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Vendor
Mohrbooks Literary Agency
Sebastian Ritscher
Original language
English
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TAKE ME HOME

Melanie Sweeney

Overworked grad student Hazel Elliot doesn't do afters...
If the universe closes a door, she burns the whole place down and doesn't look back. But when she's summoned home for her semi-estranged father's Christmas Eve wedding, she must return to the small town of Lockett Prairie, Texas, for the first time since she fled for college. To make matters worse, she's reluctantly agreed to take Ash Campbell, high school nemesis and current chair thief at her regular study spot, along for the ride. While Hazel would love a snowstorm to prevent her from reaching West Texas, Ash is desperate to get home for the holidays to manage a family crisis.

Hazel's game plan: play the part of dutiful, easy-going daughter so convincingly even her father won't see that it's an act. Better to maintain the threadbare relationship than blow it up. She'll smile and survive the week's Christmas tree shopping, winter festivals, and forced bonding with his new family at all costs.

Ash's game plan: celebrate the holidays with his tighter-than-tight family, while convincing his proud parents that they need more help than they admit. He has no room on the agenda for Hazel and her own family drama.

But small towns lack hiding places, and even when Ash turns out to be a surprisingly good buffer, Hazel can't avoid the people or heartaches she boxed up and left behind years ago. Meanwhile, Ash must confront his role in his family, and his own buried feelings from the past.

Funny, emotionally true, and incredibly sexy, TAKE ME HOME is a brilliant upmarket debut that heralds a long and successful writing career to come.

Melanie Sweeney holds an MFA in fiction from New Mexico State University. Her work has appeared at Babble.com, as well as in several literary magazines, including Reunion: The Dallas Review, Rougarou, and Mom Egg Review. Her nonfiction chapbook, Birds as Leaves, was published in 2015 by The Lettered Streets Press in their Split Volume Series. TAKE ME HOME is her debut novel.
Available products
Book

Published by Putnam

Book

Published by Putnam

Comments

Debut author Sweeney sparkles in this emotionally nuanced contemporary. . . Sweeney skillfully portrays the psyche of a heroine who grew up feeling that no one wanted her and a hero trying to bear all his family's burdens in the face of his father's multiple sclerosis. Add in a fun road trip and some deliciously dirty love scenes, and Sweeney's stirring romance impresses.

[A] phenomenal achievement, with a perfect blend of humor and angst. While most of the book is devoted to growing its main couple's dynamic, Sweeney gives equal weight to the familial relationships that define them and explores the meaning of truly growing up emotionally. . . Hazel and Ash's journey to choosing each other makes for a lovely ride. A heartwarming contemporary romance that will keep readers hooked until the last page.

Ash and Hazel's main love language is bickering, but there's a real vulnerability to their relationship. We see them slowly unpack each other's emotional baggage while doing their best not to stamp out the nascent flame burning between them. This book is like a cup of hot chocolate it's sweet and will infuse you with warmth from the inside out.

Sweeney's strikingly realistic tangle of family dynamics and forced proximity between two believable characters overcoming past presumptions about each other, along with sexy love scenes, make this a must-read.