Member Reviews
Really liked this holiday read!
This was like a Hallmark movie and had all of the holiday feels. Honestly, it could be a Christmas movie. I really like Mia and Brax. Their story was charming. I liked the slight hint at the next book too. Looking forward to reading the next!
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!
Such a heart warming feel good Christmas novel. Mia's family are absolutely adorable and the snowy setting of their farm seems so idyllic for a Christmas based storyline.
We follow Mia and Brax who are Paediatric Doctors and work together, they had a fling during the summer but Brax pulled away when he realised they would be working together.
Mia needs a fake boyfriend to take home for Christmas, her best friend can't help and she is about to ask the biggest flirt and creep when Brax steps in and offers.
I love a good fake dating, second chance romance and this was done so well. Its packed full of family love, hope with a sprinkle of snow, cookies and snowglobes.
Perfect for this time of year.
Thank you NetGalley, Miranda Liasson and Hawthorne House Press for providing me with a copy to read, all opinions expressed are my own.
This was such an adorable, cozy, and semi-spicy Christmas novel!! This is definitely cute, exciting, and should be made into a Hallmark or Lifetime Christmas movie someday.
I really enjoyed this book! I found the authors voice to be funny, sincere and authentic, she wrote tenderly and I loved how the fourth wall was broken.
Mia and Brax navigate Christmas and a second chance at love. This book touches in a few heavy subjects, but the crux of it was familial love, the beauty and miracles of Christmas, and the hope that comes with finding and being brave enough to accept true love.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I loved this book! I have been reading Miranda Liasson’s books for years. She has a great talent getting the reader hooked into her stories. I know I always am!
I voluntarily reviewed this book.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC of Take Me Home for Christmas. I loved this book and I look forward to reading more about Oak Bluff. This is the perfect story to read as winter is starting. I liked watching the relationship between Mia and Brax evolve as well as watching them grow and evolve as people. You don't want to pass up this amazing Christmas story.
So. Many. Feelings. Miranda Liasson is an author who always takes me on an emotional journey but even in the midst of many keepers, this book stands out. It has so much heart, so many tender moments. I laughed out loud, shed tears (both kinds), and fell head over heels in love with…well, pretty much the entire cast of characters. Okay, there are a few exceptions but everyone else.
I want to hang out with Brax, Mia, Sam, Gage, and the rest of their hospital friends. I want to spend Christmas with Mia’s fun-loving family, join in all of their traditions, make cookies with her mom at daybreak, read The Night Before Christmas with her adorable niece, and tackle the scream-inducing sledding hill behind their house. I love the way Liasson portrays the love, support, teasing, and complications within this close-knit family that has suffered a grievous loss. I wanted to gather them all in and give them huge hugs, including Brax, who has never experienced a Christmas - or family - like the one gifted him by D’Angelos.
Liasson tackles some tough topics in this book - including sick kids, grief, and cancer - handling them with thoughtful, hopeful, but also realistic care. It adds additional emotional layers to an already heart-tugging story and extra depth to the characters. I especially enjoyed the look forward six years into the future in the Epilogue.
Take Me Home for Christmas launches Miranda Liasson’s The Amazing Doctors of Oak Bluff series and sets a high bar for the rest of the books. I feel like these characters have become my friends and am eagerly anticipating (hopefully) catching up with them again in book two.
Hey Hallmark, here is your next sweet Christmas romance with a hefty dose of tears! Seriously, if you love a good tearjerker written to be the Christmas story that you need to kick off your holiday reading with! I personally love a sweet romance any time of year and don't care if it is holiday themed or not, but this one is the perfect book to get you in the mood for the Christmas season. You have wonderfully written characters with flaws that are realistic and humanizes them even more. The setting is in a children's hospital with travel to a small town for a family Christmas. The book is a bit of fake dating, instant attraction, second chances, holiday themed mixed with a hefty dose of family drama and work competition. You will need a big box of tissues to get through the book, but it's the perfect tearjerker to really sink into and let the world fade away. You can't go wrong picking this book whether you go audio, ebook or physical book....just make sure you get the book, so you don't miss out on this fabulous story!
