Close to Home is a lovely home-for-the-holidays story of second chances that still manages to take on serious issues including grief, addiction and family drama. I absolutely loved the two main characters, Eli and Aracely and enjoyed the interactions between them and the other characters in the story.

Eli is an author who has been forced to return to her hometown ahead of the Christmas period following the death of her grandmother who had raised Eli and her brother following the death of their father and subsequent addiction struggles of their mother. What is intended to be a short visit to town ends up being extended due to an apparent error in her grandmother's will. Aracely is Eli's ex-girlfriend from when they were at school who pushed Eli away when they were due to head off to college as she didn't want to hold Eli back from her potential including her college scholarships.

Both women have never overcome the pain of the separation. Eli is still angry with Aracely and would rather have nothing to do with her. However, the more time they end up spending together while Eli is in town, the more Aracely's sweet and caring personality helps to win Eli over to the idea of giving her a second chance.

Meanwhile there is all the family drama including Eli's brother expecting a babies with two different women and the increasing appearance of Eli's mother on the scene with all the angst that brings between Eli and her mother, as well as between Eli and her brother.

Thank you to Allisa Bahney, Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of this book. I am leaving this review voluntarily and all opinions are my own.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this book!!

I LOVED this book! It was a bit slow in the beginning but then boom I was hooked!! I finished it in one sitting! My first by this author but will not be my last!!

This was a beautiful novel about grief,loss, addiction, family drama, and so much more. The characters and story were developed beautifully. An amazing Christmas story!

This book is truly the perfect holiday book! Thank you so much for the ARC copy, I am so grateful! I loved every moment of this book, it was so cozy and perfect!
I loved the extracts from Eli’s book, I really liked them and I liked how there was clear similarities in Eli’s book characters and the people in her life, even though Eli struggled to admit it at first.
I also loved the situation with Tommy, Angie and Tara, I definitely need a book about Angie and Tara next year!
Aracely was such a beautiful character too, I loved her so much, I love her and Eli and I love their story and they were made for each other and they are forever falling in love. The purple ribbon on the mistletoe was such a cute feature too, that was so sweet!
This truly is such an amazing and perfect holiday read, I loved it so much, thank you for my copy!

Thank you to NetGalley and Bold Stroke Books for the ARC!

Wow! All I can say is this is so much more than a Christmas story. Yes it takes place during Christmas but Alissa Bahney wrote a masterpiece that tackles grief, loss, addiction, family drama, etc. It was a beautiful story and the character development was phenomenal. I usually am not a big fan of Christmas books because I feel like they can be limiting. But I would read Close to Home any time of the year!!