Home to Whiskey Creek by Brenda Novak Series: Whiskey Creek #4
Series Rating:
Published by MIRA on July 30th 2013
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 416
Format: eBook
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RT READER'S CHOICE WINNER Sometimes home is the refuge you need—and sometimes it isn't Adelaide Davies, who's been living in Sacramento, returns to Whiskey Creek, the place she once called home. She's there to take care of her aging grandmother and to help with Gran's restaurant, Just Like Mom's. But Adelaide isn't happy to be back. There are too many people here she'd rather avoid, people who were involved in that terrible June night fifteen years ago. Ever since the graduation party that changed her life, she's wanted to go to the police and make sure the boys responsible—men now—are punished. But she can't, not without revealing an even darker secret. So it's better to pretend…. Noah Rackham, popular, attractive, successful, is shocked when Adelaide won't have anything to do with him. He has no idea that his very presence reminds her of something she'd rather forget. He only knows that he's finally met a woman he could love.www.brendanovak.com
I usually enjoy a good small-town romance, and I’ve even enjoyed some of the Whiskey Creek books, but I had a lot of issues with this one. First of all, I can’t, for even a second, imagine that a woman was so in love with a high school crush who she never even had a conversation with that her marriage failed because she couldn’t get over it. And I have an extremely difficult time believing that that same woman would retain such intense feelings for a man whose identical twin instigated and participated in gang raping her at 15.
I also have a real problem with how Baxter is treated in this book. Every single person in town seems to know that Baxter is gay except his parents and his best friend, Noah. Noah’s reaction to Baxter’s declaration of love was completely wrong for this type of book. Instead of being supportive, Noah blows him off for days. I get that Baxter came out to Noah by kissing him, which was a mistake for anyone, but for Noah to do exactly what Baxter had been worried about and react the way he did was too much for me. I hate the “I love you so much; you’re my best friend! Oh, you’re gay? Get away from me! You’re disgusting” reaction in real people as it is, I don’t need to see it in a romance novel. And his decision to go to Baxter’s parents and out him?? Are you kidding me?? In what world is that acceptable? I hope Baxter follows through on his current plan to move to San Francisco and leaves these people behind.
I also didn’t love how a previous dealt with pit bulls, so it may just be time for Whiskey Creek and I to part company.
