opens with him storming into her current residence and demanding he return home with her. It’s an abrupt opening. Almost, I felt as though I’d missed a chapter, and yet, it set the pace of the novel perfectly, giving us a sense of urgency from Luke that carried through the entire book.

Both characters, as well as their friends and family, are written truthfully. No one is perfect; all are drawn with the charms and flaws of real people. This is what makes a RaeAnne Thayne novel so compelling: she peoples her fictional towns with the sorts of neighbors we all long to have, and populates their streets with the shops we all want to visit.

Is September a little early for a Christmas story? Maybe. But when you read Coming Home for Christmas, you’ll feel like you’re coming home to Haven Point, and you won’t mind that the calendar on your phone is a bit behind the one in the story.

Goes well with hot coffee and chocolate gingerbread.

Review: The Cottages on Silver Beach, by RaeAnne Thayne

18 June 2018 by Melissa

About the book, The Cottages on Silver Beach

Print Length: 384 pages
Publisher: HQN Books; Original edition (July 1, 2018)
Publication Date: June 19, 2018

Years after betraying her, he’s back in Haven Point…and ready to learn the truth

Megan Hamilton never really liked Elliot Bailey. He turned his back on her family when they needed him the most and it almost tore them all apart. So she’s shocked when Elliot arrives at her family’s inn, needing a place to stay and asking questions that dredge up the past. Megan will rent him a cottage, but that’s where it ends—no matter how gorgeous Elliot has become.

Coming back home to Haven Point was the last thing bestselling writer Elliot Bailey thought he’d ever do. But the book he’s writing now is his most personal one yet and it’s drawn him back to the woman he can’t get out of his mind. Seeing Megan again is harder than he expected and it brings up feelings he’d thought were long buried. Could this be his chance to win over his first love?

Buy, read, and discuss The Cottages on Silver Beach:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads

About the author, Raeanne Thayne

Her love of reading and writing those words led her to a fifteen-year career in journalism as a newspaper reporter and editor.

My Thoughts

I reviewed another of Thayne’s Haven Point novels, Sugar Pine Trail, last fall, and really enjoyed the way she mixed a cozy small town environment with equal parts of romance and light suspense, so when I was offered the opportunity to review The Cottages on Silver Beach this spring, I was delighted to accept.

In this novel, we see Haven Point during a shoulder season – it’s not the height of summer or winter, when most tourists visit – and we are introduced to inn owner and fine art photographer Megan and her dog Cyrus. Megan has lived at the inn since childhood, and run it for most of her adult life, and it’s not just a job to her, it’s truly her home. In fact, she lives in one of the eponymous rental cottages that are part of the inn.

We also meet Elliot, FBI agent and popular crime writer, as well as the childhood best friend of Megan’s brother. He’s in town for a family wedding, and rents the cottage next door to Megan’s.

The romance that follows is very much the story of two adults who are attracted to each other, but have baggage they need to deal with before they can act on that attraction. It’s alternately sweet and frustrating, which is proof that author Thayne writes believable, dimensional characters: sometimes you’re rooting for them, sometimes you want to shake them so they come to their senses, and most of the time, it’s a combination of both.

I also like the way Thayne’s created setting of Haven Point feels like a real town. It’s just cute enough to be a tourist destination, but neither the town nor its citizens are without flaws, and that lends to the feeling that this is a place you could visit, if you just knew where to turn.

Overall, this is an enjoyable book, neither to sappy nor too suspenseful, but a perfect balance of both, making it the perfect summer escape.

Goes well with a fresh cup of hot coffee and a perfectly fluffy omelet.

Review: Sugar Pine Trail, by RaeAnne Thayne

26 September 2017 by Melissa

About the book, Sugar Pine Trail

Print Length: 352 pages
Publisher: HQN Books (October 1, 2017)
Publication Date: September 26, 2017

Fans of the wildly popular Haven Point series won’t want to miss SUGAR PINE TRAIL (HQN Books; on-sale October 2017), the latest novel from New York Times and USA Today bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne. In this heartwarming holiday romance, unexpected attraction between two polar opposites might just make for the best match yet.

Haven Point librarian Julia Winston has spent most of her life taking care of other people. Now she’s 32 years old and feeling restless for the first time, banging around a big empty house with no one to share it with. In an effort to break free from her life of quiet complacency, Julia finds herself making a list of all the things she wants to do while she still has the chance—including getting a puppy, learning to ski, and kissing someone under the mistletoe. That someone, however, is most certainly not Jamie Caine, a military pilot who is temporarily renting a room in Julia’s home. Wary of Jamie’s blinding good looks and his reputation as the town’s resident heartbreaker, Julia puts up all her charm defenses, while the handsome pilot tries his best to steer clear of his mousy landlady (who, he has to admit, has some pretty stunning eyes).

But when Julia suddenly finds herself taking care of two young brothers in need, she and Jamie will come together to make an unforgettable holiday for the boys. Along the way, Jamie will learn that Julia has more spunk than she lets on, and Julia will realize that Jamie has more depth than she gave him credit for. Together, this unlikely pair will discover they have more in common than they ever imagined—all while fighting a powerful attraction that becomes more and more difficult to deny.

Set against a backdrop of mistletoe, lakeside lights, and Haven Point’s stunning snowy mountains, SUGAR PINE TRAIL makes for perfect winter reading this holiday season.

Buy, read, and discuss Sugar Pine Trail:

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | Goodreads

About the author, RaeAnne Thayne

Her love of reading and writing those words led her to a fifteen-year career in journalism as a newspaper reporter and editor.

My Thoughts

It may seem like late September is a bit early to be reading books set during the winter holidays, but trust me, when it’s 90 degrees outside at ten in the morning, and you live in a place where snow is infrequent, at best, reading holiday fiction is a way to keep cool.

Keeping cool was a bit difficult while reading RaeAnne Thayne’s newest Haven Point novel, Sugar Pine Trail, because the story of 32-year-old librarian Julia Winston and military pilot Jamie Caine, who is renting the flat she’s carved out of her family manse, is warm and cozy, and everything that’s perfect for a holiday read.

What I loved was the way author Thayne has created an entire world in Haven Point. I haven’t read the other novels in the series, but I still felt as though I was coming home to a familiar place in this snowy mountain town. In fact, many of the scenes reminded me of my own childhood sojourn in Georgetown, CO.

Julia and Jamie’s story is a classic tale of “opposites attract” – she’s a bit scattered, he’s incredibly precise. The family cats don’t like her, but love him. (She’s clearly a dog person, like me.). As their relationship evolves, so, too, do their responsibilities, eventually leading to becoming caretakers to two young boys who desperately need some holiday cheer.

It sounds as sweet as a Hallmark movie, I know (and that’s not a bad thing; I happen to indulge in Hallmark Movie weekends from time to time), but Thayne keeps her story grounded in common sense and humor, which keeps it only sweet, and never saccharine.

Goes well with hot chocolate, stirred with a peppermint stick, and Milano cookies.