Photo credits: Free-Photos (pixabay), Pezibear (pixabay) Edited by Vaishali Title: The Christmas Blanket Author: Kandi Steiner Publisher: Self published Year of Publication: 2020 Format: E-book copy Genre/Themes: Contemporary romance, Christmas novella New Adult fiction, R E V I E W...
Four years apart from her hometown, without an ounce of regret for choosing to dream, flying high and wide on the fuel of wanderlust and the zest of adventure, Eliza is finally down to earth on the soil that made her for a surprise visit in Vermont before she takes to the wind yet again, hoping to see a family she hasn't seen since she sped off into the horizon like a woman with something to see. Not even a respectable twenty four hours later does she happen upon the only man she ever loved. But her broody ex husband, an unsmiling man with a small cabin on the edge Wellhaven isn't best pleased to see the woman who left this town like leftovers on her plate. And just like that, mother nature's intervention becomes the cause of a second chance as history becomes a living thing between them. There’s plenty to toast in the name of a Steiner romance, but if there's anything I can say about Kandi Steiner it's that she artfully writes more than just a romance, she writes a salt-of-the-earth love story native to the heart. I had so much curiosity about these two high school sweethearts who loved only each other as deeply as two people who shared their youth together could. I wondered if I'd feel the history and the strength of the past, and though this is packaged as a short-length novella, the author brilliantly laces in the emotional upheaval, the love lost and found, the very angst born from both and a tender intimacy that snowballs from the silence of an entire history shared, with little to do but face the hidden depths between them. Once upon a time her life with River was all Eliza needed. They were once everything the other wanted. They were young, out of pocket with modest lodgings and I was especially pleased to have some of that history open to us with one chapter that throws back to their first Christmas as a married couple. I wanted to see who they were, how they were when things were hard - but good - in the throes of young love, such a comparison to the yards of distance and familiarity spread taut between them at this unwelcome reunion. They eventually came to a crossroads and had a relationship breakdown when Eliza wanted to journey the world and River dug his heels in the very earth where he wanted to stay. In the present day and in the span of a two day unwanted stopover, Eliza and River have little choice but to face what pulled them apart and reminisce over times long gone. Some of my favourite tropes play into this; a second chance that’s really more of a love that never left but lost its way, and forced proximity in a small cabin without modern conveniences and nowhere to hide. I loved observing the transition from reluctant cabin dwellers to upturning the strangeness of braving something so foreign yet familiar. It was lonely, wondrous, tender, loving, intense, trimmed with nostalgia but always packed with estranged affinity and a love that I wanted to soar. I rooted for them, I believed in them and I knew they’d get there. You’ll find no great turns (it didn’t take very long for me to accurately guess at River’s reason for letting Eliza go) but I wasn’t expecting that, I didn’t desire a grand twist. I also wasn’t expecting a hurting, healing hero who made my heart bawl. Apart from the fact that I like his indigenous-sounding name, I loved Steiner’s cabin man hero (and his canine companion because Moose brought some joy to the scene!). It made my heart break to think about the Christmases he must have spent alone. I wanted to know that he, at the very least, had Eliza’s parents as a support system, but as this isn’t a fully fleshed out read, I didn’t get that level of reassurance. All I know is, if a man was made and materialised like River Jensen, and crossed that ethereal boundary from fictional to in-the-flesh, I’d wish upon my lucky stars for him to save me from a frigid blizzard just to share that loving - albeit remote - heart with me. It was a joy to read The Christmas Blanket. Very early on into the story, I found myself instead wishing for River and Eliza to have had a full-length love story. I wanted to keep reading and I could have easily read about them for days longer. Apart from thinking that this needed an epilogue to give us a window into a new future together, to see where they’d settled or ventured to after that open-ended hint of adventure, I’m really without any real objections. It just was wonderful. A beautiful message cocoons this romance where curiosity and wonder turned into something a young woman wanted with no exceptions: you can lose even those you love, you can lose them even if you loved them, you can love them still, and even though love might not be enough, it sometimes is. A passing visit turns into an eye-opening pit stop for Eliza in this snowed in Christmas novella where home really is where the River runs. A story that’ll resonate with lovers estranged. There’s some eggnog, a Christmas blanket, a cabin, a game of truth and dare, some tender history, nocturnal confessions and a hopeful second chance.
I gave this book 4.25 stars - C O N T E N T W A R N I N G: Some swearing, mentions a battle with drugs/drug addiction. Detailed sex scene. --------------------------------------- M Y R A T I N G S Y S T E M: ★ - 1 star: I did not like the book ★★ - 2 stars: The book was okay ★★★ - 3 stars: It was a good, solid read ★★★★ - 4 stars: A great book ★★★★★ - 5: A phenomenal read --------------------------------------- ___________________________________________________ R E L A T E D P O S T S: ● Book Review: The Wrong Game by Kandi Steiner ___________________________________________________ F A V O U R I T E Q U O T E S: It felt like only yesterday that I’d driven on this same road the opposite way, hightailing my ass out of this town and swearing I wouldn’t be back. I needed adventure. I needed to explore, to travel, to be free of the crushing reality of the small town I’d grown up in. I needed to be free of him. My mom used to always quote Woody Allen. If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans. I thought I understood that when I was a little girl. I thought even more so when I was a young woman, a young wife. But now, thinking about the plans I’d made, the way those plans had fallen apart, the path life had led me on that I never would have imagined… I think I finally truly understood it. I must have been God’s favorite joke. “Truth or dare?” I asked, voice cracking with the question. “Truth.” “Did you ever miss me, after I left?” He shook his head, the muscles of his jaw ticking, nose flaring, hands still pulling me in, closer, closer. “Only every day, Eliza,” he whispered, his brows bending together. “Every hour. Every minute. Every second you’ve It was a kiss we’d shared a hundred times before. It was a kiss I’d never experienced, never even dreamed of, not until the moment his lips were on mine. It was years of love and passion. It was years of heartache and pain. It was everything I hated, everything I desired, everything I’d forgotten and everything I would always remember, too. This is my husband, my heart screamed. This is the love of my life. This is a stranger, my brain combatted. This is the man who let you go. been gone.” “And I regret that mistake,” he said firmly, his feet carrying him toward me. I wanted to move. God, how I wanted to back away, but I was rooted in place. “I have every minute since the one where I lost you. But I loved you, Eliza,” River croaked when he was just inches from me. “I loved you. So I let you go.” His hands reached out, framing my face, his eyes searching mine as he shook his head like every word was the most horrible truth. “And damn it if I don’t love you still.” I shook my head, looking at Beth. “I left him. Again.” A sniff. “I am so, so stupid.” “You’re not,” she insisted, squeezing my leg. “You were just lost, Eliza. And sometimes that can be easier than being found.” “You are my adventure, River,” I whispered helplessly, two tears streaming simultaneously down each of my cheeks at the admission. “Just as much as you are my home.” I love interacting with fellow readers, reviewers, bloggers and writers. Hearing about reader opinion is the fuel to my reader appetite, so get in touch and comment below! SHARE ON FACEBOOK L E A V E A C O M M E N T A N D L E T' S T A L K A B O U T |
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