I tried to start this series by reading this book as an advanced copy just before publication time, and I couldn't get into the series. It seems like I picked the one place in the Haven Point series where it helps to have some of the knowledge from previous books. So I shelved this book and started the series at the beginning. Since 2019, I've absolutely enjoyed meandering my way thru this series, falling hard for the town of Haven Point and the people that live there throughout the process. And the dogs!! It seems like every character has a great dog, and I love that so much about RaeAnne Thayne.

The events in this installment began seven years ago, but they became known to me two books ago. Elizabeth Hamilton disappeared seven years ago and was never heard from again. Her husband Luke and their two children have had to live with whispers, accusations, and judgment from many of his neighbors in Haven Point since that time. Luke and the children actually thought Elizabeth was dead, because she how else could she stay away from her sweet babies for so long?

Well. She's back!

Listen, I didn't WANT to forgive Elizabeth for walking out on her family so long ago. I've had two books before this one to sit and stew over her actions and to think about the harm it caused Luke and the kids. But...BUT!...Mrs. Thayne is so good at what she does that I not only wanted to hear Elizabeth's reasons for staying away, but I wanted her to reunite with Luke and the kids too. I absolutely love the way Ms. Thayne let Elizabeth tell her own story and brought restoration to this family.

So, so good.

What a compelling and delightful read on the holidays!

This book has mystery, pathos but overall forgiveness and gives you a heartwarming feeling during the holidays.

Get your tissues ready.

Elizabeth Hamilton has been lost. Trapped in a tangle of postpartum depression and grief, she couldn’t quite see the way back to her husband and their two beautiful kids…then a car accident stole away her memories. When she finally remembered the sound of little Cassie’s laugh, Bridger’s baby-powder smell and the feel of her husband’s hand in hers, Elizabeth reasoned that they’d moved on without her. 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 discovers her in a nearby town and brings Elizabeth back home to the family she loves, just in time for Christmas. Being reunited with Luke and her children is better than anything Elizabeth could have imagined. As they all make 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?

Thoughts:
I really enjoyed this book. I love Christmas books and the author definitely knows how to write a holiday novel! Full of love and forgiveness Coming Home for Christmas is a wonderful read. I was immediately drawn into the story and didn't want to put the book down.

Many thanks to Harlequin and to NetGalley for this ARC for review. This is my honest opinion.

a good Christmas story that makes you love the holidays. if you are in between books, read this one to reset yourself!

*I received a free e-copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. A huge thank you to the publisher!*

As many of you probably know by now, I love Christmas! That also means I love Christmas stories! For nearly the whole of November and December I read almost exclusively Christmas books. So, I’m always on the lookout for new ones. So, when I read the synopsis of Coming Home for Christmas, I was instantly intrigued and just knew that this was the book for me!


Going into this book, I did not realize it was the 10th in the series, so when I saw that on Goodreads, that was a bit of a surprise to me, lol. That being said, it read as a standalone just fine! Yes, there were some characters and side plot lines that I probably would have known about better had I read the other nine books, but it didn’t affect my enjoyment of this book or take away from the story in anyway.

I was instantly drawn into the story of Coming Home for Christmas. It was filled with such mystery and intrigue and yet, at the same time, was wrapped up in a Hallmark Channel-style appeal. I really enjoyed this book!

The characters were very well-written, too. I could feel the emotions throughout the entire book. I found myself feeling for Elizabeth and yet I was constantly wondering why she made the decisions she did which led her to this point. I loved reading Luke and Elizabeth’s story and watching their relationship change and grow.

The setting was cozy and perfect for Christmas, too! I enjoyed how festive this book was. To me, it truly was the perfect mix between Christmas vibes and intriguing story telling. I constantly wanted to read this book to find out why Elizabeth disappeared.

Overall, I really enjoyed Coming Home for Christmas. It was heartwarming, romantic, and festive. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick and enjoyable holiday read!

It was a fast read, and it honestly took turns I couldn't put my finger on ahead of time. I loved the chemistry between Luke and Elizabeth.
If you're looking for something that reads fast, but you'll still enjoy? I think this one is for you..

I am going to put trigger warning on this for postpartum depression, accident, living with an injury.

I often shed a tear or two when reading books, but this one made me sob! It was a happy sobbing by the end, but the journey that these characters have to go through is a rough one. I felt their emotions, the characters jumped off of the pages! This is a story of forgiveness and hope. Very well done.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out this was one of the Women of Brambleberry House. I slightly remembered Luke showing up at the end of A Soldier's Return. My heart hurt for these two, and the children! Whew. So many emotions.

As a mother, I have so many mixed emotions associated with this book. This book was definitely heavier than your typical Christmas read. I did enjoy the story and the characters were engaging and interesting.

this was a good read, the characters were great and I enjoyed going on the journey with them. I'd be interested to see more from this series.

I don’t know what I was expecting, but this story exceeded it. A woman suffering from post partum depression and clinical depression decides to leave one day to avoid hurting her children. Before she could get help and return, she was in a terrible accident, leaving her with physical disabilities, brain damage, and amnesia. By the time she remembered who she was, she’d been living another woman’s life, unrecognizable from reconstructive surgeries that left her looking very little of her former self. This back story sets the stage of this book, and picks up when her husband comes looking for her when he finds her alive and “well” and able to exonerate him from being accused of her murder.

