The first thing I have to say is that Winter Beginnings has been previously published as Ask Me for Tomorrow. So, make sure you don’t purchase it twice which is easy to do when buying in ebook format. (Just to confuse things, the series is marked as being called ‘Homeland’ in some places and ‘Return to Me’ in others.)

The new title is apt. Ackers had so many descriptions of the cold weather and scenes where the characters were talking about the cold weather that it became quite monotonous. The whole book unfortunately followed suit.

Our hero is a mechanic, our heroine begins working for him in an administration capacity, their meet-cute was the job interview followed immediately by the news their children were fighting with each other at school, hero’s tragic backstory is that he’s a widower, heroine’s tragic backstory is that she has a no-good-ex and she’s broke, their conflict is that heroine has to work two jobs to pay the rent. I like to escape in romances, and this seemed way too ordinary.

It doesn’t help that the heroine has the personality of a dead fish. I felt like she and the hero barely speak more than three words to each other. There’s no chance of anything, let alone chemistry.

It’s a ‘clean’ romance, meaning there wasn’t even any smut to spice things up.

Sadly, I didn't get any strong sense of Australia reading the book either. The setting could have been any town (well, not one in tropical Queensland obviously if it’s that cold but you get the point) and I felt a lot of the Aussie language had been made generic and Americanised.

I’ll still give Ackers another chance, but this just needed something a little more to win me over.

2 ½ out of 5

I have given up trying to get into this book. Dean and Alice are both... something... I'm not even far enough in the book to make a true opinion (14%). Sadly, I cannot relate to either character. I really did try.
This is my first and last book by this author.

Winter Beginnings is my first Elise Ackers novel and I enjoyed it. It’s Book 3 in the Return to Me series but I had no difficulty reading it as a stand alone story. Ackers brings together two flawed and yet loveable characters both with sad pasts who deserve a second chance. You’ll particularly love Dean and feel some empathy for the tough situation Alice is in. It’s a really sweet romance.

I'm not a fan of novellas and hadn't realized this was one when I first began it. The reason I typically don't enjoy novellas is because they feel rushed and there's not usually enough time to develop the characters and/or the story.

That said, I still gave the book 3 stars because at least there was adequate character development. I have not read the other books in this series so some of the supporting characters were unknown to me. The story itself though needed work. I'm still not sure how the whole window/wall remodel fit into the story. The author tells us it has something to do with how Dean's father died but we're not privy to that or how his mother died. It's just assumed you know I guess from the other books.

The end felt very rushed and unnatural; they go from barely friends to saying those three little words when they really haven't even had a date together? I think we needed to watch their relationship unfold a little more before it was to that point. Even just a few chapters. I also think their children should have played more of a part in their relationship moving from friendship to something more.

Her second job issue just annoyed me. She was so secretive about it that I was really wondering what the job was. But once it was revealed it was a huge let down; why be so secretive over that?

So just eh....

What I liked:
The writing style
The characters
Part of a series: Return to Me
Standalone
HEA

What I didn't like:
Alice

I look forward to reading more from this author.

Dean Foster meets Alice Jaye again when he hires her to work at his garage. It is due for expansion and they needed someone in administration. They knew each other in the past from school, and when he meets her again, he pretty much decides to hire her on the spot. Since Dean is stretched to the limit with work, having someone new at the garage might just give him more of the precious commodity of time that he needs. As a widower with two children, he desperately needs to spend more time with them.

Alice is a single mother to young Ben who is struggling to make ends meet. As much as this second job is critical to her, it takes much time away from her son. It also takes time away from something as important as rest, causing Alice undo exhaustion. But, she keeps that all under wraps as much as possible, as she doesn't want to be given the chance to lose yet another job, as her previous employer did not appreciate her moonlighting.

Dean and Alice's children have a run in, but then become friends, so it would be just wonderful if Dean and Alice could do the same. They are both rather reserved people, for albeit different reasons. They do bond eventually, and that is very sweet. While there certainly was no heat at all between Dean and Alice, it still was a very enjoyable story. Sometimes I rather enjoy a sweet romance and so I look forward to reading more from this author. Winter Beginnings is the third book in the Return to Me series.

Many thanks to Escape Publishing and to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Date of publication: June 20, 2018

Winter Beginnings is a well written romance. I loved the plot and the characters. This writer is new to me and I will definitely be reading more of her books. Fans of romance stories will enjoy this book.

This was the first time I have read a book by this author. I did enjoy the book although there were some parts that i thought could have been better. For example - the spelling errors - that might be just a pet peeve of mine and maybe it was due to translation however that discounted the book in my mind. The story was well told but I would have like a bit more about Dean and Alice together rather then a good deal of information about their lives apart. Overall I would read another book by this author. Thanks for the opportunity!

"Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy of this book, in exchange for an honest review."

Loved this book very much. It had just enough sweet romance and the storyline was great! I highly recommend!

His parents died in a garage?

So he is doing better than fine. Duly noted.

What does she think he wouldn't want to hear?

You're alright, Ben. But no more fighting, kiddo.

His friends are pimping him out.

Wow, he must smell really good or something. Everyone is kissing him.

She's kind of a martyr.

I feel like I've read this before.