Reviewer: Trudy Smith
Title: The Heart’s Homecoming
Author: Merrillee Whren
Publisher: Steeple Hill
ISBN: 0-3738-1228-0
Release Date: July/August 2005
Genre/Sub-genre: Inspirational Contemporary Romance
Year/Setting: Current Day/Pinecrest, WA
Overall rating: 4.5
Sexual content rating: None
Merrillee's Website: www.merrilleewhren.com
Merrillee Whren’s new inspirational romance, The Heart’s Homecoming, kept me
almost "glued" to the page. I could hardly put it down, wondering how Jillian and
Sam were going to patch their relationship
Jillian Rodgers and Sam Lawson had a past, and boy, what a past. She left him at the alter 8 years ago for a job in the Silicon Valley. They had been high school and college sweethearts and they really loved each other, but Jillian had doubts that they could satisfy both her and Sam’s long-range goals. Instead of talking to Sam, she left.
Now Jillian was moving back to Pinecrest and they both knew they would be running into each other. Wouldn’t it be better if they could be friends? Sam thought he had forgiven Jillian but the more they saw of each other, the more Sam’s bitterness showed. Both Jillian and Sam knew they had to look to the Lord to help them cope with the new relationship they had agreed to work on.
During the last 8 years, Jillian has made a literal fortune in the Silicon Valley. She has set up a charitable foundation and will now be running the foundation from the local area. Sam’s a high school teacher and coach and youth minister at their church. He loves helping the kids and he dreams of setting up a youth camp for troubled kids. Jillian agrees to help Sam with the proposal for the money from her foundation but thinks it best not to tell Sam it’s her foundation.
Sam had a past also. After Jillian left him, he had a rebounded relationship with Willow Childs who eventually made it big on the Country music charts. This relationship led him away from God and the beliefs he was taught and had lived by. For a while, Sam pulled away from God but he made a promise to his dying Grandfather that he would think about his lifestyle and ended up breaking up with Willow. Sam didn’t see the need to let Jillian in on this part of his past.
There are other circumstances that continue to bring Jillian and Sam together. Jillian’s family announces that her mom has Alzheimer’s. Jillian volunteers and is asked to help Sam with the summer youth camps. Then Sam helps Jillian’s nephew, Dylan and Dylan’s high school sweetheart during a very trying situation. Thrown together in all types of situations, both Sam and Jillian realize their love has always been there and now it’s been rekindled.
It’s after they’ve made it through all of these situations that both of their pasts come back to "haunt" them. But God helps them work through their past and they realize that they were not ready for marriage 8 years earlier and though it was painful at the time, the Lord knew how to move them both to be more mature and ready for their life ahead.
One part of this book hit me as one of the point’s Merrillee is making; ". . . that sometimes the smallest things could have the biggest impact. One little act or one little word could change someone’s life forever for better or worse." This says to me that God can use us in all circumstances and He may be using us when we think the situation is bad or we don’t even realize we’re making an impression on others.
Merrillee’s voice is very heartwarming. As I said earlier, I could hardly put it down. I really enjoyed how she made the characters "human". I’ve read Inspirational romances in the past where the characters are almost too good to be true. The characters in The Heart’s Homecoming have real problems and get into real situations that can happen to any of us though we might wish we would have made a different choice. Merrillee shows that the Lord can lead you no matter the circumstances, as I said above, He can work in all situations if we continue to look to Him.
I appreciated how Merrilee painted her scenes, as if I was sitting right there watching the scene unfold. The only thing that would have made it better would have been an Epilogue, to see how much Jillian and Sam grow in their relationship with each other and with God.
Thank you, Merrillee, for this inspirational romance. I know that readers of all genres will enjoy Jillian and Sam’s story as much as I did.
Trudy
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