Search - The Way Home

Eliza wants to escape her family’s poverty-stricken sharecropper life. She thinks Cole Wallace will rescue her and take her away with him, but he leaves her ruined and pregnant.

Aaron Wallace wants to escape his family farm and the responsibility for taking care of his disabled father. But he’s been brought up to believe he owes his older brother anything he asks for... even substituting as husband for Eliza.

Cole Wallace _has_ escaped, and found everything he ever wanted. Or has he?

This is a quintessentially character-driven romance and part of what makes it unusual is that it has four strong, beautifully drawn characters. (We don’t see Cole and Aaron’s father’s point of view, but he makes himself felt.) All of them are flawed, all make mistakes, all have to face broken dreams. Even the worst is very human and my heart was touched by them all.

For most of this book, I was thinking strong 5 stars, definite keeper. By the end, I wasn’t so sure. I remember reading a blog post on the subject of whether it’s better for a book to have a great beginning or a great ending; looking at my grading history, I’m obviously a great ending person. For example, _The Duke of Shadows_, which has one of the best first halves I’ve ever read, wound up with only 3 stars from me; but the far less exquisitely written _The Vampire Voss_, by virtue of a smashing ending, scored a 4. Most of _The Way Home_ is so great that it kills me to rate it down, but I can’t deny that I was let down by melodrama and a pat, far too quick and tidy ending. I don't think it gave Aaron his due and that made the romance not all it could have been.

Still, even if it misses the boat a bit, it’s a lovely story. Four and a half stars.