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Cardinal Point #1
When Love Leads You Home
All Jacey Steele’s life, she’s focused on one thing: gymnastics. After missing the Olympic team because of injury, and being shut out by her ‘winning is everything’ father, she’s built a career as a top notch, award-winning coach. When a serious student injury propels her to the outside of the gymnastics world, she finds herself broke and alone – until a bequest from a mysterious and unknown aunt takes her on an unexpected journey. Who was Aunt Winnie, and what does the equally mysterious and unknown Mr. Boudreaux have to do with it?
Army veteran, Cole Boudreaux, has returned home a hero to Cardinal Point, Texas, but a few things went wrong with his homecoming. His fiancée cut him loose, and he lost his position as a police officer because a wartime injury left him nearly deaf. Then, the woman who was like a mother to him dies suddenly. Cole knows God has a plan, and if he could settle Winnie’s estate and grow his budding security business, he just might figure out what it is. Winnie’s niece is not making it easy. She’s rolled into town with a ton of baggage and secrets she’s not willing to share. Why is Jacey so distant, and why is she so determined to not let him in?
Army veteran, Cole Boudreaux, has returned home a hero to Cardinal Point, Texas, but a few things went wrong with his homecoming. His fiancée cut him loose, and he lost his position as a police officer because a wartime injury left him nearly deaf. Then, the woman who was like a mother to him dies suddenly. Cole knows God has a plan, and if he could settle Winnie’s estate and grow his budding security business, he just might figure out what it is. Winnie’s niece is not making it easy. She’s rolled into town with a ton of baggage and secrets she’s not willing to share. Why is Jacey so distant, and why is she so determined to not let him in?
204 pages, ebook
Published December 4, 2015
105 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 23, 2021
Good though a little rougher than the last
I came to this series after reading book 6 which was done so well that it led me to want to read the whole series.
I liked this book, too - the premise is unusual & was very intriguing - but it's not quite as well written as book 6. Obviously this is the first book in the series, but even though the writing is good, it had me wondering if it was also at least one of these authors' first books. Or perhaps it was their first time to write as a team.
The plot flow is a bit rough or disjointed at times & reads like a series of scenes were written and then stitched together. The story is really sweet but the attraction and then love between Jacey & Cole is also too insta; the development of their relationship needed more support. And the Annalise conflict is too obviously contrived.
Still, the heart of the story is engaging and kept me reading till the end.
Like book 6, it stops fairly abruptly, though at least a sort of epilogue is offered here - if you're willing to sign up for a newsletter. Which I don't mind, though at this point I have more newsletters than I can humanly keep up with, but will lose a subset of readers who view it as the ending of the book being held back extortionately.
*Romance level: sweet kisses, nothing graphic
*Religion: overtly Christian; hero is, while heroine is not, so some talk about belief vs not but fairly natural to the story, not preachy
I came to this series after reading book 6 which was done so well that it led me to want to read the whole series.
I liked this book, too - the premise is unusual & was very intriguing - but it's not quite as well written as book 6. Obviously this is the first book in the series, but even though the writing is good, it had me wondering if it was also at least one of these authors' first books. Or perhaps it was their first time to write as a team.
The plot flow is a bit rough or disjointed at times & reads like a series of scenes were written and then stitched together. The story is really sweet but the attraction and then love between Jacey & Cole is also too insta; the development of their relationship needed more support. And the Annalise conflict is too obviously contrived.
Still, the heart of the story is engaging and kept me reading till the end.
Like book 6, it stops fairly abruptly, though at least a sort of epilogue is offered here - if you're willing to sign up for a newsletter. Which I don't mind, though at this point I have more newsletters than I can humanly keep up with, but will lose a subset of readers who view it as the ending of the book being held back extortionately.
*Romance level: sweet kisses, nothing graphic
*Religion: overtly Christian; hero is, while heroine is not, so some talk about belief vs not but fairly natural to the story, not preachy
May 24, 2016
Charming, sweet, emotional, and a totally enjoyable read. These authors know how to write characters and give them depth. I love it when you are given the backstory of the MCs so that you really know the characters.
