Home
at Last
By Deborah Raney
The Chicory Inn #5
Abingdon Press, 2017
Summary
Why did their differences matter so much?
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 sisters' efforts to play
matchmaker is getting hard to bear as Link pulls extra shifts at work, and
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 labeled her African American father with names Shayla didn't repeat
in polite-well, in any company. Her father's family disapproved as well, though
they eventually embraced Shayla as their own. After the death of her mother,
and her brother Jerry's incarceration, life has left Shayla's father bitter,
her niece, Portia, an orphan, and Shayla responsible for them all. She knows
God loves them all, but why couldn't people accept each other for what was on
the inside? For their hearts?
Everything
changes one icy morning when a child runs into the street and Link nearly hits her
with his pickup. Soon he is falling in love with 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 sometimes-ugly world around them into
something better for them all?
Learn more and purchase a copy.
My
thoughts
Deborah Raney brings the Chicory
Inn series
to a close with the compelling story of Link and Shayla in Home at Last. Deborah
is a consummate author
and I have greatly
enjoyed each of the five books in this series. Each story
involves one of the Whitman children and, while Home at Last can stand alone, I recommend
reading
the series
in order.
The story is well written,
capturing
my attention from
the first
page, and I have particularly
enjoyed how, throughout
the series,
Deborah deals
with difficult life issues in a gentle manner that speaks volumes – such
as infidelity, infertility,
and dementia. And now, in Home at Last,
she writes
from
the heart
in exploring
racism
and biracial
marriage.
There
is much to love and admire
in the two main characters –
Link’s good-heartedness
and sense of innocence, and Shayla’s determination to do the right
thing by her
family, no matter
how difficult.
Home
at Last has a different feel from
the previous
four
books, in that the subject matter is darker
and seemed to overshadow
character
development. I didn’t get to know Link and Shayla as well as I would have
liked, and never
got a feel for
how their caring
for
each other
developed. However,
the story’s
strength
is its cultural relevance
and spiritual
impact of unity in Christ,
which makes it a very
compelling read.
This eye-opening, insightful story gave me a new awareness
and much upon which to reflect,
and it will stay with readers
long after
the last page is turned.
There
is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is
there male and
female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28
Deborah shared in an interview
about the theme of this book … “We are all one in Christ, and therefore we are
all brothers and sisters, and should love and care for one another as such.
It’s a tall order, but I hope readers will be compelled to be more
compassionate, more understanding, less judgmental, and more full of God’s
grace toward each other—even when we disagree on some matters.”
The Whitman family – Grant, Audrey,
and their
extended family – have become friends as they worked through
problems
and shared
in God’s grace.
I appreciated
the realism
of the series
and that nothing was sugar-coated
when it comes to the difficulties Link and Shayla will face.
Recommended.
I was provided a free copy of this book through Litfuse
Publicity. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.
_________________________
Deborah Raney's novels have won numerous awards
including the RITA, National Readers' Choice Award, HOLT Medallion, the Carol
Award, and have three times been Christy Award finalists. She and her husband,
Ken Raney have traded small-town life in Kansas-the setting of many of Deb's
novels-for life in the city of Wichita.
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