REVIEW: Sleigh Bells in Valentine Valley by Emma Cane

In Sleigh Bells in Valentine Valley (Valentine Valley #5) by Emma Cane, Lawyer Kate Fenelli’s career changes in the blink of an eye when her bosses put her on a two month sabbatical, leaving her restless and lost over the holidays. She finds herself back in her hometown of Valentine Valley spending quality time with her teenage son Ethan and her family. But that also means that Kate keeps running into her ex-husband, Ethan’s father, Tony De Luca. Even after the last nine years apart, Kate is still drawn to Tony, feeling an attraction to him stronger than with any other man. Is she foolish to hope for a reconciliation? Or would she be making the same mistake twice if she pursues her feelings for him?

“But we’re not dating or making plans, right? We’re not expecting anything of each other. We’ll take each day as it comes.”
He rolled onto his side, taking her into his arms and speaking between kisses. “And comes…and comes…and comes.”

Tavern owner Tony De Luca never thought he’d ever split with his childhood sweetheart Kate. He knows they both had a hand in the issues that ended their marriage, but the truth is he’s never truly gotten over her. Tony is shocked when Kate appears in Valentine Valley at Thanksgiving instead of working fifteen hour workdays as normal. But something has changed in her demeanor. The more time he spends with Kate, the more Tony sees the girl he fell in love with so many years ago. God knows they’ve both become different people over the years. Maybe they’ve grown up enough to admit what happened before doesn’t have to stop the future they could potentially have together.

“We were young and stupid, but we’ve got to stop beating ourselves up for the mistakes we made back then. The point is–can we put them behind us?”

Sleigh Bells in Valentine Valley is an incredibly touching second chance romance in which our hero and heroine finally move past the anger and hurt of their divorce, and give in to the love and passion that never went away.

Emma Cane’s Valentine Valley series is so entertaining and simply rock solid. Every story I’ve read–and I’ve read many of these–just grabs hold of my attention and doesn’t let go. I love that even though her characters may not see eye-to-eye all the time, they never lose their sense of community. That is a very heartening aspect of these stories, especially in a Christmas novel such as this one where everyone in town has some type of meaningful contribution to the plot.

Tony and Kate’s reunion was quite an emotional journey, both for them and for us reading about it. They both harbored negative feelings about how their marriage ended, but also knew that they each contributed to the demise of their relationship. I loved the fact that they both tried very hard to raise their son Ethan in a family environment, never arguing in front of him or badmouthing their ex to him. That loving relationship Kate and Tony each had with Ethan was certainly a joy to read…and a lot of fun, too.

But it was pretty evident that Kate and Tony still cared deeply for each other. Their scenes together ran the gamut from fun and flirty, to poignant, to tense and angry. So in other words, theirs was a realistic evolving relationship, given what had happened between them over the years. And that’s what made me truly enjoy their story; because of how real it seemed. The dialogue was always honest, sometimes raw, but completely captivating. Plus there was so much intense passion between Tony and Kate that I couldn’t help but cheer them on to find their HEA.

I hope you’ll make room on your Holiday reading list for this heartwarming reunion romance. You definitely can’t go wrong with a Valentine Valley story.

Book Info:

Published October 28th 2014 by Avon | (Valentine Valley #5)

Return to Valentine Valley, where Christmas lights are twinkling and first love burns brighter the second time around…

When Tony De Luca’s ex, Kate Fenelli, waltzes through the door of his tavern and pulls up a bar stool, she turns his balanced world on end. Once they’d been each other’s first love, first everything. But then life happened, and they walked away with broken hearts. Now Kate is back in Valentine, and they can’t seem to stay out of each other’s way. When Tony begins wondering what would happen if they rekindled the sparks, he knows he’s in big trouble.

Kate can’t believe she’s sitting at Tony’s bar spilling her life-changing problems to him. He’s as gorgeous as ever, and she can’t seem to forget how incredible he always made her feel. Still, the door on that chapter of their lives closed long ago. Yet with Christmas buzzing in the air, Kate can’t help wondering if anything is possible—even a second chance with the only man she’s ever loved.