Coming Home for Christmas is a story I will never forget and the highlight of this series for me. ~ Amanda – Guilty Pleasures Book Reviews
Synopsis:
Hearts are lighter and wishes burn a little brighter at Christmas…
Elizabeth Hamilton has been lost. Trapped in a tangle of postpartum depression and grief after the death of her beloved parents, she couldn’t quite see the way back to her husband and their two beautiful kids…until a car accident stole away her memories and changed her life. And when she finally remembered the sound of little Cassie’s laugh, the baby powder smell of Bridger and the feel of her husband’s hand in hers, Elizabeth worried that they’d moved on without her. That she’d missed too much. That perhaps she wasn’t the right mother for her kids or wife for Luke, no matter how much she loved them.
But now, seven years later, Luke finds her in a nearby town and brings Elizabeth back home to the family she loves, just in time for Christmas. And being reunited with Luke and her children is better than anything Elizabeth could have imagined. As they all trim the tree and bake cookies, making new holiday memories, Elizabeth and Luke are drawn ever closer. Can the hurt of the past seven years be healed over the course of one Christmas season and bring the Hamiltons the gift of a new beginning?
RaeAnne Thayne is an utter genius and this story performed a miracle on my heart. Coming Home for Christmas is Luke & Elizabeth Hamilton’s second chance story and it did something I thought could never happen from a 
romance story. The author was able to flip my feelings toward Elizabeth 180 degrees from ‘You can’t take her back’ to ‘I’m so glad that they are back together.’ We are first introduced to their story in The Cottages of Silver Beach and A Soldier’s Return, when Elizabeth went missing one night, and after 7 years of waiting and searching, she was found in a coastal town in Oregon. The story opens up with Luke finally confronting her, and orders her to return home to Haven Point, in order to clear his name of murder. It wasn’t an easy reunion, and she did go back with him, but it took a heartbreaking story to reveal why she left in the first place. I’m a hard critic to please and I believe the author created a believable and acceptable reason for leaving and being out of the picture. How Luke and his two children go from being on their own, to accepting Elizabeth back into their life wasn’t an easy transition, but it took a slow process to get over the hurt and anger, and begin healing with love, acceptance and forgiveness.
Coming Home for Christmas is a story I will never forget and the highlight of this series for me. Feelings were never sugarcoated and a great deal of time was spent expressing the hurt and the scorn that the situation created when Elizabeth disappeared. Luke did his best to protect his children but he was living an insulated life and only going through the motions to get by day by day. Elizabeth had to accept her role in her family’s current situation and that was a hard pill to swallow. She had to learn to not sell herself short and have courage to move forward with strength and patience. The epilogue was a nice touch because it showed the progress the family made together and that it did have highs and lows, and that they were dealing with it as a family. I loved this story and my admiration for this author has greatly increased in awe of her writing talent.
