August 1939. Roger Miller and Jack O’Brien have been close since childhood. By the time they realize there’s more between them than friendship, Jack is leaving their sleepy Iowa town for college. But they console themselves knowing he’ll be home for Christmas. Right? It is Christmas before they see each other again, but that Christmas comes six years and a world war later. Aged, beaten, and … shaken by combat, they’re not the boys they were back then, but their feelings for each other are stronger than ever.Neither know the words to say everything they’ve carried since that peacetime summer kiss, though. Even as they stand in the same room, there’s a thousand miles between them. But maybe that’s some distance the little angel in Roger’s rucksack can cross.This 24,000 word novella is part of the Christmas Angel series, and can be read as a standalone.
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Disclaimer – I have a book in this series of books … but… I had to review. I read Christmas Homecoming last night and finished the whole story in one sitting, with a ball of emotion trapped in my chest, and a few tears (sad and happy). Highly recommended…
Another historical book in the Christmas Angel series, and the second one I have read, after Eli Easton’s Christmas Angel. First, I must say I actually really love the premise with the angel figurine. It was made in the first book, but it took until this book for me, to see the angel ‘in action’. I loved how it appeared to Roger, and helped him through the war and then to reconnect with Jack.
War stories always fill me with the deep sadness, but it is even worse when it comes to the fact that people have to hide their sexuality, their love, just because it was deemed wrong by some assholes in power who then managed to convince other people to think the same.
Another thing that threatened to break me, right from the beginning, was the talk of ‘being home for Christmas’. I know in this sense it was more about Jack coming home from college, but I kept remembering how the soldiers from the First World War were convinced that they will be home by Christmas.
The fact that Roger and Jack’s ways parted even before the war, and especially when the war started, was well done. It isn’t easy to keep contact with someone now when they move abroad, and with letters it must have been even harder. And war of course, breaks all plans. But I loved how they managed to bridge that gap later.
The epilogue itself also gave me warm fuzzies when they decided they will be bachelors living in the same place, and compared themselves to the couple of bachelors they knew. I found it interesting though, that that worked, considering how intent people were about sexuality and marriage.
I liked the book a lot, it tried to break my heart, but it also had happiness at the end, of course.
And the Angel went missing, obviously. I wonder who she’ll help next
There’s a sweet HEA at the end of this lovely second-chance romance. Their boyhood relationship was interrupted, as so many lives were, by WWII. They survived the horrors of war and returned home only to have to fight to live their own lives their own way. LA Witt tells a powerful story of love and devotion.
The angel and her magic have made it to WWII and a soldier’s rucksack. Most of the story takes place just after the war and revolves around childhood friends, Roger and Jack. With only the one heated kiss before Jack leaves for college, the pair promise to see each other at Christmas. Of course, the war changes that, and it’s six years before these two see each other again. The author does an impressive job with the balance between the whimsy and magic of the angel and the reality of post war life for a soldier while also giving us the angst of a forbidden romance. Both Jack and Roger are likable characters and their feelings for each other do come through loud and clear. This is a novella, so things wrap up quickly, but it still manages to be a well-rounded romance, and the angel adds the perfect touch of Christmas magic.
Best friends share one stolen kiss only to be separated until Christmas. And then a war separates them for much longer. They each come back changed men with more fears and hesitations than before, but also more longing. Maybe with the help of a Christmas angel found half a world away they can find the courage to share what’s in their hearts and get a second chance at a forever happiness.
Roger and Jack are both so hesitant but their slow-burn is believable. I liked how they came together and the end was wonderful with the epilogue. It really brought them all the way around from their cautious, youthful beginning. There was a great inclusion of reality and sensitivities of the time, how they worked around it while not letting that angst come between them in the end, and that keeping their love was far more important than keeping up the pretense of societal expectations. Neither man, however, had a voice that was distinct from one another and I didn’t connect to them individually. On the whole, though, this was a sweet story despite finding it to be less captivating than I was hoping for.