Tin Angel

Romance Reborn Holiday Series #1

by Raine English

A Christmas Fairy Tale about love and second chances. Wishes really do come true!

Romance Writers of America® Golden Heart® Finalist

For the first time in Alice Hart’s life, she likes the way she looks. The ugly duckling has become a swan. But how could this be? She’s ninety years old, far from young and beautiful…


Alice Hart is a lonely old woman who believes true love happens only once in a lifetime. When the angel Christmas tree topper given to her by the fiancé she lost sixty years ago comes to life, Alice’s wish to be young again is granted, but she’s given only ten days to find true love or die unfulfilled. So she concocts a story that she’s Alice’s long lost niece, hoping to attract the attention of the handsome tenant renting her upstairs apartment.

Disillusioned by his experiences with high maintenance women, Jack Billings yearns to find an old-fashioned girl who is more interested in his heart than in material things. When his elderly landlady vanishes, her newly arrived niece, Ally, seems to hold the clues to her disappearance. Jack at first dismisses Ally as another material girl, but as he digs deeper into Alice’s mystery, he learns that Ally is more than what she seems and worries that the girl he’s coming to love might be a scam artist or worse.

Genres: Christmas

234 pages, Paperback

First published November 24, 2012

About the author

Raine English is a USA Today bestselling, award-winning author who writes romantic suspense, paranormal, and sweet small-town romances. She's a Daphne du Maurier Award winner and a Golden Heart finalist. Her books have made the Top 100 Bestseller lists at both Amazon and Barnes & Noble. She lives in New England with her family and French bulldog, Bailey. She can be found on the web at www.RaineEnglish.com.

Subscribe to her newsletter at Raine@RaineEnglish.com to receive information on her new releases.

Reviews

[Diane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hate to be a dissenter but my take on the book was not the same as those giving it 4 and 5 stars.

The book was decently written but I just couldn't get past the many implausible things that happened. SPOILERS: I don't think Jack and the minister would just let what they truly felt was the disappearance of Alice go unchallenged, beyond a few questions, with more than a little evidence that things were not as explained.

The skeptic in me found the scene where Jack suddenly believed that this was all due to magic and angels worthy of lots of eye rolling. I'm not against the themes of either, but him suddenly believing her? Without adequate evidence (IMHO)... perhaps if he had seen the tin angel? That would have worked better for me.

Reading the reviews before I read it, I thought I'd enjoy it as a light hearted romance, but there's a bit of a creepy factor on both sides when a 90 yo and a young man get together, with both ending up knowing it, regardless of the "magic" of her suddenly being returned to the body of a young woman.

[Wanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a very sweet story about second chances. I fell in love with the storyline and the characters. It is very well written and easy to follow.

Received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Sue · Rating 4 out of 5]

"...she realized that was one of old age's cruelest tricks. While on the outside she had grayed and withered, inside she still felt twenty-five."

What would you do if you had a second chance at life and love?

In Tin Angel by Raine English, Alice has spent most of her adult life isolated and mourning the loss of her fiancee during the World War. She has never moved on from this loss, never allowing herself to love again or to be really happy again.

At Christmas time, a Christmas Alice believes will likely be her last, she feels regret for the way she's lived, and the chances she's missed. She wishes she could have that love, she wishes so much to have done things differently.

When in a miraculous turn of events the Tin Angel given to her by her deceased fiance comes to life and grants her her wish, Alice only has 10 days to find true love or her time on earth will be over. Alice turns herself into Ally, Alice's niece.

When Jack, the tenant above Alice, first sees Ally, he is filled with suspicion about who she is and what her motives are. And most of all, just where did Alice suddenly go? Jack, jaded by bad experiences with relationships, decides he will find out exactly what is going on. Soon Ally and Jack are spending a lot of time together...what starts out for Jack as keeping an eye on Ally and finding out about Alice, soon turns into spending time with a woman he is very attracted to. She has so many of the characteristics he values in a woman...kind of old fashioned like Alice.

