Book Review: Sierra's Homecoming by Linda Lael Miller

Sierra's Homecoming
Author: Linda Lael Miller
Series: The McKettrick Series (Book 5)
Publication: Harlequin Special Edition (November 21, 2006)

Description: When she moved to her family's ancestral ranch, single mom Sierra McKettrick was disconcerted by the Triple M's handsome caretaker, Travis Reid. But when her son claimed to see a mysterious boy in the house, and an heirloom teapot started popping up in unexpected places, Sierra wondered if the attraction between herself and Travis might be the least of her worries.

In 1919, widowed Hannah McKettrick lived at the ranch with her son and her brother-in-law, Doss. Her confused feelings for Doss and her son's health problems occupied all her thoughts…until the family teapot started disappearing.

Could Sierra and her ancestor, Hannah, be living parallel lives?

My Thoughts: This was an entertaining contemporary romance combined with a historical romance about two women ninety years apart living in the same home, dealing with losses, and having fragile sons of similar ages. 

Sierra McKettrick is newly a McKettrick. Her father kidnapped her when her parents divorced when she was two and took her to Mexico to raise. After her father's death, Sierra got involved with a man she didn't know was married and had his son just a few days after he died. She been raising her gifted and asthmatic son Liam alone and traveling from place to place. 

Her mother - the woman she thought had abandoned her - found her and made her a deal: live on the McKettrick land in Arizona for a year and she'd take care that Liam had the best health care possible. That was a deal no loving mother could pass up, even if she wasn't sure she wanted anything to do with McKettricks.

Sierra moves into her mother's family home and finds that Travis Reid is taking care of the place. Travis is a lawyer who quit his job with the McKettricks when his younger brother blew himself up in an attempt to make meth. He is guilt-ridden and sure he could have saved his brother.

Travis and Sierra are immediately attracted to one another but his grief and her feeling that her current life is only temporary make it hard to build a relationship. It doesn't help her peace of mind that the house seems to be haunted. 

In 1919, Hannah McKettrick is a recent widow and a mother of an 8-year-old son who almost died from pneumonia. She's living in the family home with her brother-in-law Doss who has secretly loved her since he met her after she married his brother Gabe. Doss wants a relationship with Hannah, but Hannah is convinced, for a while, that Gabe would be her only love.

A teapot that keeps moving around, a photo album that also moves around, and a journal that is written in by both women, show that their lives have very many parallels. They both find their loves and build their lives in this wonderful romance.

Favorite Quote:

Being a McKettrick meant claiming a piece of ground to stand on and putting your roots down deep into it. Holding on, no matter what came at you. It meant loving with passion and taking the rough spots with the smooth. It meant fighting for what you wanted, letting go when that was the best thing to do.

I bought this one April 15, 2007, and then put it on TBR mountain until now. You can buy your copy here.