Lauri Robinson has been reviewed several times at AAR and received wildly divergent grades. The Captain’s Christmas Homecoming falls somewhere in the middle of our rankings.

Emma Leigh (Emily) Ellis has placed herself in a precarious position. After inadvertently introducing her engaged cousin Martha to the man she would elope with, Emma has felt a lot of guilt towards Captain George Weston, Martha’s jilted fiancé. Figuring the last thing George would want is pity from his erstwhile beloved’s cousin, Emma borrows her neighbor Beverly’s name, and writes him cheery letters of hometown happenings while he serves overseas in the First World War. The pair form a strong attachment through their missives but Emma knows it will cause huge trouble if she ever let their affection bleed into real life. She must maintain the lie that Beverly is writing the notes at all cost, and never meet the man she has fallen in love with through the mail.

November of 1918 finds George coming home from the war and anxious to meet Beverly Buttons, the woman whose letters made his tour of duty bearable. He is surprised and a little disappointed to discover that the name belongs to a sweet, elderly woman, but he rallies enough to thank her for her notes and invite her to his homecoming party that night. She reluctantly accepts, asking if she can bring her neighbor as a companion and George eagerly agrees. He had seen a young woman in the hallway of Beverly’s apartment building and is hopeful that is who the companion will turn out to be.

This being a romance, that young neighbor does of course turn out to be Emma, and naturally, George and Emma are as drawn to each other in person as they had been through their epistles. The chemistry between them during a dance they share has George asking Emma to dinner but she gently turns him down. Bewildered, he reluctantly agrees to let her go but then finds his life suddenly enmeshed with hers as their family, friends and fate all conspire to bring them together. Emma finds herself falling ever more deeply for this brave, handsome ex-soldier but the closer they grow, the more she fears their relationship won’t survive the secrets she’s been keeping.

The strength of this romance lies in its historicity. The author does a perfect job of capturing the era and naturally blends recipes, customs, and tiny aspects of daily life into her text. It would have been so easy to turn the financial struggles and relative poverty of the time into an angst fest but Ms. Robinson fantastically captures the little struggles of daily existence while showing how people worked through them and around them in much the same ways as do those struggling today. George is wealthy, but in a more down to earth manner than the typical Harlequin billionaire. There are chauffeurs and maids but he also works hard and puts in a decent number of hours growing the family business. I appreciated that it is a small(ish)-town company where he knows many of the workers and takes very seriously the responsibility of seeing they have good paying jobs.

Something else I really appreciated is that George and Emma fit well into their time. George is grateful to be home and recognizes how fortunate he is to have survived with all four limbs and good health. He carries no resentment over what happened with Martha and also carries no false pride to keep him from falling for her far poorer cousin. He is kind and decent, mindful that his role in society brings responsibilities with it and does his best to fulfill those duties. While I was reading, I couldn’t help thinking he was old-fashioned in the best sense of the word. He carries the morals and manners of that period in a natural, gentle way. He is righteous without being judgmental and is genuinely honorable and good.

Emma is a perfect foil for him. Like many women of her class, she works to make ends meet and is always conscious of her financial situation. She is also kind, thoughtful and genuinely invested in her friends and community. I appreciated that the elderly Beverly isn’t just a plot device to help Emma and George get together; Emma stays close to her throughout the story, including the epilogue. Emma is quietly strong and tends to avoid confrontation, which could easily have made her a doormat. I’ll admit there were moments where I grew frustrated with her seeming lack of backbone. That said, her quiet, gentle manner fits very well with how women were raised in that era and she does make a stand when she needs to.

These two just fit together naturally. Their love story isn’t a show of fireworks but reminded me instead of a good cup of cocoa. It’s sweet and warm and carries the kind of cheer and bonhomie that I look for in a Christmas romance.

I did have a few quibbles with the story, mostly concerning ye olde Harlequin tropes. Emma, her sister and her late mother and father are all beautifully depicted as working class folks who like to earn their way through life. That’s lovely, but in some moments in the text it is carried way too far and their disdain for money that rightfully belongs to them even if they didn’t acquire it through their own sweat and tears is frankly ludicrous. Money would have meant a lot to people who faced the struggles they faced while living in New York City and it just seemed silly to me that right until the end, they would treat a rightful legacy so cavalierly. I’ve seen this done in enough historicals to know the trope is meant to show the purity of the heroine’s heart but that doesn’t make it any less unrealistic or ridiculous. My other tropey quibble was the evil relative out for vengeance who is, of course, redeemable in spite of some truly despicable acts. I believe in redemption but not of the saccharine sort we get here.

The Captain’s Christmas Homecoming is a sugar-cookie of a book. It has a nostalgic, holiday feel that is just right for the season we are entering. This will work for readers looking for a down to earth, historically accurate story with characters who fit well into their time period.

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