Almost Home by Valerie Fraser Luesse
Published by Fleming H. Revell Company on March 5, 2019
Pages: 336
Format: ARC, Paperback
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With America’s entrance into the Second World War, the town of Blackberry Springs, Alabama, has exploded virtually overnight. Workers from all over are coming south for jobs in Uncle Sam’s munitions plants–and they’re bringing their pasts with them, right into Dolly Chandler’s grand but fading family home turned boardinghouse.
An estranged young couple from the Midwest, unemployed professors from Chicago, a widower from Mississippi, a shattered young veteran struggling to heal from the war–they’re all hoping Dolly’s house will help them find their way back to the lives they left behind. But the house has a past of its own.
When tragedy strikes, Dolly’s only hope will be the circle of friends under her roof and their ability to discover the truth about what happened to a young bride who lived there a century before.
Award-winning and bestselling author Valerie Fraser Luesse breathes life into a cast of unforgettable characters in this complex and compassionate story of hurt and healing.
Almost Home by Valerie Fraser Luesse is the stories of three couples in one book. There’s Jessie and Anna, Reed and Daisy, and Si and Dolly. Si and Dolly have opened the doors of their family home as a boarding house to try to make financial ends meet. Jessie and Anna’s story is told first as they show up at Si and Dolly’s and their marriage is strained, they are barely speaking and their future is unknown. Next the story of Daisy and Reed is shared. Daisy is a young widow and Reed an injured veteran returning from the war.
Underneath all of their stories runs the ongoing rumor of Catherine, a bride who disappeared after her wedding 100 years prior. Throughout, the story of Catherine is interwoven in a wonderful way.
The stories of each of the characters are told very beautifully, and they felt very genuine. I felt the author shared their emotions and struggles so well that they were believable to readers. I really felt that Reed’s PTSD was very authentically portrayed in this story. I felt that their romance was very well developed, and I enjoyed watching it grow throughout the story. The friendships between everyone were very lovely to read as well.
This book was a wonderful read that I hated to see end. I think I’ve already begun to miss the characters in it as though they were my friends, and look forward to any potential sequel by this author.
Valerie Fraser Luesse is an award-winning magazine writer best known for her feature stories and essays in Southern Living, where she is currently a senior travel editor. Her work has been anthologized in the audio collection Southern Voices and in A Glimpse of Heaven, an essay collection featuring works by C. S. Lewis, Randy Alcorn, John Wesley, and others. As a freelance writer and editor, she was the lead writer for Southern Living 50 Years: A Celebration of People, Places, and Culture. Specializing in stories about unique pockets of Southern culture, Luesse has published major pieces on the Gulf Coast, the Mississippi Delta, Louisiana’s Acadian Prairie, and the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Her editorial section on Hurricane Katrina recovery in Mississippi and Louisiana won the 2009 Writer of the Year award from the Southeast Tourism Society. Luesse earned her bachelor’s degree in English at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, and her master’s degree in English at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. She grew up in Harpersville, Alabama, a rural community in Shelby County, and now lives in Birmingham.
I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book from Revell Books, a division of Baker Publishing Group in exchange for this, my honest review. I was not required to post a positive review, but chose to.
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