REVIEW: The Majors’ Holiday Hideaway by Caro Carson
Swapping houses for Christmas vacation …
Brought a gift she never imagined
While Fort Hood, Texas, isn’t exactly the City of Lights, Major India Woods discovers its hottest attraction—Major Aidan Nord—lives right next door! And they happily enjoy a little no-strings mischief under the mistletoe. Until India discovers Aidan is seeing other women—his adorable twin girls, that is! After a lifetime of globe-trotting, India wonders if this little family could be her biggest adventure.
Dear Ms. Carson,
I gotta be honest and say that without having read and enjoyed the previous books in this series, I might not have picked this one up. The blurb doesn’t do it much favors and manages to skip a lot of the angst while making the daughters sound just too cute for words. They are but plot moppet cuteness gets avoided, thank goodness.
Major India Woods isn’t that upset when her latest Euro boyfriend turns out to be a dud. Even before finding a teal colored bra that isn’t hers wedged in the cushions of her couch – bastard cheated on her in her own apartment! – the idea of meeting his family was enough to chill her interest. India doesn’t do family. Her own is practically non-existent and getting to know and possibly like the family of lovers and boyfriends just adds to the mess when the relationship ends. Since India is set on staying single, that’s a given.
Talking it over on the phone with her former roomie Captain Helen Pallas occurs just when an intense training session the Army had scheduled at Fort Hood the week before Christmas gets called off. India needing a change of scenery coincides with Helen and husband Tom trying to enjoy their delayed honeymoon and soon India is flying in to Texas from Brussels while the Crosses head off to Europe.
Major Aiden Nord is happy that the massive exercise got cancelled but with his two young daughters already set to stay with their aunt for a week, he’s a loose ends. Sure he’ll keep the Crosses’ golden retriever Fabio (I love that name!) until Helen’s friend arrives to stay in their house. Believing she’s some elderly friend of Helen’s, Aiden is shocked and wowed when gorgeous India arrives. Next day with her jet lag taken care of, India takes a gamble on asking her friend’s hot neighbor for a week of no strings sex. But with both of them falling into love rather than just sexy times, what’s going to happen when India learns the truth about Aiden?
The initial set up of India’s feelings about families stretched my credulity until a bit later when more is added to her backstory. Even then though, I’d have bought the fact that she just hasn’t been around children enough to feel comfortable with them rather than this full stop aversion to families.
Aiden’s past might have been played for “aw, poor widower with darling children” if his thoughts hadn’t made it plain that he despises being pitied or looked on as amazing just because he knows how to braid hair, thank you. To him, these are just basic dad skills.
Their decisions to go for a week of indulgence flows from the set up. India is smarting from dickwad boyfriend while Aiden grabs the chance to be thought of as just a hot guy rather than a being seen as daddy. But once India learns what Aiden has kept from her, things got a little iffy for me. I wasn’t really following the rapid fired shifts from India’s shock to “oh, those girls are so cute” but I just can’t be a part of this after all. Aiden got off way too easily for not having told India about this major aspect of his life.
I did like how the Majors managed to maneuver their way into service on the same continent which frankly, given India’s mad skill set, seemed like it would take a miracle. I guess those Academy “ring knocker” friendships do turn out to help when a married couple is trying to be stationed together. Okay well it’s too bad the Colonel hero in the next book won’t be the character I’m hoping for a story about. I liked this book but not quite as much as the first two. B-
~Jayne
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I am tempted to pick it up just because I was born on Fort Hood and grew up in Killeen- kind of curious how she plots the story around Central Texas.
@LeeF: You might enjoy the first book more since much of it takes place on the base. Less so in the second book and almost none of this one is Army related, sad to say since I enjoy that aspect and Carson is a former Army officer who knows her stuff.