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A review by cro777
Coming Home for Christmas by RaeAnne Thayne
3.0
I received RaeAnne Thayne's book, Coming Home for Christmas, from the publisher as part of a holiday romance blog tour that was scheduled to be rolling through. I thought the cover was pretty and the title fit, so this book would be a good one to read during the holidays! I have never read anything from RaeAnne Thayne before, but I knew that her books were often on the tops of the lists espeically when it came to women's literature and adult romance.
I will say that overall, this story was a little strange for me but I did enjoy Thayne's writing style and the way she writes characters and the interpersonal relationships. In this book, she did an excellent job writing the male character (Luke). Sometimes he reads as a bit too dreamy and perfect, but it is quite refreshing to read a book where the male isn't a bad person and someone who genuinely loves his children and wants to create a happy and healthy home for them. While Thayne's characterization of him is a bit dreamy and vague, his character still points to those aspects of what being a good parent and husband should be: unconditional love and tenderness, empathy, understanding, and the ability to change and adapt.
Along with writing characters, Thayne is also really well versed in writing the relationship between children and parents. This is brought to light in this story with the relationship between Elizabeth and her daughter Cassie. Even though this is just a story, we are still able to imagine the settings and the people so vividly. One of my favorite moments was when the relationship between Cassie and Elizabeth finally begins to heal; Thayne highlights that with her writing and leaves it open for our interpretation. Just as the character experienced those quiet moments and awkward silences between glances up, we get to experience them with them and watch as relationships change and develop.
So, I enjoyed the writing in this book but what I got really caught up on at first was the overall storyline of Elizabeth and how she ran away from her family (in order to protect them from herself), and then never tried to rekindle anything or even let her family grieve her disappearance. While I don't have any issues with this story itself, I think that the way it is written in this story is also very dreamy and not realistic. I don't know that this is how this sort of story would play out in real life; it would take a Christmas miracle for it to work the way it did, in my opinion. I am also still shaken by how easily Luke forgave Elizabeth and let her back into his life and his children's life completely. I just feel like there would be some sort of trial period within the family or even for a relationship instead of how quickly everything happened. As I read this book I did suspend my belief for those cases and read this for the Christmas story it was featuring.
Overall, this was a nice book to read to help get the holiday spirit going. The overall story was not what I really expected, with the disappearing wife and mother, but it did end up being one that was full of love and hope and set during the Christmas holiday. Thank you to the publisher for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I had fun reading this while drinking hot cocoa!
I will say that overall, this story was a little strange for me but I did enjoy Thayne's writing style and the way she writes characters and the interpersonal relationships. In this book, she did an excellent job writing the male character (Luke). Sometimes he reads as a bit too dreamy and perfect, but it is quite refreshing to read a book where the male isn't a bad person and someone who genuinely loves his children and wants to create a happy and healthy home for them. While Thayne's characterization of him is a bit dreamy and vague, his character still points to those aspects of what being a good parent and husband should be: unconditional love and tenderness, empathy, understanding, and the ability to change and adapt.
Along with writing characters, Thayne is also really well versed in writing the relationship between children and parents. This is brought to light in this story with the relationship between Elizabeth and her daughter Cassie. Even though this is just a story, we are still able to imagine the settings and the people so vividly. One of my favorite moments was when the relationship between Cassie and Elizabeth finally begins to heal; Thayne highlights that with her writing and leaves it open for our interpretation. Just as the character experienced those quiet moments and awkward silences between glances up, we get to experience them with them and watch as relationships change and develop.
So, I enjoyed the writing in this book but what I got really caught up on at first was the overall storyline of Elizabeth and how she ran away from her family (in order to protect them from herself), and then never tried to rekindle anything or even let her family grieve her disappearance. While I don't have any issues with this story itself, I think that the way it is written in this story is also very dreamy and not realistic. I don't know that this is how this sort of story would play out in real life; it would take a Christmas miracle for it to work the way it did, in my opinion. I am also still shaken by how easily Luke forgave Elizabeth and let her back into his life and his children's life completely. I just feel like there would be some sort of trial period within the family or even for a relationship instead of how quickly everything happened. As I read this book I did suspend my belief for those cases and read this for the Christmas story it was featuring.
Overall, this was a nice book to read to help get the holiday spirit going. The overall story was not what I really expected, with the disappearing wife and mother, but it did end up being one that was full of love and hope and set during the Christmas holiday. Thank you to the publisher for providing me a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I had fun reading this while drinking hot cocoa!