Almost Home ~ Review

Almost Home
By Valerie Fraser Luesse

Anna and Jesse Wiliams are looking for a fresh start after losing almost everything - between the Depression, the war, and the poor weather over the last few years everything has been in a downward spiral. But a chance for Jesse to find employment in a government munitions plant finds them leaving Illinois behind (hopefully temporarily) for Blackberry Springs, Alabama. Anna and Jesse find themselves renting a room from Dolly and Si Chandler. The home was once a grand showplace and has been in Dolly's family for several generations but times and taxes have taken a toll on the home.

Dolly has turned her home into a boarding house to make the annual tax bill and she has an array of people calling her home theirs for the time being. There are Evelyn and Harry Hastings (professors from Chicago), Joe Dolphus (from Missippi), and the Clanahans (a most disagreeable couple from Reno).  When a young man from Dolly's past needs a place to recover from the trauma of war she offers a room to Reed Ingram.

Blackberry Springs is a tight-knit community that welcomes all the newcomers who are happy to call it home. And Dolly's home sits on something known locally as "the loop" and it is here that Anna finds new friends, especially Daisy Dupree who left what she knew behind falling the death of her beloved Charlie in the war. Daisy is almost as scarred by her pain as Reed and this pain seems to draw the two together in a mutual "I get your pain" sort of way.

Almost Home is a more than just a WW2 era book that focuses on those who find themselves left behind. Rather this a book that focuses on forging on in the face of pain and loss. Looking for a chance to continue on. And there is a mystery one that focuses on the past of Dolly's house before her family came to call it home. The mystery centers on a young bride Catherine O'Dwyer and the man she married Andrew Sinclair. Following their wedding, the two disappeared with evidence pointing towards their deaths. But Anna isn't satisfied with this story and is determined to discover the truth behind their disappearance and if there is indeed pirate treasure hidden in Dolly's home.

I highly recommend this book it is on a whole an enjoyable read. It is historical fiction but it also an examination of life and what makes us or breaks and how we can rise above that which pulls us into a dark place. This book is yet another example of Valerie Fraser Luesse's literary skills.

I was provided a complimentary copy of this book by the publisher with no expectations but that I offer my honest opinion - all thoughts expressed are my own.


About the Book:

The things that tear us apart can also bring us together

With America's entrance into World War II, the town of Blackberry Springs, Alabama, has exploded virtually overnight. Workers from all over are coming south for jobs in Uncle Sam's munitions plants--and they're bringing their pasts with them, right into Dolly Chandler's grand but fading family home turned boardinghouse.

A struggling young couple from the Midwest, unemployed professors from Chicago, a widower from Mississippi, and a shattered young veteran struggling to heal from the war are all hoping Dolly's house will help them find their way back to the lives they left behind. But the house has a past of its own.

When tragedy strikes, Dolly's only hope will be the circle of friends under her roof and their ability to discover the truth about what happened to a young bride who lived there a century before.