Homeward by Melody Carlson ~ review

Product Details

• Paperback: 450 pages
• Publisher: Multnomah Books (July 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576730298
• ISBN-13: 978-1576730294
• Source for review copy: e-book provided by Glass Roads Blog Tours
• Click here to purchase a copy of this book, and if you have a kindle its only $2.99
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• About the book:
• From bestselling author Melody Carlson comes this award-winning story of three generations of Lancaster women. For twenty years Meg Lancaster has avoided Briar Hedge, the Lancaster family estate. Now she has been drawn back to her grandmother's home to uncover secrets that have been hidden for decades and to try to regain the family she long ago abandoned.

My take on this book:

Megan Lancaster (Meg) had been estranged from her family for twenty years. She was only seventeen when she left the tiny town of Crandale Oregon and moved to San Francisco  after an ugly incident during her grandfathers funeral and never looked back. Now she is thirty-seven and coming off of a broken engagement with her bosses son,deciding she needs to get away she finds a letter her sister had written her at Christmas telling her that her grandmother is ill and decides its time to head back home and try and make amends before its to late. When she arrives home she realizes things are different, the grandmother that used to criticize her has apologized, her mother is different, and most of all she reconnects with her sister Erin, realizing she doesn't even know her three nieces. Like any family there are secrets and Meg soon realizes somethings fishy where her cousin Abner is concerned. He has let her grandfathers beloved cranberry blogs go to ruin, not to mention antiques are missing from her grandparents home. Meg makes the decision to stay in Crandale and try and restore the cranberry bogs to their former glory, and in the process realizes whats important in life.

Melody Carlson is such a versatile author that really has become one of my favorites. Whether she is writing teen fiction or a family drama, she always has the ability to weave in a positive christian theme into her stories without making them seem preachy or overdone, but the message is there just the same. With this story she easily allowed me to connect with the characters.Three generations of women who for whatever reason clashed, causing Meg to run away from home and cut all ties with her family. She only adament about breaking ties that she only allowed Erin to know where she was if she promised not to share her address.  Meg allows us to see the changes that took place within her family during her twenty year absence. It was hard for Meg to go home, but once she did she regretted being away for so long. I thought the plot moved along quite well,with enough plot twists to keep it interesting, the struggles Meg had restoring the cranberry blogs was quite interesting.

If you enjoy contemporary fiction that revolves around family, faith and forgiveness your going to enjoy Homeward by Melody Carlson.

This book was a Rita Award Winner!!!

About the author:

Melody Carlson is the award-winning author of over two hundred books, several of them Christmas novellas from Revell, including her much-loved and bestselling book, The Christmas Bus.

She also writes many teen books, including the Diary of a Teenage Girl series, the TrueColors series, and the Carter House Girls series.

Melody was nominated for a Romantic Times Career Achievement Award in the inspirational market for her books, including the Notes from a Spinning Planet series and Finding Alice, which is in production as a Lifetime Television movie. She and her husband serve on the Young Life adult committee in central Oregon.


To learn more about Ms. Carlson check out her website:


http://www.melodycarlson.com