The Boy on the Porch
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Her books have been praised for being “fresh and wonderfully written” (Publishers Weekly) and she has been called “a truly gifted writer” (Rendezvous). Now, USA Today bestselling author Dee Holmes brings us a deeply moving story of a woman whose life is transformed by a boy who suddenly appears on her porch one day...
On the one-year anniversary of her husband’s death, Annie Hunter comes home to find a ragged-looking boy asleep on her porch. When he awakes, she discovers his name is Cullen Gallagher—and that he’s convinced that Annie is his mother. Everyone knows his claim is preposterous, especially because she and her late husband, Richard, never had the chance to fulfill their dream of having children. Yet Annie finds herself drawn into the boy’s search for his birth parents—and to Linc McCoy, the handsome, rough-edged director of the home for troubled boys where Cullen lives. Slowly, Annie begins to imagine making a place in her life for young Cullen—and for Linc, the one man who could heal her wounded heart.
“Dee Holmes tugs at readers’ heartstrings with great skill and insight.”—Barbara Bretton, USA Today Bestselling Author
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Stock characters and a dated premise make this contemporary romance between a prim and prickly "uptown" girl and a jaded, Harley-hugging bad boy feel like a poorly scripted '50s flick. When interior decorator Annie Hunter finds 13-year-old orphan Cullen Gallagher asleep on her porch swing, she does what any self-concerned resident of upscale Bedford, R.I., would do she calls the police. The police haul the scruffy-looking kid off of her property but not before Cullen voices his belief that Annie's late husband was his father. Intrigued and more than a little incensed, Annie, who was unable to have children, follows Cullen to the station and meets Linc McCoy, the director of Cullen's group home. Linc has a chip on his shoulder and a general dislike for well-off women, but he's still attracted to Annie and willing to help her get to the bottom of Cullen's paternity. Holmes's trite prose ("Her heart was pounding as she cast a look back up the staircase. A man secreted away in her bedroom. It was so deliciously crazy, she almost giggled.") adds little color to this bland tale, and her characters' speech patterns are eerily similar. Though some readers may find joy in seeing Annie get a second chance at love, others will be disappointed by the book's recycled story line and one-dimensional characters.