Winny is the central character of this story, although she has passed away before it even begins. She has loved Cole since he was young and been a mother figure for him. Cole's mother was a police officer who was killed in the line of duty and his father died several years later, never having recovered from his broken heart. Cole's dream of becoming a police officer like his parents was shattered when he lost most of his hearing while serving in Afghanistan. Winny left him half ownership of her B&B in Cardinal Point.
Jacey also lost her mother when she was young. Her father is a cold man who believes in nothing less than perfection and hard work for Jacey. This has left her almost as cold as her father but fortunately she recognizes what is lacking in her own ability to relate to others and gradually she begins to thaw as the residents of Cardinal Point give her what her father never did - an acceptance of effort and even love. Jacey's career as a world champion gymnast ended tragically but she has continued as a coach. When the aunt she never knew she had leaves her half ownership of a B&B in Cardinal Point she travels there to sell it to get the money she needs.
Secrets have to be brought out in the open in order to heal the damage done, physically and emotionally, to these two people. Secondary characters are critical to the story and the reader falls in love with them, tool. I loved the way their own stories became vital to those of the main characters.
When Love Leads You Home is a holiday story that can be enjoyed any time of the year because it's about more than Christmas. It's about how two people who are hurting can find a way to comfort each other and become whole again. Highly recommended.
Winny is the central character of this story, although she has passed away before it even begins. She has loved Cole since he was young and been a mother figure for him. Cole's mother was a police officer who was killed in the line of duty and his father died several years later, never having recovered from his broken heart. Cole's dream of becoming a police officer like his parents was shattered when he lost most of his hearing while serving in Afghanistan. Winny left him half ownership of her B&B in Cardinal Point.
Jacey also lost her mother when she was young. Her father is a cold man who believes in nothing less than perfection and hard work for Jacey. This has left her almost as cold as her father but fortunately she recognizes what is lacking in her own ability to relate to others and gradually she begins to thaw as the residents of Cardinal Point give her what her father never did - an acceptance of effort and even love. Jacey's career as a world champion gymnast ended tragically but she has continued as a coach. When the aunt she never knew she had leaves her half ownership of a B&B in Cardinal Point she travels there to sell it to get the money she needs.
Secrets have to be brought out in the open in order to heal the damage done, physically and emotionally, to these two people. Secondary characters are critical to the story and the reader falls in love with them, tool. I loved the way their own stories became vital to those of the main characters.
When Love Leads You Home is a holiday story that can be enjoyed any time of the year because it's about more than Christmas. It's about how two people who are hurting can find a way to comfort each other and become whole again. Highly recommended.
January 4, 2017
2.5 stars from me on this one.
This was a fairly sweet Christian (but not preachy) romance. I never really fell in love with the characters, but I did like them and care what happened in their story. I find the heroine mildly irritating, but there are well-explained reasons for the chip on her shoulder and the way she is working through her personal issues is completely believable. The hero is nice enough, although I didn't think his personality and circumstances were sufficiently explored. The story is more about the heroine, and at points he seemed almost incidental - as if he was only there because she needed a love interest who could drive her toward the changes she needed to make.
The main problem I had, though, was that I couldn't quite get a handle on Cardinal Point and the denizens thereof - perhaps it was because this book dives into what feels like the middle of a story, as if there is a prequel book I should have read that I know nothing about. It isn't anything that effects the core romance of this story, but it does impact the setting and background characters and I think the momentum of the story.
Overall, a sweet holiday romance. I liked it enough that I'm willing to explore other offerings from this author, but it won't be a long-time favorite.
This was a fairly sweet Christian (but not preachy) romance. I never really fell in love with the characters, but I did like them and care what happened in their story. I find the heroine mildly irritating, but there are well-explained reasons for the chip on her shoulder and the way she is working through her personal issues is completely believable. The hero is nice enough, although I didn't think his personality and circumstances were sufficiently explored. The story is more about the heroine, and at points he seemed almost incidental - as if he was only there because she needed a love interest who could drive her toward the changes she needed to make.
