The Heart of Christmas (Whiskey Creek #7) by Brenda Novak-a review

The Heart of Christmas
Whiskey Creek #7
by Brenda Novak
Genre: adult,contemporary, romance
Release Date: October 24, 2014

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date October 28, 2014

Just call her Christmas Eve…
Eve Harmon has always enjoyed Christmas, but this year it reminds her of everything she doesn’t have. Almost all her friends are married now, and that’s what Eve wants, too. Love. A husband and kids of her own. But the B and B she manages, and even Whiskey Creek, the small Gold Country town where she was born and raised, suddenly seem…confining.

Eve’s worried that her future will simply be a reflection of her past. There’s no one in the area she could even imagine as a husband—until a handsome stranger comes to town. Eve’s definitely attracted to him, and he seems to have the same reaction to her. But his darkly mysterious past could ruin Eve’s happily ever after—just when it finally seems within reach. And just when she’s counting on the best Christmas of her life!

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REVIEW: THE HEART OF CHRISTMAS is the seventh installment in Brenda Novak’s adult, contemporary Whiskey Creek romance series focusing on the men and women of Whiskey Creek-a small gold mining town in California. This is Little Mary’s B&B proprietor Eve Harmon and Rex (Brent) Taylor’s storyline. Although THE HEART OF CHRISTMAS is the seventh installment in the Whiskey Creek series it can be read as a stand alone with little difficulty. There are several continuing plot points from previous stories that will overlap in The Heart of Christmas.

Told from two close third person points of view, THE HEART OF CHRISTMAS focuses on Whiskey Creek resident Eve Harmon. Waking up to a stranger in her bed, on the morning of her thirty fifth birthday, Eve is desperate to remember what happened the night before. But the handsome man isn’t talking; he is apparently a guest at Little Mary’s B&B; and he keeps his secrets and history to himself. As Eve struggles with the embarrassment of her one-night stand, her friends begin to gather some background information about the man whose secretive history becomes more mysterious and darker as the storyline builds.

Rex (Brent) Taylor is a stranger to Whiskey Creek. He is a man with a secreted past-a past that will bring some major trouble to the small, sleepy Gold Country town in California. He knows his time with Eve is limited to the Christmas holidays and he places an expiration date on their friendship and sex. The sex between Brent and Eve is passionate, addictive and arousing, and Brent is having a difficult time letting go.

THE HEART OF CHRISTMAS is an ensemble storyline where many of the previous storyline couples and characters play a supporting and secondary role including Cheyenne and Dylan (Whiskey Creek #2) and Eve’s ex boyfriend Ted Dixon and Sophia DeBussi (Whiskey Creek #5). There are two additional side stories that detract somewhat from the main premise—Eve’s ex boyfriend Ted is a writer who continues to investigate the decades old murder of Little Mary (one of the original residents of the house) and the subsequent haunting at the B&B. He is also determined to uncover the truth behind Brent’s hidden past because almost everything Brent has revealed to Eve has been a lie. Eve has been a regular throughout the series and has an established friendship and history with most of the storyline characters. She is desperate to find love, start a family and live life with a happily ever after. Then there is Cheyenne and Dylan’s continuing story-one whose family will grow with the addition of a new baby-one whose inception and conception are questionable and fuel for a future, storyline heartbreak.

Brenda Novak’s Whiskey Creek series is an intimate look at friendships, family, falling in love and letting go. The characters are passionate, emotional and intense; their unwavering support for one another adds moments of anguish, heartbreak, color and acceptance. THE HEART OF CHRISTMAS concludes with a happily ever after for now but there is nothing immediately permanent about the relationship between Eve and Brent-one based upon a lie and a drunken one-night stand.

Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy