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Cora's Heart (Cypress Hollow Yarn, #4)

Rachael Herron,

Rachael Herron (RH Herron)

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Dec 16, 2012 Brenda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-on-kindle, net-galley, own-read, arc, 2013-release

We first met Cora when she was sitting outside her shed, the one that she called her workshop, despondently watching the firemen mop up the fire which had destroyed her livelihood. The fire which had started through her carelessness, and destroyed all her hard work, her jams, her candles, her beautiful fleece which she had stored in there. She was distraught, but also mentally kicking herself for leaving that candle burning whilst she’d gone inside the house. She KNEW never to leave a candle bur We first met Cora when she was sitting outside her shed, the one that she called her workshop, despondently watching the firemen mop up the fire which had destroyed her livelihood. The fire which had started through her carelessness, and destroyed all her hard work, her jams, her candles, her beautiful fleece which she had stored in there. She was distraught, but also mentally kicking herself for leaving that candle burning whilst she’d gone inside the house. She KNEW never to leave a candle burning…it was in her ‘What if..’ book which she jotted notes into, and referred to all the time. Her dear friend Eliza Carpenter had introduced her to the concept, and it had saved her life on occasion.

After the firemen had gone, and she was wondering where to start, she had a visitor…one she could have done without as well. Louisa was her mother-in-law, Valentine’s twin, and they were like chalk and cheese. Where Valentine was loving and cared for Cora, Louisa was abrupt and didn’t seem to care for Cora at all. And her immediate comment of ‘maybe you can get a REAL job now’, was a classic example of Louisa’s contempt for Cora. Since Cora had lost her husband, Logan, to a brain tumour only five years previously, she had been fiercely independent, determined to make it on her own, without any help from anyone else. And she had done it too…the products she sold at the Farmer’s Markets every week, all from her own garden or animals, made her very proud, and even though she didn’t make a huge profit, she made enough to get by. The tourists, as well as the locals, loved the angora sweaters she knitted, and it relaxed her, gave her an enormous amount of peace, to just sit and knit.

So when Mac, Louisa’s prodigal son, appeared on the scene again, they just expected him to breeze in then head off again immediately. But it seemed he was staying for awhile…he had something to put to the three women which he didn’t seem to have the courage to say. With the farms being on land adjoining one another, the family owned a huge amount of property. Mac was working for a multi-millionaire by the name of Royal who owned a Rolls, which he delighted in driving around town in, making the locals stare with envy. He also owned thoroughbreds, about 200 of them, and Mac was his veterinarian.

What was Mac up to? Why were he and Royal in town? And why was Cora’s heart catching, speeding up, every time she was near him? The three of them had been very close when Cora had come to town, and started at the local high school…Mac, Logan and Cora got up to the usual mischief teenagers got up to. But that was years ago! And Cora had married Logan! Did she trust him anymore, especially after what he had done?

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The characters were extremely real, Cora with her dedication and love of animals, her determination to get it right, and her enjoyment in everything she did by her own hand. Mac with his many faults, always trying to right them, and the side characters of Trixie and Olivia added to the mix. There is a mixture of suspense and romance in this book, and the author most certainly got it right. I’ll be looking to read more by Rachael Herron, and can certainly recommend this one!

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Australia for my copy of this novel to read and review.
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Feb 19, 2013 Bree T rated it really liked it

Shelves: arc, series, kindle-version, netgalley, romance

Cora values stability more than anything. Abandoned, raised in multiple foster homes and then widowed in her twenties, the house she lives in on a parcel of land owned by her late husband’s family is precious to her. Cora gets by financially by doing anything she can. She’s gifted with a loom and knitting needles, she makes candles and cans food. She sells her creations at markets locally and carefully nurtures her animals. She can’t afford pets, so the animals she keeps must contribute, such as Cora values stability more than anything. Abandoned, raised in multiple foster homes and then widowed in her twenties, the house she lives in on a parcel of land owned by her late husband’s family is precious to her. Cora gets by financially by doing anything she can. She’s gifted with a loom and knitting needles, she makes candles and cans food. She sells her creations at markets locally and carefully nurtures her animals. She can’t afford pets, so the animals she keeps must contribute, such as the sheep.

Mac Wildwood is Cora’s late husband’s cousin. As teenagers, the three of them were inseparable but Mac has been gone a long time. Cora harbours deep feelings for Mac – some are resentment that he was away so long, including for Logan’s funeral but most of her feelings are far more complicated than that. Now Mac is back in Cypress Hollow and although his mother and aunt are delighted to have him returned, Cora is skeptical. Mac has never been able to lie to her and she suspects he’s up to something. However even she is surprised when she realises that Mac could be the very person that ends up threatening the security she gets from her home and land.

Mac hasn’t been able to come back to Cypress Hollow because of his feelings for Cora. He’s loved her as long as he can remember but out of respect to his cousin and later an inability to face his own feelings of guilt, he’s kept away. But now he has a reason to be here, a business proposition that he’s putting together on behalf of his boss for the owners of the land. Mac thinks that it might be best for everyone but he has forgotten just how strong and stubborn Cora is…and what it’s like to be around her.

