I’ll Be Home For Christmas | Lori Wilde | Review + Giveaway

I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Christmas in Twilight, Texas, is all merriment and mistletoe. The Cookie Club is whipping up their most festive sweets, the townspeople are scrambling to get their holiday shopping done, and Joe—a hometown guy with a restless heart—is dreaming about the woman he wants to kiss most . . .
. . . And who happens to be staying at his sister's place over the holidays, while Joe's sister is away. But Joe isn't quite sure he wants to be a living Christmas present to runaway law student Gabi Preston.
Joe thinks the sassy sweetheart he nicknames "Trouble" won't inconvenience anything but his healthy sex drive. But when he discovers the reasons Gabi escaped from her life, he aches to give her everything she's never had. As the magic of the season draws them together, the gift of love is the only one worth giving…

I’ll Be Home For Christmas by Lori Wilde is a book about Gabi Preston and how Christmas totally does find her where the love light gleams (see what I did there). Wilde’s book is probably my favorite of the Christmas romances I’ve read so far this year — I am not counting Hot Toy because that’s a novella, although maybe I loved these books on the same level. Anyways, last year I read Wilde’s Christmas At Twilight and really enjoyed it to the point of bringing it into work for another coworker to read. This year, I am totally going to do the same thing – bring my copy into work for that same coworker to read. I enjoyed I’ll Be Home For Christmas that much.

I’ll Be Home For Christmas is about this woman named Gabi Preston who lives in LA and who has just suddenly quit law school. She ends up running away from LA and swapping homes with a woman from Twilight, Texas — just like in the movie The Holiday which FYI I had a strong hankering to watch while reading this book. So, Gabi gets to Texas and runs into Joe Cheek at this coffee house, Perks, where they hit it off, but Gabi does not think anything of it. So, then she goes to the place she’s staying and it turns out to be a yurt, oh and Joe lives across the street on the Christmas tree farm. What results is a chemistry that crackles between Joe and Gabi. OH AND I FORGOT TO MENTION. Gabi comes to Twilight Texas because of Pinterest, that’s how she meets Katie (the woman from Twilight, Texas). AND! Gabi was raised by high power lawyer parents who never partake in Christmas activities because of Gabi’s brother Derrick dying as a child on Christmas. So, there are some heartstring moments within the plot of Lori Wilde’s I’ll Be Home For Christmas, but it is much better than a Hallmark movie in my opinion.

Gabi has such a big heart and is a wonderful listener. She’s got some great characterization. I actually really enjoyed reading about her character and the crisis that she was having. I thought that her internal struggle about career and future and what to do next was interesting – as well as her wrestling with loyalty and disloyalty to her parents. She’s a good egg, is what I am saying.

As for Joe Cheek, he certainly has a lot of point of view bits as well. He comes from this big family that is built on traditions – where at heart that main tradition is Christmas and doing it big. So, it makes sense that Gabi is attracted to him because he is about to give her the Christmas that she has never had. Also, apparently he is very good looking, so you go Gabi. Anyways, Joe has trouble settling down and he is always bouncing from one thing to the next. There isn’t anything wrong with him, but he happens to have ADHD. It may seem like he has a lot of woman issues, but he’s a decent human being and well, there is a reason no one has ever really stuck for him until Gabi. Joe’s actually a great romantic lead.

So, if you get a little disappointed with Hallmark because the big payoff in those movies is some kissing – I’ll Be Home For Christmas by Lori Wilde is exactly right for you. There are definitely some not so fade to black adult time moments in this book – but nothing where it is overwhelmingly graphic. It is not like you are going from one extreme to the next. Of course, Joe and Gabi do fall in love rather quickly, but I took their romance as they are both just really great people who have this undeniable chemistry. It really works is what I am saying here.

On A Scale Of One To Buddy The Elf, How Much Christmas Spirit Does I’ll Be Home For Christmas by Lori Wilde Have?

I LOVE SMILING. SMILING’S MY FAVORITE. That is how much spirit Lori Wilde’s I’ll Be Home For Christmas has. It would be a major challenge to read this book without smiling. It is adorable and cute and will put you right in the mood for this holiday season. Also? I am pretty sure I want to live in Twilight, Texas. That town is like one of those magical small communities where everyone pitches in and people go very nuts over Christmas and all holidays and it is kind of the best to read about if you want to get into the Christmas and holiday spirit.

About the Author

New York Times and USA Today best-selling author, Lori Wilde has sold seventy-eight works of fiction to four major New York Publishing houses. She holds a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Texas Christian University and a certificate in forensic nursing from Kaplan University. She is a member of the International Association of Forensic Nurses.

Her first NYT bestseller, the third book in her Twilight, Texas series, The First Love Cookie Club has been optioned for a television movie. The town of Granbury, Texas, upon which her fictional town of Twilight, Texas is loosely based, honors Lori with an annual Twilight, Texas weekend each Christmas. www.twilighttexas.com

A popular writing instructor, Lori is a two time RITA finalist and has four times been nominated for Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award. She’s won the Colorado Award of Excellence, the Wisconsin Write Touch Award, The Golden Quill, the Lories, and The More than Magic. Her books have been translated into 27 languages and excerpted in Cosmopolitan, Redbook, Complete Woman, and Quick and Simple magazines. She lives in Texas with her husband, Bill, and her two New American Shepherds.

Connect with Lori Wilde

• Website – http://loriwilde.com/
• Twitter – https://twitter.com/loriwilde
• Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/LoriWildeBooks/
• Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/38217.Lori_Wilde

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April (Books&Wine)

April is in her 30s and created Good Books And Good Wine. She works for a non-profit. April always has a book on hand. In her free time she can be found binge watching The Office with her husband and toddler, spending way too much time on Pinterest or exploring her neighborhood.

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