*I received a free copy of Homecoming from via Netgalley. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *
Homecoming Series: Boys of Fall #3on 30 August 2016
Pages: 303
They were the golden boys of fall: Stewart Mills High School’s legendary championship football team. Fourteen years later, they’re back to relive their glory, save the team—and find themselves again . . .
Sam Leavitt has returned home to Stewart Mills with one goal: to fill in for Coach McDonnell and lead the high school football team to the championship. He doesn’t have time for distractions or commitments—but he’s unable to resist falling for the sexy guidance counselor he shared a hot night with months ago.
Jen Cooper knows what she’s looking for long-term, and it’s not Sam—even though the night they shared was explosive. Now, with Sam back in town and working by her side, picking up where they left off is too great a temptation to resist. But before long their fun fling is looking like a future together. And as the championship approaches, Sam is faced with a big decision that will either break them apart—or help them find their way home.
Homecoming is more than a romance, it’s about finding yourself when you thought you were lost forever…
Both Sam and Jen were a little lost and needed direction, and the fact that both of them had best friends who were engaged to the other’s best friends made working together more than a little awkward. Especially because they knew just how much chemistry they had when they let go. Homecoming was tender and sweet, and it made me want it all for Jen and Sam, with all their baggage and the way they saw their future, it would be a rocky road, for sure.
One of the things I loved about Homecoming was the theme of forgiveness. Forgiving oneself, and forgiving others, and then moving forward in life. There was a lot of compromise as well, which I think is an important part of any relationship for it to work. Add into that a new job for Sam, and an important job for Jen, and they definitely had a lot on their plates besides the budding romance between them.
This is the third book in a series, but I didn’t feel like I had missed anything important by not reading the first two before this one. The small-town feel and the close friendships both between Jen and her friends, and between Sam and his friends made me a happy reader, and curious enough to want to read the prior books as well.
Written in third person, past tense, the readers got to know both of the main characters and the supporting cast well. That, plus the text messages and dialogues made the story flow at an even pace, and Homecoming was a quite fast read. If you’re a fan of small town romances with mature characters, this is one you should pick up and curl up with as soon as possible.
Then there was the fact he’d lived alone since he left Stewart Mills after high school, and he wasn’t very good at living his life on somebody else’s schedule or remembering to put on pants before coffee in the morning.
There would be no stopping the gossip if she and Sam spent the night together, but there was gossip already and they hadn’t even done anything yet. If you were going to do the time, you may as well do the crime, right?
What are you up to right now? Jen felt her pulse kick up a notch when she read the text message from Sam. Telling herself it was her body associating his name with orgasms and not an emotional reaction, she pulled up the on-screen keyboard to respond.
★★★★☆ #ARC #Review Lexxie found Homecoming to be tender and sweet Share on XReading this book contributed to these challenges:
Twitter: ailynk
ah valentines day lists… maybe I should start collecting already
That might be a good idea, Ailyn, I bet your days are VERY busy these days!
Twitter: ailynk
everyday is a valentine to me.
Oh my! This sounds like a really great read. Awesome review Lexxie 🙂
It was really good 🙂
Twitter: Ourfamiliarium
in a annoying reading slump for months now so some like this a fast read with text messages may be the way to go 🙂 It goes well with my “Small Town” late fixation. Thanks for the review Lex!
Yeah, maybe that would work for you? I hate reading slumps with a vengeance!!
I really enjoyed this series. I think book two might have been my favorite. I’m glad you enjoyed these two!
I haven’t read all of the books in the series, Anna, but I’ll definitely pick up the one I’m missing 🙂
Forgiveness is a great aspect to weave throughout a story, especially to forgive yourself. Glad you enjoyed this one!
I think that forgiveness is important, Naomi, and that many of us can be a lot harder on ourselves than we are on others.
I like the theme of forgiveness, Lex – forgiveness and compromise. That’s some good stuff in a relationship, especially in a second chance. I guess it might be a stretch calling this second chance? But I also like that Sam and Jen are finding themselves at the same time as falling for each other. This sounds like my kind of read, you know? 😉
I hope you had a wonderful Wednesday, wifey. (oooh! that’s a lot of alliteration 🙂 ) I hope we can chat tomorrow! *BIG HUGS & LOVE*
Both are important in life, don’t you think? And their romance isn’t exactly second chance, and not exactly friends-to-lovers, either, even if they grew up in the same town and have known each other for a long time…
It is definitely your kind of read, my dear! {{{BIG HUGS}}} and love 🙂
I am really looking forward to reading this one!! I have really enjoyed this authors work so far. I do like third person POV since I feel you get to see more sides to the story. Great review
I love Shannon Stacey’s books, too, Renee, and I do hope you’ll enjoy this one as much as I did!!
Forgiveness is definitely not always an easy thing to grant someone, so seeing that come through the enovel quite a lot must have been really good. Glad you could enjoy this read, Lexxie <3
Yeah, that worked really, really well for me, Olivia! I think forgiveness is paramount to moving forward in a healthy way in very many ways.