Come Home to Me - Review

Come Home to Me by Brenda Novak

Rating: 2 Stars

Description:  After 2 years Presley Christensen is back in Whiskey Creek.  This time she's straightened out her life and has her little boy Wyatt in tow.  She had heard her ex-boyfriend Aaron Amos was leaving town soon and hoped she could avoid him until he left.  That doesn't work out in her favor when she runs into Aaron in a bookstore after only being in town a little while.  Can Presley not slide back into temptation with Aaron?  And can she protect the one secret that means more than anything else?

Genre: Romance

My Impression: 
Cons:  There is a secret child, the potential for a surprise pregnancy, an adult acting like a child and so many BIG secrets you trip over them every time you turn around.  I didn't love the relationship between Presley and Aaron.  It was more that they couldn't resist each other and had a history of great sex that Aaron wanted to revisit versus they actually loved each other.  If this had only been at the beginning it would've been okay but it continued well past 50% of the book.  I thought Presley deserved more and it seemed like some of the psychological pitfalls she had overcome were all to present in her dealings with Aaron.  Then we get to the subplot involving Cheyenne and Dylan. I spent most of the book wanting to shake Cheyenne.  I can understand her not wanting to hurt her husband but the situation isn't quite as bleak as she made it seem.  The method she used to make this all work was incredibly dishonest and I can't see it staying a secret.  However, I was surprised to see that at-home kits like she talked about really do exist.  So despite doing a google search that's going to give me some strange ads for awhile I was glad to see that it wasn't inaccurate just illogical.

Pros: Novak created characters I really loved and that felt real.  I loved Presley and you could really feel how hard she was working.  There was a period in the book where she was just emotionally done and really came alive.  It didn't feel like she was sulking or whining.  You could just sense her resignation and that's impressive.  The pacing was good and if I'd been able too I could've easily read this book in one sitting.

Overall Impression: Despite the book containing almost a perfect storm of my most disliked plot devices Novak still wrote a book I wanted to read and wanted to find out what happened in.  I definitely want to spend more time in Whiskey Creek though maybe just not with this particular book.

Would I Read More of this Series/Author?: Definitely - any author who can keep me reading with a secret child in the plot is definitely worth revisiting.

Would I Recommend this Book?:  Probably not this exact book but I would recommend Novak as an author.