Review Tour & #Giveaway for When You Make It Home by Claire Ashby

Welcome to my stop on the Review Tour, presented by Book Partners in Crime, for When You Make It Home by Claire Ashby.  Please leave a comment or question for Claire to let her know you stopped by.  You can enter her tour wide giveaway, for one (1) of three (3) $10 Amazon Gift Cards, by filling out the Rafflecopter form below.

When You Make It Home

by Claire Ashby

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: July 12, 2014

Meg Michaels, a bookstore owner, has already walked away from two cheating exes. She’s learned her lesson and has her mind set on success—until she gets knocked up. Embarrassed and unwilling to discuss her situation with friends and family, she wears layers to hide the pregnancy.

When Meg gets sick at a party, she’s mortified. Even worse, Theo Taylor, the guest of honor, discovers her secret. Theo, an Army medic wounded in the war, agrees not to reveal her condition, and the two forge a bond of friendship that blossoms into love.

Theo is soon filling all of Meg’s late-night cravings—and not just the pregnancy-induced ones. But can their love overcome all the obstacles that stand between them and creating a happy family?

Combing romance, heartache, family drama and second chances, author Claire Ashby creates a heartwarming story in When You Make It Home.  A colorful, damaged heroine, a wounded veteran hero and family and friends, who sometimes really needed a filter, kept me turning the pages from start to finish.  Using real life issues Ms. Ashby has created a book you will have a hard time putting down.

After breaking up with her longtime boyfriend, slash fiancée, Meg Michaels makes one of the biggest mistakes of her life.  Trying to hide the results of her mistake, an unexpected pregnancy, Meg wears layers of clothes and refuses to talk about her situation with anyone except her married best friend Ellie, who also happen to be pregnant.  Meg doesn’t even share it with her twin brother Steve, the co-owner of her bookstore.  When she becomes ill at a home coming party for Ellie’s brother in law, wounded veteran Theo Taylor, he discovers her secret and agrees to stay silent as long as she helps him hide out from his own party.

As Meg and Theo’s friendship blossoms, and their mutual attraction heats up, Meg finds herself allowing Theo to move into her spare bedroom in exchange for help in preparing her condo for her baby’s arrival.  As Meg’s pregnancy progresses, Theo is there to help her break the news to her family and friends and soon finds himself involved in satisfying more than Meg’s late night food cravings.  Ms. Ashby does a wonderful job developing Meg and Theo’s characters and really showcases the strengths and weaknesses each one brings to a relationship that is turning from friendship and attraction to love. 

While both are emotionally damaged, Meg from unaddressed issues of abandonment that have plagued her since early childhood, and Theo from his traumatic experiences fighting in Iraq, they are strong and resilient.  Adding drama from both sides, Meg’s brother’s secret romance (with one of her other best friends), her father’s temporary separation from his wife, Theo’s mother’s fears, and Theo’s physical rehabilitation issues, Ms. Ashby keeps her characters, and her readers, busy from the first page.

The secondary characters are also well developed and I really enjoyed getting to know Steve, Meg’s twin brother, her dad, her step-mother Nina and even Hazel, one of Meg and Steve’s employees at the bookstore, who has deeper ties to them than they both know.  I also enjoyed meeting Cortez, Theo’s friend from physical rehabilitation, who is himself a recovering wounded vet.  While there is no “villain” in this story, there are two social issues Ms. Ashby doesn’t shy away from; single parenthood and how we treat our wounded vets.  I think Ms. Ashby did a good job dealing with both subjects without passing judgement.

Will Meg and Theo realize the love growing between them is the real deal?  Will they fight for it when they have to?  And will they both realize that home is where they both are?  You’ll have to read When You Make It Home to find out.  Just make sure you have a box of Kleenex near you because you’re going to need it!  Meanwhile, I’ll be looking forward to reading Ms. Ashby’s next book.

My Rating:  5 out of 5 Crowns

Heat Rating:  3.5 – Recommended for 17+ due to subject matter and sexual content

Claire Ashby was born and raised in the heart of Atlanta. At a young age, she began keeping journals and over time embellished the details of her quiet days. Eventually, she let go of writing reality altogether and delved completely into the world of fiction.

When she's not reading or writing, she spends her time watching extreme survival shows and taking long walks after nightfall. She has an unnatural love of high places, but still regrets the time she skydived solo. She believes some things are better left to the imagination. She resides in Austin with her family and a pack of wild dogs.

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FTC Disclosure:  I received a complimentary copy of this book as a part of a book tour for a fair and honest review. No additional compensation was received for my opinion of the reading material provided.