Seth Sileski returns to Thunder Point in the latest instalment of this popular series. Set on the Pacific coast of Oregon, the town has seen drama and love in the earlier books by Robyn Carr. Seth has been away for sixteen years, bar occasional visits, but now he's proud to be a deputy. He's not up with all the latest news though! Checking that the teenagers aren't too wild is his first priority.

Another person involved with teens is Iris McKinley, a youth counsellor, who used to be good friends with Seth in school when she was an awkward kid. There's more of a distance between them now, so Seth's return really means less to her than helping sports jocks get good maths grades. Or so she pretends to her friend Grace who runs the florist shop. In truth, Iris feels that Seth - as an immature lad - let her down badly, and she can't get past that time which he barely remembers. Since then Seth was badly injured in a car crash, destroying his football career, so he can be forgiven for having other priorities as he slowly recovered mobility.

I found rather more recollections of school than we'd expect in a novel for adults. Iris got a master's in social studies and set up a career guidance and self-esteem programme in the school she had left, Thunder Point High. This modern-thinking young woman eclipsed the past guidance counsellor who hadn't been much use. Anyone considering such a career, or looking for ways to boost their own school programmes, might find useful ideas. Similarly readers in the late teen years might learn that youthful idealism is not pragmatic and adolescent people will let you down, though they don't mean to do that. They are just being young.

I applauded Iris's reaction to feeling upset and lonely; she cleans and declutters her house. That's guaranteed to make us feel better. The place quickly gets into a state again when the poor lady comes down with flu, though. That's the nice thing about Robyn Carr's books - they are populated by people just as human as the rest of us. With serious issues confronting them, such as relationship abuse, the friends Seth and Iris learn to find out who they each are now. This adult romance will be loved by the followers of this series and THE HOMECOMING could also be enjoyed as a standalone by new readers.