Home at Last Book Review

A Chicory Inn Novel

Book Five

SUMMARY:  When the world just sees mistakes, God sees beautiful opportunities for love and grace.

     Link Whitman has settled into the role of bachelor without ever intending to.  Now he's stuck in a dead-end job, and as the next Whitman wedding fast approaches, he is the last one standing.  The pressure from his sister's efforts to play matchmaker is heavy as he helps his parents at the Chicory Inn.
      All her life, Shayla Michaels has felt as if she straddled two worlds.  Her mother's white family rejected her African American father without even knowing him.  Her father's family also disapproved, but they eventually embraced Shayla as their own.  After her mother's death and her brother Jerry's incarceration, life has left Shayla's father bitter; her niece, Portia, an orphan; and Shayla responsible for them all.
     Everything changes one icy morning when a child runs into the street and Link nearly hits her with his pickup.  Soon he is falling hard for the little girl's aunt, Shayla, the beautiful woman who runs Coffee's On, the bakery in Langhorne.  Can Shayla and Link overcome society's view of their differences and find true love?  Is there hope of changing the ugly perspective of the world around them into something better for them all?

REVIEW:  This is the fifth and final book of the Chicory Inn series.  Since I had not read any of the others, I was worried I would get lost.  The author does a fantastic job keeping the focus on the two principal players, Shayla and Link, with the characters of the other books taking minor roles.
     With that said, this book was very enjoyable.  It makes you think about how you view others who may be different from you outwardly, whether socioeconomic, job status, housing, or marital status, but who are just like you on the inside, where it counts.  Once you get past their outer facade, you begin to see people made in God's image.  Shayla struggles with how people see her.  She has a difficult time understanding why Link would be interested in dating her.  Link only sees her beautiful soul, not the color of her skin.  He has a hard time understanding the extent of the problems Shayla experiences as a woman of mixed race.  I like how the author shows the reader both character's viewpoints and experiences and helps him or her understand it a little better.
     The story line moves at a good pace and keeps the reader engaged.  My favorite part isn't the ending but happens at almost the end.  Can't tell you what it is; you'll just have to read it for yourself. 

This book was provided by Litfuse Publicity Group and Abingdon Press

for review without any compensation.

Deborah Raney's books have won numerous awards including the RITA, National Readers' Choice Award, HOLT Medallion, the Carol Award, and have twice been Christy Award finalists.  She and her husband, Ken recently traded small-town life in Kansas - the setting of many of Deb's novels - for life in the (relatively) big city of Wichita.  Visit Deb on the web at DeborahRaney.com.

After All Book Review

A Hanover Falls Novel

SUMMARY:  Eighteen months after the tragic Grove Street Fire took the life of her husband, David, and four other heroic firefighters, Susan Marlowe thinks she's finally beginning to heal.

     But then she discovers that David carried a secret to his grave.  A secret that changes everything she thought their marriage had been.  For the sake of their sons, can Susan forgive the unforgivable?

     Andrea Morley lost her closest friend in the fire.  But she has no right to mourn him.  Instead, she must forever grieve in silence - because her dearest friend was someone else's husband.

     Peter Brennan carries the weight of the world on his shoulders.  As Hanover Falls' fire chief, he was responsible for the brave firefighters who lost their lives that awful November night.

     Can he ever shake the feeling that he should have somehow prevented the tragedy?

     As he tries to rebuild the team at Clemens County's Station 2, it seems he might find comfort in the arms of the woman he least expected.

REVIEW:  Susan runs the Grove Street Homeless Shelter (where the fire that claimed her husband's life along with four of his co-workers took place) in Hanover Falls and is constantly fighting opposition from townspeople and a reporter from the local newspaper to close it.  She is also struggling with her feelings for Pete, David's old boss, and problems she's having with her twenty-year-old son Davy.  On top of all that, it looks like she may have a stalker.  

     After All is the third and final book in the Hanover Falls series.  Like the second one, Forever After, it stands on its own very well.  I like the way the story played out, how problems you thought were solved in the first two novels appeared again with a different outcome.  The struggles each of the characters have all seem to revolve around the loss eighteen months earlier and David's affair with Andrea.  The problems with Andrea at the end of the book were a little predictable but I was caught by surprise by how the person originally thought to have started the fire was innocent and who the actual person was.

     This was a good book.   I am still interested in going back and finding the first book to see how the series got started.  I am also interested in reading anything else this author is writing.

This book was provided by Glass Road Public Relations for review without compensation.

 

Deborah Raney is the award-winning author of several novels, including A Nest of Sparrows and the RITA-award winning Beneath a Southern Sky and its sequel, After the Rains.  Deborah's first novel, A Vow to Cherish, was the inspiration for the World Wide Pictures' highly acclaimed film of the same title, which in December 2004 aired on prime time network TV for the second time. Deb's novella, Playing by Heart, was a National Readers Choice Award winner and a 2004 Christy Award finalist.  A previous novel for Howard/Simon & Schuster, Yesterday's Embers, appeared on the ECPA Christian fiction bestseller left.  Known for her sensitive portrayal of family struggles and relationships, Deb has also written nonfiction books and articles and often speaks at women's retreats and writers' conferences around the country.  She and her husband, illustrator/author Ken Raney, have four children and make their home in Kansas.  For more information about her or her books, visit her website at www.deborahraney.com.

