Review: Homecoming Heartbreaker

Homecoming Heartbreaker by Joss Wood
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review. 

2.5 stars 

Well, he was back. 

Starting off the Moonlight Ridge series, Homecoming Heartbreaker introduces us to Mack and Molly. Mack is the oldest of the three boys Jameson, the owner of the resort Moonlight Ridge, adopted when they were younger. He was adopted at age 8 because his mother died in childbirth and his father gave him up. Growing up with an emotionally abusive father, Mack constantly heard that he was responsible for his mother's death, has left Mack always wanting to be in control so that he doesn't hurt anyone. When he and his two brothers, Grey and Travis, get into a car accident, in which he was driving and Travis injures his knee enough to lose a football scholarship, Mack decides to leave town at eighteen and distance himself from everyone, including his childhood love Molly. 

It was one night, fifteen years ago, but it had had enormous ramifications. 

The story starts fifteen years after the car accident and Mack finds himself having to come back and stay a couple months at Moonlight Ridge because his father Jameson has experienced a brain episode and has to take it easy. His childhood love, Molly, just so happens to be the resorts manager and they are going to have to spend time together and Mack knows he owes her an apology for how he left. Molly has had her own drama to deal with, her father was Jameson's CFO and he was caught for embezzlement and then ended up having a heart-attack and dying, leaving Molly, her mother and two older brothers to deal with the ramifications. Molly's family consists of nothing but leeches and they constantly demand money from her and Molly's afraid to cut the cord with them because they essential blackmail her threatening to tell Jameson that she stole two thousand dollars from him when she was a kid. 

She was stuck between the devil and the deep blue sea. And she was drowning. 

As you can tell, our leads are dealing with a lot and as this is the first book in the series, it had the heavier load of setting up the series. I thought the groundwork of characters, their relationships, and the setting of Moonlight Ridge was laid out nicely. I thought Mack's motivation of not wanting to lose control around anyone because his dad made him think he was responsible for his mother's death was a bit overplayed. When he comes back to Moonlight Ridge, he does apologize to Molly early but he seemed to want to move on from it very quickly. I liked how Molly still hurt over his abandonment but understood that they were kids and she doesn't work to punish him for his decision. Molly's, just about over-the-top, family steals the show some because a decent amount of focus is giving to their blackmail scheme, even adding in one of the brother's girlfriends, which at first seemed unneeded but will maybe play a part in a continuing thread in the series. 

They were groping on the back stairway of Moonlight Ridge and she didn't care. At all. 

With Jameson sidelined with health issues, we didn't get scenes with him and Mack as much as I would have liked but we do get a couple povs from him and a little secondary romance involving him and his former housekeeper who is now his nurse, I missed seeing him with all three of the boys. I wish we could have gotten a flashback scene with them as a family before we start with them all separated. The romance between Molly and Mack felt a little stiff at times but delivers a couple scenes to have this fit in the Harlequin Desire category. There were times I thought Mack was too harsh with Molly but I did like how she stood up to him. I didn't quite get the warm feelings of two childhood friends-to-lovers reuniting. 

She was his and he was hers; they'd always each been one half of a whole. 

This was a quick read but it did set the scene at Moonlight Ridge for the other two brothers to come into. There's some left to dangle story threads, the hunt is on to find out who is embezzling money from the resort and the need to revitalize the resort because it could soon be in danger of closing. Looking forward to Grey the architect and Travis the chef finding their own loves and the Holloway brothers becoming a family again.

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