Cora’s Heart is another novel set in Cypress Hollow. I haven’t read the previous ones but they’re quite loosely linked and this one easily stands alone. Cora has had a very difficult life, especially in her childhood and teen years. Stability was a foreign thing to her until she found someone who could love her like she was their own, who taught her to cook and knit and who taught her that she could do things and be worthy. Cora, Mac and Logan quickly became friends and despite the fact that it was Mac Cora had feelings for, it was Logan she ended up marrying. Theirs wasn’t always a good marriage but they were fiercely loyal to each other. I actually really liked the way Herron portrayed Cora and Logan’s marriage. Logan is long dead when this book begins but later on, through other people, you find out that even though he wasn’t the best husband for Cora, being far too fickle with money and prone to gambling, he really did do his utmost best to protect her from something that he knew would have devastated her. In putting Cora first, Logan sacrificed something himself and even though he was fickle and selfish, that one act made him likable as well. You could see why Cora had stuck with him. She loved him, but she wasn’t in love with him. Theirs wasn’t a grand passion or never-ending love. It was something that was comfortable, they respected each other and liked each other and they made a go of it. But Logan’s tragic death set Cora free in a way, because Logan would’ve eventually stripped her of the security of the house by gambling it away.

Both Mac and Cora had to deal with a lot of guilt about the feelings they’d had for each other both in the past and in the present. Mac and Logan had been very close, like brothers really. Cora also harboured a lot of resentment toward Mac for not returning when Logan died but I did feel that even though it wasn’t an “excuse” as such, Mac did have a pretty good reason personally for the fact that he wasn’t there. This book touched on the lure of gambling and how it can destroy whole families and how future generations can be susceptible even when they’ve seen previous family members become caught in the web. It was because of that fact that I was able to sympathise with what happened to Mac which ended up being the reason he wasn’t there. Cora also has to overcome the fact that it seems like Mac wants to take her home away. Stability is absolutely crucial to her, she cannot live with the uncertainty of possibly having no home and it seemed a bit insensitive that Mac and a couple of others really couldn’t understand how passionate she was about this. You’d think that they’d know how important it was to her.

Cora’s Heart was an enjoyable story with a sweet side due to the small town setting, the knitting that is anchored in the story and the vulnerability of Cora as a main character. I did think that there was something a little lacking in the chemistry between Cora and Mac – perhaps there were just one too many misunderstandings between them. ...more

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Dec 13, 2012 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it liked it

Shelves: provided-by-publisher, netgalley-reviews, arc-are

When I saw the cover of Cora's Heart in the Netgalley catalogue I assumed it would be an Australian rural romance by a new author and I made the request without even reading the blurb. It was only later that I discovered that despite the Australian publisher, this title is neither by an Australian author nor set within Australia, instead it is a contemporary romance by an American author and one of half a dozen or so books by Rachael Herron set in the fictional USA small town of Cypress Hollow.

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When I saw the cover of Cora's Heart in the Netgalley catalogue I assumed it would be an Australian rural romance by a new author and I made the request without even reading the blurb. It was only later that I discovered that despite the Australian publisher, this title is neither by an Australian author nor set within Australia, instead it is a contemporary romance by an American author and one of half a dozen or so books by Rachael Herron set in the fictional USA small town of Cypress Hollow.

This title introduces Cora Sylvan who has just been scraping by since the untimely death of her husband, Logan, selling homemade jams, preserves, candles and hand knitted items. When her workshop catches fire, the loss of more than half of her stock pushes her to the brink of financial ruin but Cora is determined to hold on to the only home she has ever been able to call her own, no matter what tempting offer Mac Wildwood is willing to make.

Cora's Heart is a story of unrequited love and second chances. As teenagers Logan, Mac and Cora were close friends but circumstances resulted in Cora marrying Logan, despite the simmering attraction between her and Mac. With Mac's return to Cypress Hollow both are confronted with their regrets and their guilt. I think Herron develops the relationship between Mac and Cora well, showing how their adolescent attraction has never really faded despite time and distance.

I really liked Cora and thought her neuroses were endearing, rather than annoying. I love the idea of her What If.. book, (What if... there is an earthquake etc...) something Cora uses to give her peace of mind. Having had such an itinerant childhood as a foster child her need for stability and control makes perfect sense, but her fierce independence also leaves her closed off from intimate interactions. Risking her heart with Mac is difficult and Herron shows Cora's struggle to let go and risk everything for happiness.
Mac is a little more of an enigmatic character. Though he has a plausible reason for missing Logan's funeral and failing to visit over the years, I did think it was a little weak. Still he is an appealing hero, protective of Cora, the memory of his cousin and willing to do what he thinks is the right thing despite the cost to himself.

I breezed through Cora's Heart in an afternoon and found it a light, sweet and satisfying romance. And if you knit you will adore the pattern for a pretty sweater included in the last few pages.

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Nov 27, 2013 Kellie Schache rated it it was amazing

Feb 16, 2019 Keeley Player marked it as to-read · review of another edition

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