Forever After Book Review

SUMMARY:  A fire killed his best friend and his lifelong dream of being a firefighter.  The same fire killed her husband and hopes for a family.  Can new dreams replace old?
    Lucas Vermontez was a proud firefighter like his father.  Now, not only has he lost his father and his best friend, Zach, in the fire at the Grove Street homeless shelter, but the devoted rookie can no longer do the work he loves after being crippled in the tragic event.  When friendship with his buddy's beautiful widow turns into more, he wonders, what could he possibly offer Jenna?
     Jenna Morgan is trying to grieve her husband's death like a proper widow, but the truth is, she never really loved Zach.  His death feels more like a relief to her.  But that relief is short-lived when she loses her home and the financial support of her in-laws.  Now the secrets of her past threaten to destroy her future.
     Can the two forget the painful past and discover new reasons to live and love?

REVIEW:  Forever After is the second novel in the Hanover Falls series.  It took me a bit to realize it was part of a series because it stands so well on its own.  Mrs. Raney does a great job with her characters, making them seem real.  The hardships both Lucas and Jenna face helps them grow in ways they never thought they could.  As their friendship develops, Jenna's relationship with God develops too.  This is a great book.  I would love to find the first novel, Almost Forever, and read the third when it is released.  I think anyone who reads it will not be disappointed.

This book was provided by Glass Road Publicity Group for review without compensation.

Deborah Raney's first novel, A Vow to Cherish, was awarded a Silver Angel from Excellence in Media and inspired the acclaimed World Wide Pictures film of the same title.  Since then her books have won the RITA Award, the HOLT Medallion, and the National Readers' Choice Award; Raney was also a finalist for the Christy Award.  She has also written Beneath A Southern Sky.  She and her husband, artist Ken Raney, make their home in their native Kansas.

Value Fiction Blog Tour

This Waterbrook Multnomah blog tour covers two books:  Faithful Heart by Al Lacy and Beneath A Southern Sky by Deborah Raney.

Faithful Heart
Al Lacy

This book is the second in the Angels of Mercy series.  This series is a spinoff of Questar Publisher's Journeys of the Stranger series.  Because of this, and because I am not familiar with the other books related to this one, I felt like I was missing something.  Faithful Heart is two stories in one:  Breanna and John's travels with the wagon train and Dottie and Jerrod's struggles with Jerrod's shell shock from the Civil War.  At times, Breanna and John's story seemed stilted and sappy.  I often wondered if people really would act in real life the way the characters did in the story.  Their history and relationship is continued from the other series and, for the most part, I felt lost and disinterested in them.

Dottie and Jerrod's story was more interesting.  Dottie is Breanna's sister who became a mail-order bride.  Jerrod, her husband, was diagnosed with shell shock during the Civil War and was given an early discharge.  Eight years later, the shell shock has created two Jerrods: one, completely normal; the second, a raving maniac that lashes out at any and everyone who is near.  This includes his wife, Dottie and their two children, Molly Kate and James.  Dottie does everything she can think of to help her husband and protect her family.  I enjoyed this section of the book.

If you are interested in getting more information about Faithful Heart, you can go to the Random House page or the page for this book.

Beneath A Southern Sky
Deborah Raney

Daria Camfield served for two years as a missionary with her husband, Nate, in the remote jungles of Columbia.  While he was providing medical care in another village two days away, it was reported that Nate was killed.  Grieving her loss, Daria returns home to Kansas to give birth to their daughter, Natalie, and start her life over again.  A year later, she finds love again with her new boss, Dr. Colson Hunter, a local veterinarian.  Cole proposes marriage and Daria accepts, all the while ignoring the still small voice of God telling her to wait.  Daria, Cole and Natalie are happy with their new life and are preparing for a new baby when Daria gets some devastating news:  her husband Nate has been found alive and is flying to Kansas City from Bogota.

Daria must make a painful choice:  return to her first love, Nate, (a man she is still in love with) and leave Cole or reject Nate and stay with Cole, a man she has come to love immensely, the only Daddy Natalie has ever known and the father of the baby she is carrying.

This was a great book that kept you guessing how it was going to end.  About the time you think you have it figured out, the author throws you a curve ball.  I love the way she works it out, glorifying God and showing how He can redeem tragedy.  I can't stop thinking about this book and how everything works out in the end.  I highly recommend this book to everyone.

If you are interested in purchasing this book, you can go to Random House's webpage or view the book here.

Both Faithful Heart and Beneath A Southern Sky were provided by Waterbrook Multnomah free of charge for review.