Shannon Stacey
October 23, 2017
Carina Press
Blurb: A country-music star returns home to win back the woman he loves in this charming holiday novella from New York Times bestselling author Shannon Stacey
Ava Wright isn’t happy to see her high school sweetheart rolling into their hometown a few weeks before Christmas. He’s only come back to bury his estranged father, but there’s no way she’ll be able to avoid him. No one can: he’s become a country-music superstar since going solo and leaving Ava behind.
Jace Morrow grew up believing “money can’t buy happiness” was something people said to make themselves feel better. But now he knows it’s the truth: no matter how many number-one hits he has, he’ll never recapture the magic of singing with Ava. Missing her—loving her—and living with making the wrong choice in life were what made him who he is.
When Jace is roped into being part of the town’s annual Christmas party, he only cares about earning Ava’s forgiveness. And though Ava’s heart has never healed, she loved Jace too much and for too long to shut him out when he’s hurting. As they fall in love all over again, they’re both faced with choices for their future…and this time Jace intends to make the right one.
SASCHA DARLINGTON’S REVIEW
Shannon Stacey’s Hold Her Again merges two of my favorite things, romance and music, and then she incorporates second chance romance with a little holiday spirit thrown in against a backdrop of a small town and good people to make this reader’s almost-ultimate comfort novella.
Jace broke Ava’s heart when he chose country music stardom over her. Then he wrote a chart-topping song about making a wrong choice, but he still didn’t go back for her. Years later, Jace returns homes for his father’s funeral and has the opportunity to make things right, if he can.
I felt the characters rang true although I would have thought that Jace might have tried at some point to move on romantically considering the number of years that had passed. I appreciated that Ava did although it didn’t work out because her ex-husband knew she was still in love with Jace.
In plots like this, authors frequently give in to having their characters act out a lot of angst and/or game-playing as a form of retribution and I was very, very happy to see that was not the case here. Both characters, although passionate about each other, still dealt with the situation rationally. Yay!
This novella is short and sweet, just perfect for a couple of hours with a cup of tea and maybe a brownie. It’s a feel-good story to give you the warm fuzzies.
I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
To purchase from Amazon, click here: Hold Her Again
rating: 
4 out of 5 butterflies