Review: Christmas at the Shelter Inn

Christmas at the Shelter Inn by RaeAnne Thayne
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I received this book for free, this does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review 

She disliked the holidays anyway and she especially disliked being here, filled with memories and ghosts and regret. 

After she receives a text that just says “Help” from her younger sister, Natalie knows she needs to go back home. McKenna has been put on bed rest for the rest of her pregnancy and with an aunt that is recovering from a leg injury, Natalie is needed to help McKenna with her two little girls and the family's business, the Shelter Inn. Ever since Natalie's mom and older brother died and their father abandoned them, Natalie has been a nomad traveling the world, finding it too painful to be at home with all the memories. Now, this Christmas season, she's going to have to confront those painful feelings and the growing ones for her brother's bestfriend who keeps finding ways to rescue her. 

If she wasn’t careful, she might find herself falling head over heels for Griffin. 

Christmas at Shelter Inn was a story that definitely delivered the festive atmosphere but it also definitely dropped trauma after trauma; I'm talking the old tv show Party of Five trauma levels. Any and all content and trigger warnings for what felt more like book club fiction (if your book club is full of holiday masochists) than romance. Natalie left home because of a painful childhood of having her mother die of breast cancer when she was sixteen, having her father take off to Alaska because of his grief and basically abandoning his three kids to their mother's aunt, and an older brother that became an alcoholic because of his grief and ultimately died in an avalanche. If you're not satisfied with that barrel of laughs, the love interest for Natalie, Griffin, is semi-shunned in town because his alcoholic father killed not only himself but four teens in a drunk driver incident and is divorced after he and his ex-wife went through the death of their baby being stillborn. 

She laughed and he thought how lovely she was, there in the wintry moonlight. 

So, yes, these two have a lot of baggage and emotional trauma to work through but Natalie gets the load of page time with Griffin's side not really coming in until the latter half of the story. Weaved around all these trauma issues are elements of that festive atmosphere I mentioned, shopping at a Christmas Market, watching a choir sing carols, snowy walks, the joy of putting up inflatable decorations, and hot chocolate and cookies. It was cozy atmosphere with holy god that's traumatic, especially when you add in the fear of miscarriage because her sister experienced two prior ones, Natalie thinking her sister's husband is wanting to abandon his family, Natalie's friendship issues with Griffin's younger sister who also dated her deceased older brother, and then Natalie's father showing back up to spend Christmas with them. 

He looked down at her, his blue eyes suddenly warm. For one glittery, breathless moment, he looked as if he wanted to kiss her. He might have even leaned down slightly before he seemed to check the movement and step away. 

I found the romance to be fairly weak without much depth, as the focus was more on Natalie's issues. Around the midway point, they kiss (only a few kisses for steam here) but Natalie doesn't see a reason to invest in the relationship because she can't wait to leave home and the pain it causes her to be here. Griffin does have povs but they're mostly him thinking about how to put a stop to his grandma trying to set him up with Natalie but also thinking he's attracted to Natalie. The second half becomes Natalie coming to terms with the past (catching her father kiss someone that threw her and me into a tailspin) and accepting that she has feelings for Griffin. The last fifteen percent has both saying they love each other but I can't say I bought into it, there was no real building blocks for their relationship. 

People did change, she thought as they returned to the party. Maybe she had changed. Maybe the perfect life she had created for herself no longer met her needs as it once had. Maybe, just maybe, she was ready for something else—if she could find the courage to reach for it. 

Along with the ending I love you, there's a snowstorm that creates some havoc, a situation that leads to our doctor Griffin being able to finally work through his pain of losing his child, and an epilogue that shows a future happily ever after. The romance felt a distance second place to the issues Natalie had to work through and there wasn't enough depth to the main couple's relationship for me. However, if you're looking for the combo of festive atmosphere and trauma (they could be out there!) consider this the snow globe of trauma you'd want to be in.

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