Even when she was Alice, Ally noticed Jack and all the good things about him. Now she is finding more and more to like about him as they spend time together. Ally is experiencing things she's never felt or done before, and she can't believe what she missed out on! But even with their growing feelings towards each other, Jack feels like Ally is not being totally honest with him. And between grifters, and ex girlfriend, and Alice's 10 days quickly running out...will Ally have her true love and get her redo, or is it just too late?

I really enjoyed reading Alice/Ally's story!! Raine takes the reader to a place we probably all at one point wish for...a chance to do something differently - whether big or small. Tin Angel was at times funny, sad, loving and sexy. Raine gives us a perfect blend of this in Tin Angel. I really felt for Alice, I really wanted her to find true love before it was all too late for her.

The length of Tin Angel fit very well with the story line. The characters and their relationships developed quickly, there was never a dull moment! Raine makes the whole story even better by adding a little mystery/suspense to it...which further helps the character development of Ally and Jack as they both have to deal with the unexpected.

Tin Angel by Raine English is a sweet, feel good romance that I will recommend to any romance reader who likes a little paranormal in the mix! :) I will definitely be reading more of Raine's books.

[Hannah Rush · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mrs. Raine English is a very talented author, who writes romance and Gothic romance novels with some magic and sometimes the paranormal. The romance in theses stories is amazing and very real. The characters are well thought out and brought to life. The back ground for these characters is well described and feels real. You can almost believe that this really happened.
I really enjoyed this book and couldn't wait to finish it, not because it was terrible, but because I was dying to know what was going to happen. The main character is Alice Hart and the main man is Jack Billings. Alice is ninety years old and she has never been married. She was engaged once, but her fiance died before they could get married.
Right before Christmas Alice gets a visit form an angel which is also the Christmas trees' topper. The angel gives Alice a second chance to find true love, but she only has ten days to do so, or else, she will die. So, Alice is twenty-five again and beautiful.
Jack has had a bad relationship in the past and doesn't want to fall for an artificial girl again. He wants an old fashioned girl like his land lady Alice Hart (not that I'm saying he wants her, just someone like her).
Could Jack and Alice who is pretending to be Ally, Alices' niece from New York, have a chance together? Jack doesn't trust Ally, many things in her story just don't add up. So he decides to find out what happened to Alice. Could Ally be a scam artist or worse?
This has a little bit of sex in it. It does not go into great and graphic detail, but still if you don't like that kind of thing, then don't read this. CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED! I myself like a little sex in the books I read. I think it keeps things interesting. I do not like it when it is graphic and that is all that there is.
The love story between Ally (Alice) and Jack is very sweet at times, though to be honest there are times I want to kill both of them. You will probably understand if you read this. For me when I finished this story I was left wanting more.
This is currently the second book I have read by Raine English. I really liked her other book Date With a Vampire (my review here: http://witingismyworld.blogspot.com/2...). The way she entwines romance, magic and the paranormal is amzaing and it really is good reading. She is quite quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I am currently reading her book Mistress of Raghery (Goodreads description here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...). I will do a blog post/review on it once I finish reading it. It should be up either Thursday or Friday.
There were a few times when reading Tin angel that I felt like maybe something different should have happened, but all in all I really liked this and will more than likely read it again. I think I will. I definatly recommend this book to whoever is interested.
This is the first book in the Romance Reborn Holiday series. I do not know when the next book will be out.

[Silverana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute story. Jack is a gentleman with old fashion type values in a modern setting. He is renting the top floor at the elderly, Alice’s home. He never fails to stop by and spend time with her. Alice decided to stay alone all her life when she learned the news of her fiancé’s death decades ago. One day she makes a wish that she is young again and this time she would find love. Her wish is granted and she is given until New Year’s Day to find true love or she will die.

When she wakes up young, she pretends she is Alice’s niece, Ally, and that Alice has gone away for the holidays. This time she does things very differently. She chooses up to date clothes instead of the old fashion stuff she was into and also becomes a little less conservative. Jack is suspicious and worried that something has happened to Alice since she left without telling him just the night before. He knows Ally is hiding something and decides to flirt the answer out of her. He thinks that Ally is one of the high-maintenance types, the exact opposite of what he is interested in but he ends up having feelings for her.

