Texas Homecoming

by Carolyn Brown

He broke her heart and moved away. He had good intentions and spent the next twenty years becoming Dr. Cody Ryan, and serving patients in distant, war-torn countries of poverty. A few years younger, she picked up the broken pieces of her heart to achieve success as Dr. Stevie O’Dell, veterinarian. When both move back to Honey Grove to help aging and ailing parents, Stevie avoids Cody until they find themselves trapped together for four days in the tack room of a barn by a snowstorm. At that point, they have to work together to survive, but Stevie won’t let her guard down.

Of course, being a romance, you know the attraction is going to re-emerge, but it is fun to watch their relationship develop. Both are spunky characters; no longer teenagers, they learn to tease and flirt with each other on an adult level. Both have past and present hurts they have to deal with. Just as things begin to move smoothly, there are several major plot twists; you wonder just how much more Stevie can endure. Some readers might think there are too many difficulties to be realistic, but I find that a series of calamities in life is not unusual. In this case, the challenges, good and bad, draw them together.

Cody’s family takes Stevie under their collective wing, always willing to help, but careful not to smother or judge. They make it clear that they are not perfect, but they know how to stay the course and work things through.

Carolyn Brown’s Texas Homecoming is a romance, not intended to be great literature. I found it to be a quick read, and one that I enjoyed.

I would like to extend my thanks to NetGalley and to Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rating: 4/5

Category: Romance

Notes: 1. #2 in The Ryan Family Series. It could be read as a standalone, but I’ve already put a copy of #1 (Second Chance at Sunflower Ranch) on hold at my library so I can get the backstory of some of the Ryan family members.
2. Clean romance, but does use “d—n” frequently as a slang expression

Publication: January 25, 2022—Forever

Memorable Lines:

“I would never get in between a woman and her chocolate.”

Stevie remembered coming home crying because some little girl had made fun of her height or of her curly red hair, and her mother telling her that the important thing was to be beautiful on the inside. The kids who were mean to you are ugly on the inside. You are pretty and smart, and they’re jealous, Ruth had said.

“…marriage is not another word for sex. Marriage is a sacred agreement between two people to live together and love each other through good times and bad and through poverty or riches. It’s about sticking together side by side even when you want to shoot him and throw his sorry carcass out for the coyotes’ supper.”