While reading COMING HOME it was hard not to root for Abigail and Ryan in this emotional and heartwarming story. Both characters enjoy a simple life and neither needs much to enjoy life. But, there are some pretty big obstacles for them to overcome. Abigail is not quite ready to let go of the love of her life and Ryan is still working to figure out where his life is headed. And yet, they keep running into each other and enjoy each other’s company. COMING HOME has a slower pace, but I didn’t mind as that’s exactly what the characters needed too. I loved the descriptions of the home Abigail was trying to prep for sale and I felt like I was right there with Abigail and Ryan doing all the things to prepare the house that Abigail's aunt grew up and lived in. Their love story is one I’ve heard before, but it’s still unique and very special.
I loved COMING HOME very much. It is emotional, funny at times, hopeful, and inspirational. The characters are deep, well-developed, and realistic. Abigail resigns as lead prosecutor and takes a job at Patty Cakes Bakery heating cinnamon buns. What? What was she thinking? After reading for a while and getting pulled into the book I started to realize that Ryan and Abigail were both much more complex than I initially realized. Also, they were very good together. Ryan made Abigail a better person and made her want to do more with her life. Ryan was the light that Abigail needed in her life. However, they both have their own issues they need to work out first.
The way these characters in COMING HOME interact and learn to trust each other makes a wonderful story and I was very glad to go on this journey! When Abigail's secret from eighteen years ago comes back, front and center in her life, she wonders how much her life is about to change. When Abigail was a teenager her family moved from Texas to Maine to hide since her father is a minister and her secret would have ruined him, or so they thought. In doing so, they cut off all of their family ties when they left. Now Abigail is forced to face what she did and why, all those years ago. I found myself so absorbed in COMING HOME that I couldn't wait until I knew what happened with everyone and how Ms. Dove was going to wrap up this heart-tugging story. I can't wait to read more by this wonderful author.
Thirty-five year old Abigail’s midlife crisis first appeared as an innocent trade in of her Ford Taurus for a two seater BMW. Then she resigned as lead prosecutor and took a job at Patty Cakes Bakery heating cinnamon buns. But no one was more shocked at her behavior than her fiancé, Joe Batista, when she gave back his engagement ring without a reason why.
They say your past always catches up to you and one day Abigail’s past showed up on her porch wearing Converse shoes and holding an old picture of her and her high school sweetheart, Ryan Jameson. Tessa Snow had traveled from Florida to Maine to meet her biological mother and the next stop was Boone, Texas to meet her dad, the guy in the picture.
Ryan Jameson, as fate would have it, just returned home and was settling in as the most eligible doctor at Mercer Hospital. He hadn’t seen Abigail in 18 years, when she disappeared with her parents without as much as a text message saying goodbye.
It was a good thing Abigail got fired on day three of her bakery job, because she had to make it to Texas before Tessa, in order to tell Ryan the reason she left was because she was pregnant. But when she got there, it was harder than she thought; their chemistry together had grown stronger. And nothing would kill it faster than the truth about Tessa Snow.