The main problem I had, though, was that I couldn't quite get a handle on Cardinal Point and the denizens thereof - perhaps it was because this book dives into what feels like the middle of a story, as if there is a prequel book I should have read that I know nothing about. It isn't anything that effects the core romance of this story, but it does impact the setting and background characters and I think the momentum of the story.
Overall, a sweet holiday romance. I liked it enough that I'm willing to explore other offerings from this author, but it won't be a long-time favorite.
January 26, 2017
Such a great story! I fell in love with the characters from the start and enjoyed watching their relationship grow as they overcame their struggles. A sweet holiday romance that can be read any time of year with vibrant characters that will tug at your heart and a setting that will have you wanting to visit and stay a while. Can't wait to read more about Cardinal Point! Highly Recommend!!
November 25, 2019
When Jacey Steele's life goes off the rails, it opens another door... to a whole new life. And what a life it is. Meeting Cole and finding the sweet town of Cardinal Point brings Jacey to the new beginning she deserves. Cardinal Point is the kind of town you wish you could visit every holiday season! You won't regret getting lost in this book!
December 22, 2015
The best Christmas romance I've read this year!
Well done, ladies! Well written and fleshed out characters. The town is one I can picture in my mind. I could not put this story down! At the end, I was wiping tears from my eyes.. I'm looking forward to the next installment!
Well done, ladies! Well written and fleshed out characters. The town is one I can picture in my mind. I could not put this story down! At the end, I was wiping tears from my eyes.. I'm looking forward to the next installment!
September 16, 2021
Loved This Book!
Finally, a Cardinal Point novel that lives up to its hype! I don't know if it's due to the co-authorship of Jami Crumpton, but this is an amazing reading experience with loads of beautiful writing and sympathetic characters who involve you in their drama and get you rooting for them.
Jacey Steele (apt last name) is a former world-class gymnast and college coach who has lost her job due to a catastrophic student injury and is being sued by the paralyzed student's parents. She has inherited half of a bed and breakfast from an aunt she never knew, and her lack of social skills from spending 30-plus hours poor week in a gym with a father who is never satisfied no matter how great her performance leaves her hated by her team .To escape the imminent lawsuit, she tra feels from Florida to Cardinal Point, Texas, to clear out the B&B and prepare it for sale. She doesn't count on the other owner of the B&B to be so emotionally attached to the building and her Aunt Winnie--- or to be so gorgeous
Cole Boudreaux, the owner of the other half, is mourning for the woman who was like a mother to him and has no interest in selling. He also is trying to get his nascent security firm off the ground with has partner, Shane. Despite his nearly complete hearing loss, which caused him to be dumped by his fiancee (Annalise, the ground of My Half Price Valentine...now I see the "enemies" backstory), Cole has excellent social skills and wants to keep the B&B open in Winnie's memory. Jacey doesn't see the point.
Cole takes a chance and she Jacey to the Rec Center Christmas dance, never mind his balance problems from the ear injury. His friend Tammy, who in this book is pregnant with her third child but is a non-stop fashion queen in sparkly everything, styles Jacey in a very flattering (and non-sparkly) outfit for the dance. It ended Cole speechless and sets up the couple for a romantic encounter during the dance. But there's trouble in paradise...
Annalise shows up apt the gym where Cole an bed Shane see playing one-on-one basketball and does her involve sympathies for Cole's loss, followed by a dramatic kiss. Jacey sees the whole thing from the side of the gym, where she helping Tammy coach the local gymnastics team. They're children, not elite athletes, and when she tries to ship them into shape she fails spectacularly. She succeeds in watching Annalise's attack on Cole and misjudging it utterly.
After a confrontation that reveals Jacey's lack of self-confidence, Cole washes his hands of her ,calls her a coward, and tells her to go home. Jacey indulges in a crying fit ---after not crying for years, she's become seriously emotional---and goes through the B&B one more time. She discovers a roll of letters and cards sent to her by Winnie and marked "Return to Sender" by her father, plus a video Winnie took of her three-year-old self and her mother, whose death from cancer was not far off. This gives her a clue about her father's "insides turn[ing] black" go the point where he blamed Winnie, and by extension her devout faith, for his wife's death. Jacey now understands his motivation and selfishness, and while she can't forgive him she can contact him for closure. She calls him from a rest stop in Louisiana and talks to essentially dead air, since he doesn't have anything to say. Them she turns around and heads back home... to Cardinal Point and Cole.
