Book Review – Take Me Home for Christmas by Brenda Novak

January 20, 2022
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Take Me Home for Christmas by Brenda Novak | Blushing Geek

Take Me Home for Christmas by Brenda Novak
Series: Whiskey Creek, #5
Published on October 29th 2013 by Harlequin MIRA
Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Holiday
400 pages
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased
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Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

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

One of the reasons why I love Christmas is that I could finally get in the mood and face my holiday themed books, hahaha. I am not even sure how many years this story has been stuck in my shelf lol.

Take me home for Christmas started with Sophia, her daughter and all of the yacht’s crew frantically searching for her husband. I would be lying if I say that that opening didn’t give me an MHC story’s vibe hahaha. I’ve only read a mystery-suspense book from Brenda Novak so I really thought this is going to be a Christmas romance but with a touch of mystery. I don’t think I was disappointed when I realized that this story isn’t a mystery romance, because I was already busy feeling bad for Sophia and her daughter to dwell on those thoughts.

Sophia had a really bad reputation when she was a teenager so after the scandal her husband left her, most of the people in their town are angry at her. With her husband dead, there’s no one in town for anyone to blame but her and they all think that she knew about it.

It was really sad reading about Sophia’s situation. I feel so bad about what happened, that even though she has hurt some people in her past, I don’t think she deserves what happened to her. Just like what most people will feel, Sophia got depressed so I am really happy that Eve came in the picture and helped her see what’s really important and how much her daughter needs her to be strong for her. I just can’t imagine how anyone could manage to get up after what happened to her so I was really proud that Sophia kept pushing forward to provide for her and for her daughter despite all of those nasty treatments they’ve gotten from the townspeople. Don’t get me started about Alexa, that poor kid. Just like her mother, I was really proud how brave she is despite being treated like that at school. After everything this mother and daughter went through, I’m glad everything turned out great. I especially love what they did on that little fortune they’ve got. That was really nice despite how much they needed the money to move on and start over again.

Ted on the other hand is a bitter ex, hahaha. Well, I can’t really blame the guy after what Sophia did to him. But after what he saw and how much Sophia had been suffering, he still helped her eventhough it’s a big gamble on his part. I started to really like the guy after that. But then one Halloween night, he made a decision that really pissed me off. Seriously dude! He did redeem himself a few pages before the final chapter, but what he did was still not cool so I still don’t like him hahaha. He’s genuinely a nice person and what he is doing now is really great despite how hurt he was after what Sophia did, but that’s just that, I still don’t like him, hahaha.

There were some attitudes that did a sudden 180 turn but overall, I still think it was a decent read. This story is in a series but it says here that it could be read standalone, and yes it could be, but it can get confusing with the characters actually. So I think it would still be best if it’s read in order.

There were no annoying conflicts really, and I’m glad Sophia didn’t do anything drastic that could change what I feel about her character, so I really would give that a plus, *wink.

The ending feels really hopeful but I would be lying if I say that I was satisfied hahaha. I would really like to read more about Sophia and Alexa’s happy ending after what they’ve been through. But I guess that ending isn’t really that bad overall. I just wish there’s more story, especially about her dinner with Ted’s mother and what the townspeople think of her now.

*I’ve read this book last year after the typhoon Odette and we had no electricity for weeks. Sorry for the delay, hihihi