This is the kind of holiday read that everyone looks for. It has all of the emotions you have come to expect with a Christmas story and the characters and setting is so likable. This is the first book in this series and I will definitely want to read book 2. This is a great Christmas read to pick up, climb into your favourite reading chair and immerse yourself in the story.
Take Me Home for Christmas by Miranda Liasson, book one in The Amazing Doctors of Oak Bluff series, is wonderful, heartwarming, sweet, emotional, fake dating, second chance story about family, tragedy, and loss. Trigger warning: childhood cancer loss and current children cancer patients in treatment, and childhood abandonment. Tissues might be needed.
Mia D’Angelo, a third year pediatric resident will do just about anything for her family while Dr. Braxton Hughes grew up without one, but against all odds he became a doctor. This is so much more than a fake boyfriend romance. Mia’s journey is about finding the courage to step into her own destiny and Brax’s path to a career he is passionate about. As Mia and Brax work through their pasts, they support each other as they figure out how to deal with their hurts and baggage; sharing a magnetic attraction and chemistry that sparks a forever love. This amazing Christmas story takes you on a magical journey of love, loss and how family and finding your true love.
I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book.
Take Me Home for Christmas is a sweet story of homecomings and belonging as well as finding one’s place in the world. Mia D’Angelo will complete her residency in six months and is vying for a highly sought after position with one of the top pediatric groups in Milwaukee. Her competition is Braxton Hughes, chief resident of her rotation.
While Brad was briefly a romantic interest, he nipped it in the bud when he learned Mia would be in his rotation by truthfully telling her he didn’t do relationships but he wanted to be friends. This was about the same time her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her family has already lost so much to cancer with her twin sister Grace when they were only nine. In fact, it is because of Gracie that she became a pediatrician. Since tales of Brax seemed to brighten her mother’s mood, Mia continued to regale her with stories of things actually happening at the hospital, just leaving out the detail that they were no longer together.
When her family insists Mia bring Brax home for Christmas she begins with a ruse to bring her best friend Gabe home to act the part. When Gabe backs out for personal reasons, Brax steps up leading to a perfect family homecoming. Told with heart and humor, Ms.Liasson has penned a dynamic story of two people, both deeply wounded in childhood, finding their way to each other. This was such a good book, filled with laughter but allowing some tears to sneak in. I very much enjoyed this book and I do recommend it!
Second chance, fake dating romance, the story of Mia and Brax. A fab festive read, I liked how it was told from both points of view. Emotional at times as it deals with some sad events.
Take Me Home for Christmas is a heartwarming and humorous story about a pediatric resident who will do just about anything for her family – and a man who grew up without one. It’s also so much more than a fun “fake boyfriend” romance…Mia’s journey is about finding the courage to step into her own destiny. Hope you enjoy the swoony romance and the holiday cheer…and that you enjoy Mia and Brax’s path to happily-ever-after as much as I did writing it!
I thought I was going to read a funny and sweet Christmas story and I found so much more!
Mia D’Angelo, third-year pediatric resident, was in love with Braxton Hughes, but he broke things up between them just after she told her sick mom that she’d finally met the perfect guy. So she kept going with the stories, just to get her through a very tough time. When her mom’s health crisis ended and she thought things had settled down, her family wanted to meet this wonderful boyfriend for Christmas. So she asked (okay, begged) just about every male I knew under forty, except for Dr. Braxton Hughes.
So when her car is packed and she’s down to no one, magically, there he is, duffle in hand, melt-me smile on his face. Keeping it professional is going to be a whole lot harder than she thought. Especially when he charms her parents, her whole family, and even her dog. And Dr. Wrong…well, he’s suddenly looking awfully right.
