The Christmas romance novel is a widely loved genre, steeped in the culture and customs of the season and as varied as the many tropes that drive the plot. The latest in Tricia LaRochelle's Sara Browne series, Bleeding Heart, delivers a heartwarming winter tale and adds the spice of suspense and danger not usually found in this venerable tradition. The result is a perfect blend that gives psychological depth to an otherwise lighthearted story.
Through the arc of the first three books, we follow Sara from her beginnings as the wounded, reclusive college freshman in Flickering Heart, through the struggle to open herself to love in Revive, to a harrowing finale that leads to her and her beloved Scott committing their lives to each other in Handfast. In all that time it was Sara who struggled with the trauma of untimely loss, physical and emotional abuse, and the scars on her soul that blocked her from the love she needed to heal. In this fourth installment, it is Scott who must face down his fears and let Sara be the balm to his wounded heart that he was to hers in the previous stories.
The result is a perfect blend that gives psychological depth to an otherwise lighthearted story.
The book opens with the couple in their newlywed year and thriving. Sara is a successful and established elementary teacher and Scott is a rising star in the world of architecture and construction in semi-rural Pennsylvania. He is applying his skills to build them a dream house on acreage, and as the holidays approach, they are basking in all the joys of a young couple at the start of their grand adventure.
But new dark events raise old fears. A murderer escapes from a nearby prison, Sara's school goes into lockdown, and the continuing fruitless search overshadows the preparations for Christmas. Some time has passed since the worst of Sara's experiences with abuse, but the scars remain and raise painful fears and memories. The killer hijacks a car with a child still in the car seat, then later murders a man at a nearby hunting cabin. While the events are distant, the constant barrage of news rachets up the tension, until Sara and Scott no longer feel safe in their own home.
At the height of this, a misunderstanding at a bar sends Scott into a rage, believing that another man is seducing Sara or worse, and the rift between husband and wife steals their mutual support. They sleep apart and barely talk, unable to break the ice and reconcile.
...the constant barrage of news rachets up the tension, until Sara and Scott no longer feel safe in their own home.
But LaRochelle throws a twist into this story. This time it is Scott, not Sara, who is at the mercy of his past trauma. The rage is a protective shell covering the painful fear of losing his beloved. Scott's unresolved emotional trauma — not an escaped murderer — is the thief stealing their newlywedded bliss. His is the bleeding heart in this tale, and in a reversal of the previous episodes, it is Sara who is steadfast enough to help her husband face his pain and seek help and healing.
In this series, Tricia LaRochelle has struck and mined a rich vein of our shared humanity with which to forge her stories — the power that past trauma can hold over our present happiness. With Bleeding Heart as the latest installment, she boldly reveals the often-denied truth that such trauma can break men as well as women. But as in all the Sara Browne romances, the redeeming quality is steadfast love for another, and most important, being present in our love rather than allowing the ghosts of our past pain and future fears to rob us of that treasure. The happy conclusion to this Christmas romance is all the sweeter because Sara and Scott face down those ghosts of the past and future and share that treasure in the all-precious now.
Also set in a cold, quiet winter, but not a Christmas tale, Killing Buddhas — the latest installment to my Eden Ridge Story series is available now in Kindle and paperback from Amazon.
It has already garnered some critical praise and awards:
"FIVE STARS — This page-turner will hook you from cover to cover."
— Keith Mbuya for Readers' Favorite
"An engrossing comic murder mystery set in a California spa town."
— Kirkus Reviews
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