Her Christmas Homecoming

Book Review: Her Christmas Homecoming by Shirley Wine (Rainbow Cove Christmas #3)

This is the third book in this series and, even though I have read the other two, I read them last year and admit I don’t remember much about them. I do know I was pretty disappointed in them. And this one? Well…

It’s not horrible but it still misses the mark. I think my biggest issue is the conflict was too weak. (This seems to be the general problem with most romances I’ve read of late.) There’s no real reason the hero and heroine can’t get together. This means Wine tries to add some along the way and she doesn’t manage to pull this off well at all. This vain attempt by Wine to add a little bit of tension towards the end unfortunately ends up ruining any chance the book had of winning me over, with the heroine suddenly sounding like a snobby shrew. I’m not sure if that was what Wine was intending.

Talking of tension, there was not much sexual tension between the leads. There was a bit of a nice moment where they were making music together (literally) and Wine could have taken advantage and made this a little sensual but it was wasted because, by this time, they’d already been intimate.

There was also this part right at the end, almost an epilogue, which was completely wasted. It was an okay idea and I don’t understand why Wine didn’t just use this as the plot/conflict, instead of the usual ‘returning to your hometown and meeting up with your first love’ trope. (I feel like writers need to take a break from this trope. Seriously.)

Wine also never took full advantage of the setting (supposedly a coastal area in Queensland), the foodporn (the chef from the other books is mentioned again) or the heartbreak of having a parent who is a hoarder and suffering from dementia.

Christmas is… mentioned but it is a fleeting mention. And in fact, unless I messed up the timeline somewhere along the line, the hero even has a bit of a working bee with one of his employees on Christmas Day. Not what most of us do usually…

Anyway, 2 wasted opportunities out of 5 maybe?

His Christmas Feast

Book Review: His Christmas Feast by Nora James (Rainbow Cove Christmas #1)

I wanted to like this and it did start promising, however, it went downhill pretty quickly. Emily of the sad Christmas back story lives next door to French chef, Christophe. And apparently her sad Christmas back story is an excuse for her to be a total bitch to a guy who pretty much should be the perfect neighbour. (No dogs or all night parties or any other reason is really given as to Emily’s issues – there was the wonky fence which resulted in him seeing through it to her in her pjs in the backyard, I guess. This doesn’t seem enough for her bitter attitude.)

Look, I *love* the old hate-to-love trope, but this one just took things a step too far. Emily is just plain rude. I mean, not to spoil, but one of her things is deliberately calling Christophe ‘Christopher’ even though she knows this is the incorrect pronunciation. That’s not funny or quirky or sexy! It might even be classed as slightly racist.

Instead of UST simmering between the characters, there’s a case for an AVO, or at least a Dispute Resolution Officer coming out to sort out their arguments!

What do I know though because despite all this the characters constantly think about how hot the other is. This *really* started to annoy me (can you tell?). Gods forbid if a romance was based on someone’s personality or intellect or similar likes or ability to make someone laugh. All those people who love Love Island might understand this whole ‘even though she’s spewing out constant vitriol, she’s hot’ mentality but it’s not for me. I need my characters, especially my heroines, to have some redeeming features and I’m afraid Emily has zero. Everyone has a sad story, this doesn’t give you an excuse to be the rudest person on earth.

Couldn’t go on after about 70%.

1 1/2 out of 5

PS The 1 1/2 comes from the food porn (Christophe is a chef after all) and the fact that it is truly a Christmas book with a Christmas setting.