Home at Last

Home at Last
A Chicory Inn Novel - Book 5
Deborah Raney
(Abingdon Press)
ISBN: 978-1426770487
February 2017/352 pages/$14.99
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?


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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. Find out more about Deborah at deborahraney.com.




MY THOUGHTS

Deborah Raney is a must-read author for me and I have really enjoyed this series. Home at Last brings the Chicory Inn novels to a reluctant close for those of us who have laughed and cried with the Whitman family throughout the span of these novels. Raney explores timely and tough issues in this final novel: interracial marriages, racism, and the challenges they bring. Thoughtful and honest in her approach, Raney neither shies away from difficult realities nor throws in extraneous inflammatory incidents as she develops the story and the relationship between Link and Shayla. As always, she drew me into the story, made me care about the characters, and gave me much to ponder. This is not a fluffy read but is an important one that will stay with you long after you turn the final page. I appreciated Raney's comments at the end of the novel, and have reflected on them as well. Add this book to your reading list today.


Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a copy of this book free from Abingdon Press and Litfuse Publicity Group for a blog tour. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”


Conclude Deborah Raney's Chicory Inn novels with the final book, Home at Last, a story of acceptance, trying to overcome differences, and love. Everything changes for bachelor Link Whitman one icy morning when a child runs into the street and he nearly hits her with his pickup—and then the girl's aunt Shayla enters Link's life. 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?

Join Deborah on Thursday, March 23, for a live author chat party in her Facebook group with fun prizes to be won! Click the graphic below for more details and to RSVP. Hope to see you there—bring a friend or two who loves to read!

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