There's a lot to love in Why Love Leads You Home: lyrical passages, effective building of tension, and the tying up of loose ends that frustrated me so much in My Half Price Valentine. Carla Rossi and Jami Crumpton have produced a gem!
Finally, a Cardinal Point novel that lives up to its hype! I don't know if it's due to the co-authorship of Jami Crumpton, but this is an amazing reading experience with loads of beautiful writing and sympathetic characters who involve you in their drama and get you rooting for them.
Jacey Steele (apt last name) is a former world-class gymnast and college coach who has lost her job due to a catastrophic student injury and is being sued by the paralyzed student's parents. She has inherited half of a bed and breakfast from an aunt she never knew, and her lack of social skills from spending 30-plus hours poor week in a gym with a father who is never satisfied no matter how great her performance leaves her hated by her team .To escape the imminent lawsuit, she tra feels from Florida to Cardinal Point, Texas, to clear out the B&B and prepare it for sale. She doesn't count on the other owner of the B&B to be so emotionally attached to the building and her Aunt Winnie--- or to be so gorgeous
Cole Boudreaux, the owner of the other half, is mourning for the woman who was like a mother to him and has no interest in selling. He also is trying to get his nascent security firm off the ground with has partner, Shane. Despite his nearly complete hearing loss, which caused him to be dumped by his fiancee (Annalise, the ground of My Half Price Valentine...now I see the "enemies" backstory), Cole has excellent social skills and wants to keep the B&B open in Winnie's memory. Jacey doesn't see the point.
Cole takes a chance and she Jacey to the Rec Center Christmas dance, never mind his balance problems from the ear injury. His friend Tammy, who in this book is pregnant with her third child but is a non-stop fashion queen in sparkly everything, styles Jacey in a very flattering (and non-sparkly) outfit for the dance. It ended Cole speechless and sets up the couple for a romantic encounter during the dance. But there's trouble in paradise...
Annalise shows up apt the gym where Cole an bed Shane see playing one-on-one basketball and does her involve sympathies for Cole's loss, followed by a dramatic kiss. Jacey sees the whole thing from the side of the gym, where she helping Tammy coach the local gymnastics team. They're children, not elite athletes, and when she tries to ship them into shape she fails spectacularly. She succeeds in watching Annalise's attack on Cole and misjudging it utterly.
After a confrontation that reveals Jacey's lack of self-confidence, Cole washes his hands of her ,calls her a coward, and tells her to go home. Jacey indulges in a crying fit ---after not crying for years, she's become seriously emotional---and goes through the B&B one more time. She discovers a roll of letters and cards sent to her by Winnie and marked "Return to Sender" by her father, plus a video Winnie took of her three-year-old self and her mother, whose death from cancer was not far off. This gives her a clue about her father's "insides turn[ing] black" go the point where he blamed Winnie, and by extension her devout faith, for his wife's death. Jacey now understands his motivation and selfishness, and while she can't forgive him she can contact him for closure. She calls him from a rest stop in Louisiana and talks to essentially dead air, since he doesn't have anything to say. Them she turns around and heads back home... to Cardinal Point and Cole.
There's a lot to love in Why Love Leads You Home: lyrical passages, effective building of tension, and the tying up of loose ends that frustrated me so much in My Half Price Valentine. Carla Rossi and Jami Crumpton have produced a gem!
August 13, 2021
When Love Leads You Home
I loved this story. To me, it was so emotional, and about Jacey learning who she was. Her aunt Winnie had died and left her half of her B & B. When she arrived in Cardinal Point, she discovered Cole was given the other half of the B&B. Jacey knew nothing about her aunt and her relationship with Jacey’s mother. I know you will really enjoy this story.
