The Soldier’s Secret Son by Helen Lacey

Goodreads synopsis

A Christmas surprise for a homecoming soldier…

When Jake Culhane comes home to Cedar River to visit his family, he doesn’t expect to reconnect with the woman he never forgot. Abby Perkins never believed Jake would return, which is why she never told him she’d given birth to his son. But Abby is still in love with the boy who broke her heart when he enlisted. This could be their first Christmas as a real family — if Abby can find the courage to tell Jake he’s a father…

Rating

Review

This one was a story filled with emotions (that is what I read Helen Lacey for) and many a moments had me go Awww. Kids somehow enliven stories if written with tact and that is what I found here. Lacey made sure to make T.J. an integral part of the story while she focused on Abby and Jake.

She showed how it is human nature to always find fault with what one has done and self incrimination is a common occurrence albeit one knowing that the reasons were all valid based on whom a decision was made.

A small town second chance romance where the failure of a relationship is not placed squarely on just one individual and where both the parties see where they went wrong. How love is not always enough to sustain a relationship. It takes effort and it takes effort of both the people in the relationship.

The huge cast in the story (as this is a series and everyone is going to get his or her turn to get an HEA) felt needed. They played a part and did not at all feel as if they were in the story just for the sake of  putting ink to paper.

Helen Lacey’s Cedar River

This is not the first time Helen Lacey has based her stories in the fictional Cedar River town. By now she has had many series where the protagonists are residents of this small town. In a way, she has brought this fictional town to life in a way that it has a pulse of it’s own.

This may be taken as spoiler so BEWARE. I loved how Jake’s family showed him that what Abby did was not self-serving or selfish as she had another tiny being to think about and he had to take in to consideration her circumstances at the time. This was despite Abby killing herself (figuratively) over her actions that she could now see as cold. FYI, I totally do not believe that her decision was selfish.