Review: The Road Home by Kathleen Shoop

The Road Home

by Kathleen Shoop

Publisher: Oakglen Press

Pages: 418

Format: ARC

Buy the Book: Amazon 

Goodreads:  1891—Living separately for three years, fourteen-year-old twins, Katherine and Tommy Arthur, have done their best to make each boarding house feel like home. But unrest grows as they are driven to questionable actions just to survive. Meanwhile their desperate mother is confronted with breaking yet another promise to her children. Then a miracle descends. Hope rises on a cold, rainy night and changes everything. If Jeanie could just get word to Katherine and Tommy, she knows she can set their lives right again. Agitators, angels, and dangerous “saviors” illuminate the Arthurs’ unmatched determination and smarts. 

1905—Though she tries to forget the awful years that hurt so much, the memories still haunt Katherine. Now, tearful mourners at her mother’s funeral force her to revisit a time in her life that both harmed and saved her in the most unexpected ways. Tommy grieves his mother’s passing as well. He too is thrust backward, compelled to rediscover the events in his life that shaped the man he has become. Will he commit to reconstructing his broken life? The Arthurs come to understand that forgiveness is the only way back to hope, the only way to find all that was good in the misfortune that transformed their lives forever. 

Kritters Thoughts:  An epic story that takes place in just under 500 pages.  Katherine, Tommy and Jeannie all take turns telling this epic story that takes place in two moments in time - 1891 as the family is separated and trying to get back together and then in 1905 as Jeannie the matriarch has passed away and the children are trying to deal with the loss.

This book wasn't wordie it just had a lot of action in it and even at its length it didn't feel too long as in it had good pacing and I wouldn't have taken anything out.  The thing I would add was a little more detail in the timing, I would have loved (especially in the 1891 section) to have months and a little more concept of time, I felt as though it was the year that wouldn't end!  

This is the second in a series and I didn't even know it until I was well into the book.  After finishing the book, I read the reviews and I agree that you don't have to have read the first one to get this story, but I kind of wish I had.  So take that with a grain of salt, but I am a reader who loves to start at the beginning!

For me, I tend to like to read these hefty epic stories in the winter time, when I want to curl up, so I may have loved this book more if I had read it then instead of the middle of the summer.

Rating: definitely a good read, but can't read two in a row

Disclosure of Material Connection:  I received one copy of this book free of charge from Booksparks PR.  I was not required to write a positive review in exchange for receipt of the book; rather, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.