AUTHOR: Johnnie Alexander
DATE: 2016
PUBLISHER: Revell
STARS: *****
Shelby Kincaid is ready to move on from her grief. With high hopes for the future, she longs to purchase her family's ancestral homestead so she can raise her young daughters in the only place she ever truly belonged. She plans to transform the abandoned house into the perfect home of her memories. But she'll have her work cut out for her.
AJ Sullivan never wanted the homestead. Inherited as a punishment from his grandfather, it has sat empty for fifteen years and fallen into ruin. He's glad to finally unload it. But a clean break isn't possible when he can't get the young widow Shelby off his mind.
Welcome to Misty Willow, a place that will have as great a hold over the reader as it does over its inhabitants. With writing that evokes a strong sense of place and personal history, Johnnie Alexander deftly explores the ties that bind us to home--and the irresistible forces that draw us to each other.
Where She Belongs is the first book I’ve read by Johnnie Alexander, but it won’t be the last. A heritage home (in more than the usual sense), a widowed mother of two little girls, a disinherited hero, and a mystery from the past that wraps it tentacles around their future—what’s not to love? The little girls had me wrapped around their fingers even more quickly than they did a certain someone. And Shelby’s memories of her grandparents and the wonderful times she’d had at Misty Willow enticed me to visit there.
AJ is a reluctant hero, but his heart won’t let him turn his back on the young family in spite of their history. The family mystery is a dark one, and it kept me flipping pages as quickly as I could read them.
Ms. Alexander paints lovely pictures of the old farm, almost watercolor-like in her descriptions, and her characters are wonderfully realistic. No one is perfect, and no one is completely evil. Where She Belongs is a story that will stay with me for a long time, and I award it five stars. Recommended.
Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc.