The homecoming of Samuel Lake

Samuel Lake moves home with his family and all kinds of ruckus is stirred up. His father commits suicide and his daughter befriends a neighbor boy with a cruel dad and his old girlfriend tries to get back into his life (all of which occurs in the first few chapters, so I'm not offering spoilers here).

But I never got wowed by the book. I never loved any of the characters and the plot seemed forced.

I'm sorry to say I liked it but didn't love it.

Thank you to the publisher for sharing this lovely copy of the book.

Torn on this one. On the one hand, it was a 5 star read pretty much the whole way through. I loved this family and all the characters were so full of life. But the ending absolutely crushed me and not necessarily in a good way. It was too much for me. I think I found the tone too jarring and contrasting. Most of the book is full of hope and love, but then there are the horrific violent acts committed on children including the rape at the end. I mean there was violence throughout the novel, but it was the scene at the end that really pushed it over the edge for me. It was just too much. Shame because I loved the rest of it so, so much and truly felt for these characters.

By the way, I'd still highly recommend this. Maybe it will be easier to stomach if you go in a bit more forewarned about the violence than I was?

Maybe I'll write a full review on this later, but those are my immediate thoughts on finishing. OK I'm going to go and cry my eyes out now.