This is a story of second chances, overcoming great obstacles, and learning to piece lives back together. But most of all, it’s about a second chance at one great love.

Quite a story, and with a slightly Christmassy backdrop. Quite an endearing Hero, to top it all off!

A brutally beautiful tale of life, love, forgiveness, new chances, and Christmas miracles. It's a story of family, it touches the darkness of depression, and it underlines the chances for condonation, the power of love, and wonder of the season.
I inhaled this story in one evening. The heartache of Elizabeth and Luke and their children pulled me in, the possibilities of new chances and new beginnings held me captive. I have wanted Luke and his children to find all the love and happiness and peace of heart and mind they yearned for and this story filled my heart to overflowing.
RaeAnne Thayne is a master of sweet, heartfelt, clean romance stories that still delivers all the feels of adoration and passion without going into the details. These tales show how everyday miracles still happen, how love still wins, how by doing the hard things in life, the rewards are captured, how family and community can do wonders when they set their minds into uplifting others.
Coming Home for Christmas was indeed a homecoming literally and figuratively, with all the splendor and marvel and intensity of a delightful love story.
~ Five Spoons

I am not up to date on this series unfortunately, I wish I had time to get caught up! I love RaeAnne Thayne books and I'm sure this series is amazing.

Thank you for the opportunity to read and review this book. I decided to DNF this book. I was having a hard time with the mother abandoning her children storyline. I don’t think I realized this was a part of the plot. But it is too tender of a topic for me.

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.


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Special thanks to Harlequin for providing our copy in exchange for an honest & fair review.

Raeanne is just the best. I love a Christmas novel & I really love Christmas in Haven Point. This is just as I expected & hoped. So wonderful, heartwarming, and enjoyable. This series is just so good!

Thank you for the opportunity to be an early reader.

Thank you to the publisher for the copy of this one - all opinions are my own.

This book is very much outside my usual genre of reading - but nonetheless I found myself COMPLETELY enjoying this one, and hooked right from the start.

Being such a fast, easy to read story that was just so overwhelmingly heartwarming - I don't think I could come up with one bad thing to say about this book in any way! I am not a huge lover of romance but I loved the characters in this story and I loved the way the RaeAnne unwrapped their stories page by page, getting you completely invested in what will happen to them in the end.

One book that I highly recommend and a series that I look forward to continuing!

I love how light-hearted Thayne's series can be, while also peppering in her series with a few really sensitive and heart-wrenching characters. And that is truly what Elizabeth and Luke Hamilton are. The story was beautifully done and emotional. Don't save it just for Christmas - it is a delight any time of the year.

This book is part of an ongoing series that I have not read any of before this one but I had no trouble following along as the author gives you enough backstory to have you fully understand the story. I found the story a little bit emotional at stages but overall the story keep me reading along.

The first one is Cowboy Christmas Redemption by Maisey Yates. What a fun read!




AUTHOR BIO:



New York Times Bestselling author Maisey Yates lives in rural Oregon with her three children and her husband, whose chiseled jaw and arresting features continue to make her swoon. She feels the epic trek she takes several times a day from her office to her coffee maker is a true example of her pioneer spirit.
BOOK SUMMARY:
As snowflakes fall in Gold Valley, Oregon, will this rugged cowboy finally win the woman of his dreams?

Cowboy Caleb Dalton has loved single mom Ellie Bell, and her little daughter, Amelia, for years. But since Ellie is his best friend’s widow, Caleb’s head knows Ellie will always be strictly off-limits. If only his heart got the memo. So when Caleb discovers that Ellie has a Christmas wish list—and hopes for a kiss under the mistletoe—he’s throwing his cowboy hat into the ring. If anyone’s going to be kissing Ellie and sharing this magical time with her and her daughter, it’s him.

Ellie has dreaded the holidays since losing her husband. But this year, she’s finally ready to make some changes. She never expects the biggest change to be the heart-stopping kiss she shares with Caleb. For almost five years, Caleb has been her best friend, her rock, her salvation. This Christmas, can Caleb prove he’s also the missing puzzle piece of Ellie’s and Amelia’s hearts?

As a part of a series, I always worry I am not going to understand all the moving parts. In this case, I had nothing to worry about. Even though it is a part of a series, it can be read as a stand alone book. I have to say, I read very few books where a male is the main character. I found it refreshing to look at romance from the view of a romantic male. For this reason alone I would highly recommend this book. However, there is a lot more to love! The stories behind the scene of Caleb's parents is interesting and will touch a lot of people.



Last, but for sure not least, is Coming Home for Christmas by RaeAnne Thayne. It is the ultimate Christmas story, and one that I couldn't resist as the last review. Go on, go read about it!

AUTHOR BIO:



New York Times bestselling author RaeAnne Thayne finds inspiration in the beautiful northern Utah mountains where she lives with her family. Her books have won numerous honors, including six RITA Award nominations from Romance Writers of America and Career Achievement and Romance Pioneer awards from RT Book Reviews. She loves to hear from readers and can be reached through her website at www.raeannethayne.com.