Long Gone, Come Home

 

Long Gone, Come Home

Author: Monica Chenault Kilgore

Publisher: Harlequin Trade Publishing

Publish date: June 6, 2023

I received an electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This amazing historical novel begins during the Great Depression when Birdie Jenkins is a young girl working in a tobacco factory. She doesn't dream of a life outside her home of Mt. Sterling Kentucky. Then, she meets Jimmy Walker. Handsome and worldly, Birdie is swept off her feet and marries Jimmy, despite her mother's reservations.

Jimmy is loving and kind, but he suddenly disappears, leaving Birdie to struggle to raise their children on her own. With no explanation for his disappearance, Birdie is forced to move back home to her mother.

One day, Birdie witnesses a brutal murder and is forced to leave town, leaving her children behind. She sets out to find her long-lost Jimmy. Her search takes her to big cities like Chicago where she rubs elbows with both saints and sinners. 

This is a colorful, thought-provoking story of family, love, and one woman's determination to bring her true love home again.

The Many Lives of Mama Love

 

The Many Loves of Mama Love

author: Lara Love Hardin

publisher: Simon and Schuster

publish date: August 1. 2023

*I received an electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

    Imagine living in a beautiful neighborhood. Good neighbors and good schools. The houses and yards are beautiful. All is peaceful. Everything is great in California America. However, one of these families is not like the others. Sure, they look like a typical blended family from the outside: husband and wife with their children. But these parents are secretly addicted to heroin. Lara Love begins stealing from her neighbors, raiding their mailboxes, stealing credit cards-- all to keep up the normal family facade and keep up a drug habit. When she and her husband are finally caught, her neighbors dub her The Neighbor from Hell. 

  Convicted of 32 felonies,  Lara does a year in Jail and manages to work her way up the ranks of jail society. Her husband continues to use drugs while in jail, but Lara gets clean. Her primary goal is to get her children back. This is her story. Lara not only gets her children back but uses her love of books to work her way into a publishing company.

    Lara works her way up from being a heroin addict, to a ghostwriter. She refuses to let the shame of her past keep her down. Her writing career flourishes, with one of her books being featured in Oprah's Book Club. In this memoir, Lara tells the story of her journey from addict to successful writer. 

    This story brings to light how many incarcerated people are victims of a system that, in its very nature, makes it almost impossible to stay out of jail. I admire the author's tenacity. Her story is one of determination and hard work. I am glad she got a happy ending and I hope her book will pave the way for others to do the same.

A Thousand Miles to Graceland

 A Thousand Miles to Graceland

Author: Kristen Mei Chase

Publisher: Forever (Grand Central Publishing)

Publish Date: January 24, 2023

*I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

    Grace has been a rule-follower all her life. She takes the safest choice every time. Grace's mom, Loralynn,  however, is her direct opposite. Still dressing in go-go books, mini skirts, and bell bottoms, her wigs add several inches to her height. A collector of all things Elvis, Loralynn has planned a mother-daughter trip from Loralynn's home in El Paso, Texas to Graceland for her seventieth birthday.

    Grace has no intentions of going on this trip. It is completely against her very nature. Grace left home for Boston at 18 and rarely returned. Her father's alcoholism and abuse and her mother's seeming complacency with it left her with no desire to return to Texas. She lives a safe life n Boston now. She is married to (if not in love with) a "safe" man. Jeff is kind, loving, and always does the right thing. The idea of a trip to Graceland trapped in a car with her mother is absolutely the last thing she would ever consider.

    Then, Jeff informs her that he is leaving her for someone else. Just like that, her safe world begins to crumble. In order to avoid the fallout, Grace heads to El Paso to take her mother to Graceland. Thus begins a heart-warming adventure, with plenty of interesting stops to make and characters to meet along the way. 

    I had no idea when I began reading this book how much it would speak to my heart. Having also grown up in a home where we walked on eggshells around a father's temper, I fully understood Grace's choices. I even saw myself making the same choices and never knowing why. Thanks to this book, I really have a better understanding of myself and my own choices.

    I have always loved "road trip" novels. The changes in scenery, local food, and local characters-- are what make a great backdrop for a road trip story. Kristen Mei Chase does not disappoint. You will laugh. You will cry. And you just might find some lovely nuggets of wisdom to keep. I did.

Read this book if...

...you love road trip novels

...you love stories that take place in the south

... you love stories that feature BIPOC characters

...you or someone you love loves Elvis