Scan barcode
A review by beckymmoe
A Cold Creek Reunion includes bonus story by RaeAnne Thayne
3.0
This book had a lot of potential and while it was pretty good and did keep me reading it, it just didn't seem to quite deliver all I was hoping for.
Laura and Taft had been engaged once--ten years earlier, when both were probably too young to truly make such a decision. Taft, two years older, had been Laura's crush since seventh grade. They were good friends until they were both out of school, when they became more.
Six months before their planned wedding, Taft's family suffered a major trauma. Everyone deals with devastating grief in their own way, and Taft's way was to pretend everything was fine on the surface (of course the wedding should go on as planned! No need to postpone!) while pushing everyone close to him away--including Laura, of course--and drowning his sorrows at the local bar. Just before the wedding, Laura left him, running off to Madrid. By the time Taft finally had his act together, Laura had already married someone else.
Fast forward ten years--Laura's lying, cheating, scum of a husband is dead and she's brought her two children back home to help her mother run the family inn. Taft, now the fire chief, is temporarily staying at the inn in exchange for free carpentry work (his rental agreement is up on his apartment, but the house he's building isn't quite ready yet.) The two are constantly thrown together, and of course Laura's children are just as charmed by Taft as he is with them. All is good, right? They just have to let go of the past and agree to go forward, then?
And after some initial "we're going to avoid each other like the plague" moments, it seems like they're going to. Taft and Laura talk. They admit they were too young and hadn't dealt with the situation as well as they should have. Except wait--no, Laura's still going to blame Taft for being a player, even though he hasn't done a single thing since she's been back to hold up that theory. Ah, and then she's going to hold up the "I can't let my kids get too involved, they've already been disappointed by their father" card. Argh. What could have been a nice, sweet story of love redeemed becomes a bit confused as Laura seemingly takes ten giant steps back in their relationship for no apparent reason other than her sudden fear that Taft will turn out to be just like her dead husband. What followed was pretty frustrating to read for a while, since her digging in of her heels just didn't make much sense to me. She finally comes around--VERY quickly--and we have the expected HEA. It just seemed like it could have happened about fifty pages earlier, to be honest--less painful for everyone involved.
Laura and Taft had been engaged once--ten years earlier, when both were probably too young to truly make such a decision. Taft, two years older, had been Laura's crush since seventh grade. They were good friends until they were both out of school, when they became more.
Six months before their planned wedding, Taft's family suffered a major trauma. Everyone deals with devastating grief in their own way, and Taft's way was to pretend everything was fine on the surface (of course the wedding should go on as planned! No need to postpone!) while pushing everyone close to him away--including Laura, of course--and drowning his sorrows at the local bar. Just before the wedding, Laura left him, running off to Madrid. By the time Taft finally had his act together, Laura had already married someone else.
Fast forward ten years--Laura's lying, cheating, scum of a husband is dead and she's brought her two children back home to help her mother run the family inn. Taft, now the fire chief, is temporarily staying at the inn in exchange for free carpentry work (his rental agreement is up on his apartment, but the house he's building isn't quite ready yet.) The two are constantly thrown together, and of course Laura's children are just as charmed by Taft as he is with them. All is good, right? They just have to let go of the past and agree to go forward, then?
And after some initial "we're going to avoid each other like the plague" moments, it seems like they're going to. Taft and Laura talk. They admit they were too young and hadn't dealt with the situation as well as they should have. Except wait--no, Laura's still going to blame Taft for being a player, even though he hasn't done a single thing since she's been back to hold up that theory. Ah, and then she's going to hold up the "I can't let my kids get too involved, they've already been disappointed by their father" card. Argh. What could have been a nice, sweet story of love redeemed becomes a bit confused as Laura seemingly takes ten giant steps back in their relationship for no apparent reason other than her sudden fear that Taft will turn out to be just like her dead husband. What followed was pretty frustrating to read for a while, since her digging in of her heels just didn't make much sense to me. She finally comes around--VERY quickly--and we have the expected HEA. It just seemed like it could have happened about fifty pages earlier, to be honest--less painful for everyone involved.