Ally is given a lot of time to tell Jack the truth of what has happened but she waits too long. This creates a well described angst near the end. I really liked how the problem was solved.

The story is very nicely written but could have done without two things. First, when Jack meets Ally he knows something isn’t right. But instead of doing the easy thing of making an extra call or taking an extra step to find out whether Alice is ok or not like the normal good neighbor or friend would do, he decides to let it go and just try to get closer to Ally to find out the truth. He makes a big deal about how a complete stranger is living at Alice’s house but decides not to start out taking the simplest of actions. The second thing, Ally decides to do everything the modern way in getting to know a guy, but I kept thinking most people would not give their number to a random/stranger especially after knowing them for only a few minutes. The second thing is probably just me and my more conservative/traditional beliefs, although Jack and her are not together, just getting to know each other, she decides to meet up with the stranger. Not only that, she invites him over while Jack was there. I just could not get over that even though she has an understandable reason for it.

All in all, it was a sweet story which could have been a 5 star if different strategies were used for the two above mentioned descriptions.

[Shari Larsen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alice Hart is a lonely 90 year old woman who believes that true love happens only once in a life time. When the angel Christmas tree topper given to her by her fiance over 60 years ago comes to life, she is granted to wish to be young again, but she is only granted 10 days to find true love before she dies.

She concocts a story that she is Alice's long lost niece Ally, to explain her presence to Jack Billings, the handsome young tenant renting her upstairs apartment. While Jack finds himself drawn to her, he also does not trust her, and as he digs deeper into the mystery of the disappearance of his elderly landlady, he worries that Ally may be a scam artist.

I liked the basic idea of this story, but in the end, it disappointed me. I wasn't expecting the somewhat graphic love scenes in what I was expecting to a be a sweet little Christmas story; not that there's anything wrong with that, I just prefer certain things be left to the imagination. I could have forgiven that though, had the rest of the story been better. Both Alice/Ally and Jack claimed to have "old fashioned values", but the actions of their characters did not always reflect that. I also found the ending was wrapped up a little too quickly and neatly, and it had my rolling my eyes into the back of my head.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The saying don't judge a book by its cover is accurate for this book. I wasn't struck on the front cover as it looks quite old fashioned and didn't know what to expects. I thoroughly enjoyed the story and found it very hard to put down. Alice is the sort of grandma figure we all wish we had and Ally the girl we all wish we were. The characters are very believable even if the situation isn't, the story has you wanting the best for Ally and the happiness she so longs for.
Combining, love, romance, hopes and dreams, mystery , happiness and sadness it has everything you can want from a book.
Such a lovely heartwarming read, will look out for more books by Raine

Big thanks to goodreads First Reads where I won a review copy of this book.

[Linda Andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alice Hart's life is nearly over when she realizes she's never really lived at all. For nearly seventy years she's mourned the death of her first love (killed during World War 2) and now the gift he'd given her of a tin angel will offer her a second chance at love and life. Turned back into a beautiful twenty something, Ally now pretends to be her own neice when friends come calling. Poignant and funny, sad but lighthearted, Ally's search for love tugs on all the heart's strings right until the final moment when she must choose between her first love and the one most recently found. An amazing story I really didn't want to end.

[Janet · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a sweet Holiday Treat for me. It had all the elements; good strong characters, a bit of paranormal (angel) and a really intriguing premise. Do you return if possible to your first love or do you move on? I found myself emotionally invest ed in the outcome of the heroine's journey to redemption and love. It was a real gift from Raine English, and I will definitely read more from her.
*I received my copy from NetGalley.com in exchange for an honest review.

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the book. I will probably read it again in a couple of years. I liked the concept that this old lady had a chance to live her life over again. This story would make a cute lifetime Christmas movie.

[Pamela Rosensteel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rate: 3.5

[Felelith · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was okay but did not move me in any way. The kindest thing I could say it was sweet in a bubblegum, lifetime movie type of way.

[Kath · Rating 5 out of 5]

Books like this I read to enjoy the possibilities of what could be. What miracles might exist. If you like a read to enjoy and separate from the world you will enjoy this.