Book Review: Home to Comfort (Comfort & Joy Trilogy, #3) by Kimberly Fish #LoneStarLitHomeToComfort

Home to Comfort by Kimberly Fish
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A fine ending to a fine trilogy!

Home to Comfort is the third and final novel in author Kimberly Fish’s warm and wonderful Comfort and Joy Trilogy, and it is a fine and satisfying finale to the story featuring Gloria Bachman and all the friends she’s made in her new hometown of Comfort, Texas. With its community of engaging characters and plot that deftly wraps up storylines that have carried over from previous books in the trilogy, this was the story I’d been waiting for. I didn’t want to put it down, almost reading it in one enjoyable session.

The main character, Gloria Bachman, is an older woman, formerly a bank president, who is now the owner of her own chocolate business and retail shop, Sweeties. Having been ousted from her lifelong banking career under a manufactured cloud, she had relocated to the Hill Country town of Comfort, Texas, and bought a charming cottage and a storefront on the main drag of downtown. She’d also met the man of her dreams in Mason Lassiter, a wealthy Dallas department store owner. After a busy year, she and Mason are vacationing in Mexico, courtesy of the FBI who are trying to lure Mason’s first wife out into the open and arrest her as part of a secretive, need-to-know sting operation. 

I loved how Gloria kept her finger on her own pulse, checking and re-checking her feelings and perspective on her life, future, and the trajectory of her relationships, not only with Mason but with those in her periphery that have proven unreliable or unworthy: most specifically, her former best friend, Gardner Rogers. Gloria had been through the wringer in her past and was cautious of her still-healing heart. Like everyone, Gloria has insecurities and doubts, but the hallmarks of her personality are her confidence and ability to read people. These traits, along with her uncanny logic and intuition, serve her well when unraveling a mystery.

In wrapping up Gloria’s story, the book is presented in a couple of different parts, starting with an exciting mystery centered on Mason’s first wife, Patsy, who, years earlier, had faked her own death while they were vacationing at a resort in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Gloria accompanies Mason to an exclusive beachfront resort there where the FBI plans to lure Patsy out of hiding and arrest her. The rest of the story finds resolution afterward back home in Comfort, where Sweeties is striving to fulfill an important order for the actual White House. To add to the suspense and excitement, Gloria needs to uncover the underlying reasons for her former best friend’s betrayal.

Fish’s storytelling is superb, with compelling scenes, vivid descriptions that make you feel you’re right there with the characters and an abundance of dialogue that fairly sparkles with humor and good feelings. While I was prepared for the second-chance romance because of the previous books, I was surprised by some of Mason’s harsh and hurtful comments and attitudes directed at Gloria. I felt like they’d gotten well past that when their relationship had finally become a romance, and I think if I hadn’t read the earlier books, I would have been thinking, “Red flag, sister!” over and over. Gloria doesn’t put up with much from anyone else, and she was way more forgiving than I would have been, especially considering her leftover wounds from husband number one. However, this is one of those things that she and Mason have to work out as they face a life together. Ultimately, everyone and everything was in place for an HEA.

I recommend HOME TO COMFORT to readers of cozy mysteries with a romantic storyline or romance readers who enjoy a suspenseful element in their second-chance romance.

I voluntarily reviewed this after receiving an Advanced Review Copy from the author through Lone Star Book Blog Tours.

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