I loved almost everything about this book, but it’s definitely not a rom-com. Both characters are amazing and well developed, but their past are tragic and heartbroken. There are a few TW, but mostly the C word and losing a love one. It’s about grief, second chances, forgiveness and letting the past go. I was really moved by this story and it’s the kind of romance every girl just loves. The only reason I don’t give this book 5 stars is because the sexy times were closed doors and that’s a shame because the chemistry between these two was HOT.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Loved reading this book. This was a fun, light, heartwarming holiday rom-com that is perfect for any time of the year. A holiday rom-com, fake boyfriend, family story that is the perfect mental getaway. Mia and Brax have lived very different lives so the holidays and family bring up very different things for them. Mia never wants to disappoint her family so has been telling them what they want to hear. Oops! Now she needs a fake boyfriend to make her mother smile. Brax, her ex, who unceremoniously dumped her, wants to remain good friends as they work together and just happens to be her direct competition for a job they both want. He is somewhat guilted by a mutual friend into playing the role and shows up as she is ready to head home. He is an amazing Dr, but emotionally damaged and stunted and honestly, a crappy friend. She does all she can to never allow him to break her heart again, but succumbs to his fake sweetness, just as everyone who meets him does and then it happens again. Will they, won't they, can they make it work? Of course, as that is what we read this genre and author for. Their happily ever after was fabulous. It’s a great read that already has me looking forward to the next in the series.
I loved Mia and Brax. This story is both heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time, deals with tough health subjects, but ends up bring out the best of possibilities in the end. Mia and Brax were dating for a short time but he brakes it off but Mia never tells her mom and so she needs a fake boyfriend to bring home for Christmas, she has it all figured out she thinks! Things happen and those plans fall apart at the last minute. Brax steps in and offers to be the fake boyfriend.
All the ways this could go wrong, but could it also go right? Who knows, so many things kept from each other, things from both of their pasts. Not small things either all are pretty big things and play a big part of who they are and how they live their lives, or don't live them in some ways. There fears are tied in to the past as well.
This book gave me all the feels, from the heartbreak emotions to some laughing, the heartwarming and in the end the feeling of healing. There is some angst. This gives you the feel of a great hallmark Christmas movie! I look forward to reading more in this series and more from this author, she is new to me!
Mia has herself in a bit of a pickle relationship wise. She decided that since her mom was going through cancer treatments she wouldn't tell her about the breakup with her boyfriend Brax. Fast forward a few months, still hasn't told her family about the breakup and they're expecting her to bring home the boyfriend for the grand introduction. Through a friend Brax finds out about the problem that Mia has found herself in, and rather than have Mia take home some weird choice of partner, he volunteers to go as her stand in boyfriend, who surprisingly to him, has his name!
I love the way Miranda L created the story, the love, the acceptance, the Christmas fun. The characters were believable and easy to remember.
A Christmas setting...who can resist!
Overall a great Christmas read. I give it 4*,
Thanks to NetGalley, Miranda Liasson, and Hawthorn House for allowing me this arc copy in exchange for my opinion on the book.
Fantastic holiday romance! This is like reading a Hallmark movie. I loved Mia and Braxton's story. The way it was told through both of their eyes really added to the story. Highly recommend this holiday romance!!
Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for advanced copy, and I give my review freely
Favorite Quotes:
We had to pick up the pieces after Grace left us and somehow put ourselves together again. Which we did, but ever since then, it seemed I was always looking for the part of me that she took with her.
A woman in a bright orange jumpsuit waved to her and left out the door. Either she was an escaped con or at the height of fashion, I wasn’t sure which.
Being the object of his smile still felt like being in the light of the sun. Warm and wonderful.
My Review:
An excellent kick off for a new series and I’m already greedily plotting to amass every installment if they are as engaging and absorbing as this one. Ms. Liasson is a master at synthesizing endearing characters and I adored and admired her primary and secondary character creations. The writing was well-paced and polished while unfurling a realistic tale with real world issues, hits of amusing humor, heart-squeezes, and insightful and empathetic observations. I was quickly pulled into the characters’ vortex and held there while the well-honed narrative continued to flow like smooth jazz. I covet her skills.
This book deals with a very tough subject, but Ms. Liasson writes it beautifully. I loved the characters of Mia and Brax as we learn about their challenges on a pediatric cancer unit. Brax is going home with Mia as her fake boyfriend. She has a loving and very protective family. Brax only has his sister. A fantastic and sweet Christmas read that will warm your heart!
I received an advance copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley, however, I voluntarily wrote an honest review. All opinions are strictly my own.