Deck the Halls by Donna Alward – a Review

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Description:
In the last year, George’s life has drastically changed. The formerly homeless veteran now has a job he likes, a family in the residents of Darling, VT, and for the first time in years, a home. But while his present is good, he’s still haunted by the past, a past that appears shortly before Christmas when the older sister of his brother-in-arms hunts him down and finds him in Darling, working at the Ladybug Garden Center.

Amy’s looking for closure for her family after her brother’s death in the Middle East, but the serious man she finds working in Vermont doesn’t resemble the soldier she remembers from years before. This man is hardened and yet somehow fragile, too, and in her desire to find out what really happened to her brother, she learns more about George than she ever expected.

With a little Christmas magic and the whole town supporting them, can these two bruised hearts make a future together?

Review:

Deck the Halls by Donna Alward is a novella that is part of her wonderful  Darling, VT series.  Each book in this series is sweet heartwarming romances, and Deck the Halls continues this trend.  I loved this book, and the couple that we fell in love with from the start.

George, whom we met in the first book of this series, is a homeless veteran, who has PTSD.  Laurel and Aiden (the first book couple) befriended him and helped him slowly restart his life.   In Deck the Halls, George is our hero, starting to find a life working for Laurel, at the Garden Center;  living in a small apartment, and slowly allowing himself to make friends.  The past though still haunts him, which he never talks about.

Amy Merck, our heroine, comes to Darling looking for George to find closure on the death of her twin brother, who was George’s best friend and died in the Middle East.  When George sees Amy, he is shocked and immediately closes up, refusing to discuss anything with the past. When he tells her to leave, Amy sees he is not the same person.   The next day she returns, apologizing for not respecting his wishes.  She convinces him to go to lunch just to talk to each other, even if he can’t discuss what happened to change him so drastically.

What follows is a slow built romance that was very touching.  Amy herself had her own issues, having been divorced, but she was simply wonderful trying to slowly get George to open up and try to tell her what happened.  Slowly George will begin to trust Amy, and tell her how her brother died.  He blamed himself, but she knows from his descriptions that he was not at fault.  Amy was a fantastic heroine, as she did everything in her power to show George how much everyone in Darling cares about him, and to give their relationship a chance, as well as fight those demons that was destroying his life.

Donna Alward once again, gives us a wonderful story, with a fantastic couple, wonderful secondary characters, and showing us the terrible scars of PTSD.  Deck the Halls was a touching and heartwarming story, with a beautiful Christmas themed background.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher