Title: Home For Christmas
Series: Sanctuary Island #4
Author: Lily Everett
Genre: Christmas Romance, Contemporary Romance
Published: October 6, 2015
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
My Rating: 5 stars
Source: NetGalley
Cover Description:
Magazine columnist Libby Leeds has made a name for herself sharing heartwarming stories from her perfect life on Sanctuary Island. There’s just one minor detail she’s left out: she hasn’t set foot on the island since her childhood. Orphaned and heartbroken, she departed years ago and never looked back-except in her fictional columns. Now a wounded war hero is returning to Sanctuary Island, and Libby’s editor insists she cover the story by taking the long road back…
HOME FOR CHRISTMAS
Army Ranger Owen Shepard is a tall, handsome single father, and now a media sensation. He wants to reconnect with his daughter, Caitlin, and make up for lost time by giving her a Christmas to remember. When “America’s Favorite Homemaker” Libby Leeds offers her help, he jumps at the chance. But the sweet, reclusive writer is more intriguing, and more tempting, than Owen could have imagined. Soon, Owen and Caitlin are spending their holiday with Libby, decorating trees, making gingerbread houses, and warming up by the fire. It’s the closest Libby has come to love and family since she was a child-but until she and Owen admit what is in their hearts, the home they are creating together will be only in their dreams.
Read on for my thoughts on Home for Christmas. No true spoilers, promise.
How do you go home again, to a place you’ve written about, described in detail and introduced the small town to a very large audience – when you haven’t truly lived there for a very, very long time? Libby has been living a lie for a long time. She’s described Sanctuary Island to her readers, cooked for them and shared family and town stories… all based from her imagination. Now her lie has been exposed, she’s come clean and the repercussions are huge. In order to avoid legal troubles, Libby has to head back home and make a wonderful, dream Christmas for a wounded veteran and his newly discovered daughter. Tree trimmed, dinner cooked, happy all the way. If not Libby could be looking at charges of fraud.
Libby left Sanctuary Island years ago. She had never intended to return. Yes, she created a fictional life there and filled it with childhood memories and stories – some remembered vaguely the rest pure fiction. She knew it was wrong and that if she hadn’t cleared the air that she’d get caught and in big trouble – but the words just kept flowing from her keyboard. Now she has to face Sanctuary Island once again and create a Christmas miracle.
Owen wants nothing more than to get healed up and back to his men. As an Army Ranger, Owen has a job to do and it doesn’t include being on an island with a daughter he just discovered, a happy homemaker wannabe or a recovery time that’s too long in his opinion. Yes, he wants Caitlin to have a Christmas to remember. he might be a new father but he’s not heartless. He’s simply lost at being a father, a civilian or a man who is finding Libby way too inviting for his own good.
Home for Christmas is a heartwarming story of redemption and a chance at love. Owen and Libby may seem like an unusual couple but each holds the answer to what the other needs most. Charming, laugh out loud at times and a very engaging story. I would recommend this Christmas love story to anyone who enjoys a good story, full of characters who could live in your home town.
*I received an e-ARC of Home For Christmas from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. That does not change what I think of this novel.*
Available in paperback and for the Kindle
