Home for Christmas

Home for Christmas By Melissa McClone

Since childhood Rachel Murphy has dreamed of owning her own bakery.  Just weeks prior to seeing her dreams become a reality she discovers that she trusted the wrong people, and now she not only has no bakery, but also no money and no job.  She decides to spend Christmas with her brother in Montana in order to clear her head, and plan her next move.  If she can make a little money on the side making gingerbread, all the better.

Nate Vaughn always knew that eventually he would inherit the Bar V5 ranch one day, but he never anticipated rescuing the ranch from the bad decisions his father made while his health was declining.  Thanks to the quick thinking of his foreman, Ty, and his marketing ingenuity he was able to keep the ranch in one piece.  Now Ty's sister is staying with him for Christmas and if there is one thing Nate knows, it's that if he wants to keep Ty around he needs find a way to ensure Rachel's happiness.  But can Rachel's happiness and his coincide?

I really love Christmas stories!  As a teenager my mother would buy the Silhouette Annual Christmas Anthologies at Kmart and I would make a game of trying to steal them before she got a chance to read them.  Now, with the invention of digital books, novellas can be bought and enjoyed individually.

This was a sweet little story that really spoke of family, friendship, and a town coming together in the spirit of the holidays.  I loved how Nate really was worried about Ty and was conflicted between his feelings for Rachel, his friendship with Ty, and the fact that Ty truly was irreplaceable business-wise.

This is also a continuation of the Marietta, Montana story lines created in the Copper Mountain Rodeo Series.  Many of the characters step in for a visit, and some new characters pop-up who will play parts in later stories.

Overall, this is a great holiday read and will make you really want to throw your inhibitions to the wind and make a killer gingerbread house.

Ratings:

(1=unacceptable, 2=poor, 3=acceptable, 4=good, 5=excellent)

Continuity/Flow – 5

Sex – 4 

Language – 4

Storyline – 4

Overall – 4