Title: Welcome Home For Christmas
Series: A Hero’s Welcome #4
Author: Annie Rains
Genre: Contemporary Christmas Romance
Published: November 8, 2016
Publisher: Random House Publishing – Loveswept
My Rating: 4 stars
Source: NetGalley
Cover Description:
Three-hundred-and-sixty-four days a year, Allison Carmichael doesn’t mind being single. It sure beats dating another loser, and it keeps her heart safe. Then there’s that three-hundred-and-sixty-fifth day: Christmas Eve, the traditional time her entire family gathers together—and gangs up on her, demanding to know when she’s going to get married. This year, she swears, is going be different. And that’s why, at a charity auction she’s throwing on-base, she buys herself a man.
Sergeant Troy Matthews insists that he’s not for sale. His time is, though, and he’s happy to donate it. Happier still when he learns the identity of the winning bidder: the redhead with the killer good looks and smart mouth who runs the veteran’s center. Allison needs Troy’s help to fool her family into believing they’re an item, and he’s all too happy to indulge her. But by the time Christmas Eve rolls around, their little charade is working a little too well . . . because Troy’s falling head over heels.
Titles in this series include: Welcome To Forever, Welcome Home Cowboy, Welcoming The Bad Boy, Welcome Home For Christmas
Read on for my thoughts on Welcome Home For Christmas. No true spoilers, promise.
Family dynamics and expectations are such a mine field – especially around the holidays. Allison and Troy know this all too well. But this year is going to be different. What starts out as a harebrained idea will turn into a friendship to cherish and a love that defies all expectations when it turns into a treasure to last a lifetime. It’s not going to be an easy journey. There are issues to be dealt with, family to navigate and perhaps most of all, each has to decide what is most important to them – family expectations or knowing deep in the heart that this is perfect, flaws and all, for them.
Welcome Home For Christmas gives us a true hero in Troy. Protective, a bit stubborn and a man who would do anything for family, country and the woman he’s come to love. Allison is a strong, likable woman with one major flaw – she cannot trust her own decisions and will give way far too easily to others around her with their own agenda. Oh, don’t get me wrong… I love this couple and they are a perfect match for each other. This story brings to the forefront how we will often allow our family to govern our choices in life. The only one we can trust to have our own best interests at heart is ourselves, no matter how much we are loved by others. It’s our choice, our decision that has to have the top priority in our lives. Allison has allowed her mother’s professional advice to rule her romantic life for far too long. Maybe the guys were as bad as her mother said or maybe she simply saw them that way because of the flaws her mom pointed out.
I needed Allison to trust herself, her own instincts, her own emotions… and in the end she did just that. It’s not easy taking a risk, trusting that what we feel is real and lasting. But without the risks we take, life is very stale and lonely.
Troy and Allison’s story is full of laugh out loud moments, tender moments and completely frustrating times. But then, so is life. For them the choice they made was worth the risk. If you love Romance then I believe Welcome Home For Christmas is a story you’ll enjoy and want to read again. I would definitely recommend this story and the entire series.
*I received an e-ARC of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley. That does not change what I think of this novel. It is my choice to leave a review giving my personal opinion about this story.*
Available for the Kindle