I loved this story. To me, it was so emotional, and about Jacey learning who she was. Her aunt Winnie had died and left her half of her B & B. When she arrived in Cardinal Point, she discovered Cole was given the other half of the B&B. Jacey knew nothing about her aunt and her relationship with Jacey’s mother. I know you will really enjoy this story.
May 18, 2022
Good book
I enjoyed reading this book it was a good book . I was disappointed at the end where I found out that you have to go the wedding in a separate book, I've seen this in books before and I never can get the book so I don't ever get to read the last chapter I don't understand why authors do thand why authors do that. It is a good book and well worth the read.
I enjoyed reading this book it was a good book . I was disappointed at the end where I found out that you have to go the wedding in a separate book, I've seen this in books before and I never can get the book so I don't ever get to read the last chapter I don't understand why authors do thand why authors do that. It is a good book and well worth the read.
October 24, 2023
Beautiful
This was a very inspiring story and beautifully written clean contemporary romance. The characters are very likeable, relatable and supporting. This story is very inspiring and uplifting I recommend it.
This was a very inspiring story and beautifully written clean contemporary romance. The characters are very likeable, relatable and supporting. This story is very inspiring and uplifting I recommend it.
June 12, 2021
Riveting story about two individuals who are broken in some way and come together in a unique way. Expertly written story. Loved it.
November 9, 2021
Great book
November 29, 2022
Great book
I laughed and cried through this whole story. It is an amazing story. If you don't read it, you are going to miss out.
I laughed and cried through this whole story. It is an amazing story. If you don't read it, you are going to miss out.
January 10, 2017
Jacey's life is falling apart when she finds herself in Cardinal Point, the new co-owner of a B&B. She's being sued by one of her gymnastics students, her father is cold and rigid, and the only person she really has is her dog, Moe. Cole inherited the B&B with Jacey. He's a veteran with hearing loss due to an IED, and a broken engagement in his past.
I struggled with what to rate this book. The authors are obviously talented, and it's a cute Christmas story with some vibrant characters.
But...it didn't feel like a whole story to me. For instance, the issue of the lawsuit is never resolved. Something at the end makes it seem like there will be a resolution, but...it never comes. The hero's issues with his ex-fiancee and the business he's starting with a friend never really amount to anything--they almost feel incidental, as if they're there just to fill out his background and give a temporary obstacle in the middle to the relationship between him and Jacey.
Characters are introduced at one point and seem like maybe they'll be significant, but then don't show up again. (Possibly sequel bait, but it just came across kind of haphazard to me.)
The romance also didn't quite work for me as well as it could have. It felt to me like Jacey decided she was in love with Cole super fast, when they barely knew each other. Quite possibly because he was one of the first people to truly be nice to her. And I never really felt why Jacey was right for Cole.
Toward the end, both characters became sort of emotionally erratic, ping-ponging between caring about each other and being angry with each other. Cole's swings between liking Jacey and being mad at her also felt kind of inconsistent.
The prose is lively and engaging, and there are cute moments in the book. I'll likely try another Cardinal Point story at some point.
I struggled with what to rate this book. The authors are obviously talented, and it's a cute Christmas story with some vibrant characters.
But...it didn't feel like a whole story to me. For instance, the issue of the lawsuit is never resolved. Something at the end makes it seem like there will be a resolution, but...it never comes. The hero's issues with his ex-fiancee and the business he's starting with a friend never really amount to anything--they almost feel incidental, as if they're there just to fill out his background and give a temporary obstacle in the middle to the relationship between him and Jacey.
Characters are introduced at one point and seem like maybe they'll be significant, but then don't show up again. (Possibly sequel bait, but it just came across kind of haphazard to me.)
The romance also didn't quite work for me as well as it could have. It felt to me like Jacey decided she was in love with Cole super fast, when they barely knew each other. Quite possibly because he was one of the first people to truly be nice to her. And I never really felt why Jacey was right for Cole.
Toward the end, both characters became sort of emotionally erratic, ping-ponging between caring about each other and being angry with each other. Cole's swings between liking Jacey and being mad at her also felt kind of inconsistent.
The prose is lively and engaging, and there are cute moments in the book. I'll likely try another Cardinal Point story at some point.
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