Release Day Launch: Back to December by Heather McCoubrey (Chrissy’s review)

Back to December
written by Heather McCoubrey
published by Heather McCoubrey

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Goodreads

Disclosure: I did some editing work on this title. After that work was completed, I was asked by the author to review the book. I received a copy of this book for review purposes. Although I was compensated for the editing work, it in no way affected the outcome of my review. My review is my honest opinion of the book.

Did I enjoy this book? I did enjoy this book. It was an emotional read that had me hooked until the end.

Back to December tells the story of Anna and her journey through life. She had an abusive mother who disappeared when the time was right. Her father doesn’t seem to care all that much about her, and she lost her Gram, the one person who truly cared about her. She is a character that you want to root for, but sometimes you wonder if she really is as shy and timid as she seems. And at other times, you can see how easy it was for her to revert back to the scared little girl who craved her mother’s love and affection. Anna is going two steps forward and one step back throughout the book. I wanted her to keep moving forward, to keep getting stronger.

I loved Cooper. He was a great match for Anna; he is the type of guy she needs. He wasn’t over-the-top romantic. He didn’t make all the right choices. He had to think things through. He was real. His decisions were realistic. He fit his part. Her best friend, Niki, was a sister to Anna growing up. She could be brash, overbearing, and harsh. But she loved Anna, protected her, and wanted the best for her.

Back to December has it all. Romance, relationships, family drama, some steam, strength, heavy issues, laughter. It evokes so many emotions. I was happy, sad, giddy, angry, appalled, shocked, afraid, hopeful; you get the picture. There was a part toward the end that had me doing a fist pump.

All-in-all, a great read.

 

 

Would I recommend it? Yes. I may suggest this one to my book group.

 

About the book – from Goodreads: Thanks to an abusive mother and an absent father, Anna Blackhurst has only known the love of two people: her Gram and her best friend, Niki.

When Anna meets Cooper Reed in a smoky club, she’s immediately drawn to his good looks but isn’t prepared to open herself up to a relationship. As time passes, Anna finds herself falling in love with Cooper and she begins to rethink her future. Maybe, despite her childhood, she can have a happy-ever-after.

But when her mother is in a terrible accident, she again sinks her claws into Anna and Anna’s world is thrown upside down. Despite Cooper’s unwavering support, Anna walks away only to regret it immediately. In order to heal, not only herself, but her broken relationship, Anna must stand up for herself and accept that the only way she’s going to be happy is if she grabs ahold of it herself.

 

About the author: Heather McCoubrey is a native of Maine but having moved all over the U.S. as a child, she doesn’t sound like one. She’s been writing since middle school when a teacher taught her she could create her own stories instead of just reading them. That year she had some of her first poems published in the school magazine and from there she graduated to writing a full-length novel in high school (which has been collecting dust on her shelf ever since!). She is the self-published author of To Love Twice, her debut novel. Her second novel, Back to December, is scheduled to be released in June 2014 and the novel that’s been collecting dust on the shelf, Emily’s Choice, is scheduled to be released in October 2014. She also contributed a short story for A Kind of Mad Courage: Short Stories about Mothers (S)mothers and Others anthology. All proceeds go to the Guthy-Jackson Charitable Foundation for AI disorders. Heather resides in Pennsylvania with her husband, two children, Rex the chihuahua and Fatty the goldfish. When she’s not being super-mom and wife, she ekes out time to write, watch football, practice her British accent and dream of living on an island where it’s eighty degrees year-round.

Find Ms. McCoubrey here: web, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads