New review is now up.

*****

Adelaide Davies has come back to Whiskey Creek to take care of her ailing grandmother and help run the family restaurant, but home is the last place that Addy wants to be.  Fifteen years ago a terrible thing happened and she wants nothing more than to be able to leave the past, the town and everyone involved with that night behind.  But until she can decide what her future holds, she’s going to do her best to avoid the men responsible for the event that changed everything all those years ago.  After all, they all have something to hide, including her.  Noah Rackham is stunned when Addy rebuffs his overtures of friendship, but he doesn’t know that for Addy he’s a living, breathing reminder of what she’s trying to escape.  Noah isn’t easily deterred, though, especially once he realizes that he may have finally found a woman he wants to commit to.

The story in Home to Whiskey Creek is so heartbreaking.  The secrets that Addy has kept all of these years, the load she’s had to carry, could easily have broken her.  But she’s survived – maybe not thrived exactly, but she definitely showed how strong she is.  You feel for her every step of the way as she tries to go about her day to day life in Whiskey Creek without making waves and disrupting the lives of those around her.  But she just can’t resist Noah …. and honestly I’m not sure anyone could.  He’s smart, sexy, charming and caring.  He’s also very self-assured and never met anyone that didn’t like him, so Addy’s avoidance is a challenge to him.  Then she turns into something more.  I don’t know how he finds it in himself to handle everything that is thrown at him before the book is over but his strength is just one more thing that makes him so appealing.

I honestly don’t know how Brenda Novak continues to give readers books that just keep getting better and better.  I’ve said it before with When Lightning Strikes, When Snow Falls and When Summer Comes, and I’m going to say it again here:  every time I read one of her “Whiskey Creek” books I think that she can’t top it …. and she proves me wrong with the next one.  Highlighting a close-knit small town and an even closer group of friends, Novak’s latest deals with some potentially life-alterring secrets that could shatter a community.  How will they deal if the truth comes out?

Home to Whiskey Creek is the fourth book in the “Whiskey Creek” series (not counting her When We Touch novella) and returning readers will get a little more in the Baxter/Noah drama plus a few updates abut the couples that have appeared in the previous books.  But unfortunately we don’t really get too much about what is coming next, just some broad hints.  With this group of friends though, and Novak’s incredible skill as a writer, it is sure to be another emotional powder keg.  If you haven’t read any of Novak’s other books, go out right now and pick them up.  You will not be disappointed.