Review: Home to Wickham Falls by Rochelle Alers

Home to Wickham Falls by Rochelle Alers
Published by Harlequin on July 1st 2017
Genres: Contemporary, Fiction, General, Romance
Pages: 224
Format: eBook
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two-half-stars

There's No Place Like Home… Nothing could draw Sawyer Middleton back permanently to the town he left behind years before. Or so he thinks, before he meets his sister's best friend. As soon as he matches wits with gorgeous, gregarious teacher Jessica Calhoun, Sawyer realizes he's got a lot to learn about friendship…and love. Smart, savvy Jessica wants to grow old in Wickham Falls. Software engineer Sawyer has made it to the big city—and away from small-town life. And just like his ailing father, Sawyer's used to calling the shots. But can losing his heart make Sawyer realize that home is where the heart is…and that his heart is with Jessica for good?

Sawyer Middleton returns home to Wickham Falls years after a disagreement with his father caused him to flee the small town. He’s back for a few months after his father suffers a heart attack. While there, he meets his sister’s best friend, Jessica Calhoun, and is immediately infatuated with her. What follows is a whirlwind courtship.

Longtime readers of this blog know that I am a huge fan of Rochelle Alers. I really wanted to like this book but it felt a lot more formulaic than her previous books. While this book is said to take place in present time, it felt very dated. The storyline, the characters, the setting, and the pace in which the book carried on seemed to be 15 years old or earlier. Jessica seemed to a little too picture perfect. She was the perfect teacher and the perfect friend. She cooked food for her friends, dropped off picnic baskets, checked in consistently on family friends etc. She grew her own fruits and vegetables, for goodness sakes! She came off a little stiff as her interactions with Sawyer increased, and while I feel like he had a little more room to be flawed, she didn’t.

This book also seemed quite slow moving for me. The storyline really matched the small town vibe and everything seemed to move at a snail’s pace.

There was also no conflict. They had one little brief tiff towards the end of the book but there was nothing that would really cause them to break up or severely impact their relationship. You all know that I firmly believe that good romance need some drama or conflict and I feel like a bit of angst would have helped a lot.

Now all wasn’t lost with this book, I did appreciate the small town setting and the familial aspects that were incorporated in the book.

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Natalya

Natalya is an Account Manager by day and an editor and author's assistant to passionate creatives by night. When she is not adding to her enormous book collection or stationery supply, she is catching up on her favorite television shows.

Natalya is the author of All The Things I Never Said, a soul-stirring collection of short stories, prose and love letters for the soulful wanderers, the brokenhearted and the hopeless romantics.

You can follow her rantings and occasional sparks of brilliance on Twitter @NatalyaMuncuff.