"Right Where We Belong" by Deborah Raney, Melissa Tagg, and Courtney Walsh

"Right Where We Belong" is a collection of novellas set in the authors' favorite fictional towns. As a huge fan of Melissa Tagg and her stories set in Maple Valley, I've been waiting for this release for several months. Here's a brief look at each of the tales in this compilation.

A Langhorne Romance by Deborah Raney. Lily runs a bakery out of her house and begins finding reason to order supplies more frequently when she meets her handsome new delivery driver. This story contained every reason I typically don't read novellas. I know novellas are by nature shorter and therefore you will lose some things that you could develop more in a full-length book, but I do like some believability and depth to be present. I will say that while I didn't like the story, at least it was written well. 2 stars

A Maple Valley Romance by Melissa Tagg. If you've read Melissa's Walker Family Series, you know about Megan, the barista and single mom who is friends with the Walkers. Megan meets Eric, the owner of the local halfway house, and he begins helping her with some renovation projects. Things become complicated when the father of Megan's little girl comes on the scene, finding out about his daughter and threatening to take her away from Megan. The theme of this story is the question "Can people change?," and it's one Megan and Eric grapple with in several different strained relationships. I loved getting to see parts of Maple Valley we'd never seen before! Looking forward to final Walker Family novel coming out in August! 4 stars

A Sweethaven Romance by Courtney Walsh. Within the first pages of this story I was struck by how well Courtney Walsh writes small towns! All the characters were distinct and so much fun, no matter if they appeared in one scene or several. This was my first trip to Sweethaven but I might have to go back and read the previous books. Our heroine is Eleanor, the director of the Historical Society, who is on the verge of a momentous Founder's Day festival that will include the unveiling of the time capsule buried in Sweethaven by the original settlers. But when the time capsule turns up something unexpected - a mystery that can only be solved with the help of town bad boy Jason Holloway - Eleanor knows she'll face extreme disapprobation if she chooses to unravel the clues. The most surprising find may be that Jason doesn't deserve his reputation! 3 stars