I’ll Be Home… by Tate James

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

They say you can never go back…

‘Course, I never wanted to return. It took me years to age out. Once I made it, I took off and never turned around.

Trust me, there were only three reasons I managed to survive there as long as I did and they abandoned me as soon as they were able. I’d like to say I didn’t blame them, but that would be a lie.

I had zero desire to return. Yet here I was, on the road to Northland chasing a story cause my editor told me kids were disappearing… again.

It doesn’t matter what I want, I’m taking the fastest route to the darkest part of my past.

And then I’ll be home…

I’ll Be Home

Steamy reverse harem mystery!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 🖤💙❤️💚🩷
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Chemistry: 🧪🧪🧪🧪🧪
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘📔
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌏
Character development: 🙃🙁😋🥰
Narration: 🎙🎙🎙🎙🎙
Narration Type: Duet Narration

The heroine: Rachel Dean (a.k.a. Rayne Dear) – she was a reporter for a magazine that held the edge between gossip and investigative journalism. It was her last day before the new year and a month of personal leave to St. Barts as she hated the Christmas season with a passion. She was on her way out when her editor wanted to see her. He tells her that there is a big story that can’t wait for her to return from vacation. It is an out-of-town assignment, and it dealt with missing kids.

The Heroes: Frost Jackson (the grump), Alfred Buddie (the god), and Nicholas Klores (St. Nick) – they were old boyfriends of Rayne’s from when she was a teenager. Alfie was Frost’s best friend, who was always laid back and gave Rayne a lot of affection, he is now the town doctor in Northland. Nicholas was the third friend and the leader of their group and is now a lawyer. All three guys turned eighteen and left Rayne alone and she has some unresolved feelings about that.

The Story: Rachel wants to someday win a pulitzer and she would need more hard-hitting stories to have any chance of that. He tells her the kids had been disappearing from an orphanage type of place. The person running the home denies the kids ever existed and it was the local townspeople who reported them missing. He wants her to push the local sheriff into taking it more seriously. Rayne was an orphan herself, so she knows that sometimes kids run away, but either way, there is a story there. She is disturbed to find out that the story is in Northland, Minnesota, which just happens to be where she was from and the most charming Christmas town. The orphanage she was investigating was the same one where she grew up and escaped from twelve years ago.

When Rachel finds that the hotel was overbooked, and all the other hotels were overbooked, a stranger gave her the address of the Ginger Bridge Boarding House. She wakes in the middle of the night to hear the three guys in her room, arguing about her. Saying her being in town is the last thing they needed. She has the three guys constantly coming on to her and making her feel good and she finds that much more is going on in town than she originally assumed. That’s some serious drama with a dash of chaos!

I enjoyed this book; it was plenty steamy and had a good mystery to boot. It was an engaging mix of mystery, romance, and holiday tension! The setup with Rachel’s reluctant return to her hometown and the missing children case gives it a strong investigative pull, while the presence of her past boyfriends adds layers of unresolved emotions and intrigue. The setting of Northland as a picturesque Christmas town contrasts perfectly with her dislike of the holiday season—great tension right there.

This audiobook was narrated from multiple perspectives, done in duet narration by Lucas Webley and Michelle Sparks. Michelle has a soft, feminine voice that is very pleasant. She is expressive and you can’t tell she is reading at all. Lucas Webley has a deep voice and is great at doing different sounding voices for different characters. His voice for Nick, especially during intimate scenes was so sexy.

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