Review: Come Home to Me

Come Home to Me (Whiskey Creek)

About the Book:

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 Reno 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.

My Comments:

Have you ever read a book where you just wanted to reach inside the pages, grab the characters and sit them down and tell them they are doing it ALL wrong.  Well, that's this book for me.  Presley had a rough childhood/young adult life but she's got it all together now.  She's starting a business, moving out on her own and raising her son.  Finally, she's doing things the way they should be done...except that she never told her son's father about the pregnancy or baby.  While I disagree with her decision, I can understand it and almost condone it, and if that was the only secret in the book, it wouldn't bother me so much.

Presley's sister also has secrets she is keeping from her husband.  She doesn't tell him about the father of Presley's baby.   Again, given the relationships between the characters in the book, that is almost understandable.  However not only is she keeping a big secret about their relationship from her husband, she she takes actions with long-term irrevocable consequences based on that secret, and doesn't tell her husband about it.  While Presley's brother-in-law learns Presley's secret after the father does, the other secrets are still secret at the end of the book.  I guess they will blow up in a later book in the series.  

Because of all the secrets I never got terribly attached to any of the characters in this book.  I just see what a mess they are all making of their lives.  Actually the one I liked best was a spurned suitor of Presley's.  He's the kind of guy she needed but of course that's not what she really wanted.

The book is clearly part of a series.  There is a little reference to the back story but that's not really a problem.  Instead we have a bunch of open threads at the end.  What will happen when Amos' father gets home?  What will happen when Dylan learns the big secret?  Will Riley ever find a nice girl?  Will he get back with Phoenix, or what will happen when Phoenix gets home?  Yes, plenty of fodder for more books.

As general market romance, there are a couple of bedroom scenes between unmarried people.  While they are by no means graphic, readers are definitely in the bedroom.

I'd like to thank the publisher for making a review copy available via NetGalley.  Grade:  B- (just felt like I  spent the whole book watching a train wreck waiting to happen).