I am now all caught up on the Haven Point series by Raenne Thayne, which makes me so happy. This series was one of the first I picked up as I made my transition into reading romance, and I’ve grown to love it so much.
Season of Wonder by Raeanne Thayne
Book 9 in the Haven Point series
Published September 25, 2018
HQN Books
4/5 Stars
I received a copy for review from Little Bird Publicity. Thank you to them. All opinions are my own.
Plot Summary:
He’s giving her children a season of wonder…
Dani Capelli seized a chance to start over in a small town with her daughters. Now, facing her first Christmas in Haven Point, she wonders if leaving New York was a mistake. Dani loves working alongside veterinarian Dr. Morales, but her two children aren’t adjusting to small-town life. And then there’s Dr. Morales’s son, Ruben—Dani’s next-door neighbor. Gorgeous, muscled and dependable, the deputy sheriff is everything she secretly craves and can’t bear to risk loving…and losing.
Ruben never pictured himself falling for a big-city woman like Dani. But beneath her prickly facade, she’s caring and softhearted and she needs all the love and protection he can give. When Dani’s teenage daughter starts acting out, Ruben draws on family traditions to show the girls just how magical a Haven Point Christmas can be. But can he convince Dani that she’s found a home for the holidays—and forever—in his arms?
My Thoughts:
I am very new to the world of series. I have only completed two series in my life, both being since I have started reading romance. I am now caught up on the Haven Point series since finishing Season of Wonder, and not going to lie! With this one being the ninth book in the series, my main thought going into it was, “What could she (Raeanne Thayne) possibly have left to write in this series?” I quickly gathered my bearings though and let the master do her thing.
Raeanne Thayne did a wonderful job writing Dani, the main character. Dani grew up in the foster system, had her oldest daughter in her teens and fell in love with the wrong guy. She is tough. She packs up her two girls, flees their life on the east coast and settles in Haven Point where she takes on the job as a veterinarian. Dani is a very intelligent, street smart, single Mom just trying to raise her daughters.
The veterinarian who hires Dani has a son named Ruben and you pick up pretty instantly that Ruben is smitten with her but with the way she was raised, and who her ex husband was and what he did, Dani doesn’t want to let anyone close to her out of fear of being judged.
Throw into the mix that her oldest daughter is caught by Ruben spray painting homes and belongings in the neighborhood. Nothing like a rebellious teenager to complicate the situation even more! Ruben is a police officer, Dani’s neighbor and is also the guy who catches her daughter in the spray painting act.
I loved that this story represented what it means to start over. How sometimes we get in our own way and stop our own selves from moving forward. Dani is so fearful of people knowing that she is the ex wife of her ex husband that she goes to a lot of trouble to keep her distance from the town people. In each book I’ve read from this series so far, the main character always ends up some way interacting with the group of ladies from the previous books, but not Dani. She truly does a good job of going to work followed by home with her girls. Thayne captured so well that almost isolating feeling from choosing to keep to yourself.
She also did a great job of capturing that moment when you realize someone else has come along to take some of the burden away from you. I adored Ruben and his patience with Dani and I loved his interaction with her girls. Dani really had to let go of the things she’d been through and honestly..stop tripping so much, and only until she did that, could she finally recognize what was standing in front of her.
