Long Way Home

The Homeward Series

by Janis Reams Hudson

Returing home to Washita, Texas, after being in prison for seven years, Duncan Malone finds the townspeople unwelcoming, except for beautiful outsider Franki Tayor, who hires him to work on her farm, and together they discover the wonder of love. Original.

Genres: Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Romance, Westerns, Historical Romance

352 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2001

About the author

Romance novelist Janis Reams Hudson was born in California, grew up in Colorado, lived in Texas, but has called central Oklahoma home for most of her adult life. What little time she does not spend writing and researching her next book Janis spends helping other writers and volunteering her time to various writers' organizations. Janis lives in Choctaw, Oklahoma, with her husband Ron, and various cats, ducks, and sheep.

Reviews

[Jacqueline J · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book about an ex con coming home after seven years in prison. I thought the emotions were genuine and the characters full and well rounded. The heroine was struggling to keep her farm afloat while her grandfather was in the hospital. The farm in question was the hero's family farm which had had to be sold after he went to prison and his mother was in a car accident. Now the hero has come back to his small hometown because his mother is in a nursing home here and he eventually wants to get his farm back.

There was POV from both the hero and the heroine. I loved feisty tough talking heroine and the quiet steady hero. Here the hero was not sent away for a crime he didn't commit but for manslaughter after a fight led to someone dying. He suffers a lot of guilt over it and feels unworthy of the heroine.

A totally sweet well written love story.

[Kristiej · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book I first read years ago that stuck with me. I was going through books I’d read and enjoyed in print that were now available on Kindle and this is one I was excited to see.
For some reason I’m sure I’d find interesting if I were to delve into, I love books where the hero has been wrongly imprisoned or the time didn’t match the crime. Morning Glory by LaVryle Spencer, One Summer by Karen Robards come immediately to mind but there have been many more that I’ve quite enjoyed. So back in the day, when I read the outline of this book I was sold
.
Sometimes book hold up over time and other books you’ve wished you’d left in the past. This one thankfully held up. The outline is a good one and sums up things pretty well. I read it quite a while ago so I’m fuzzy on details but I do know I really liked both Duncan and Franki. I felt bad for Duncan as he really was punished unjustly and as a result lost everything of value. At first Fanki could care less that she was living in Duncan’s family home, she just needed a place for her, the coming baby and her grandfather. Duncan, on his part plans to get it back somehow. But as they come to know and then to care deeply for each other, priorities change.

I enjoyed this book and have no hesitation in recommending it if you are one of those readers who like ‘hero spent time in prison’ theme

[Luli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me ha encantado pero…el final, ese final…ese final no le va bien a la historia. Para mí ha sido muy empalagoso, pero aún así he disfrutado de la historia como una enana. No sé, es de esos libros en las que todo va despacito, construyéndose lento, en la que los protagonistas tienen problemas bastante reales y les afectan y los superan poco a poco, nada de hoy estoy hecho polvo y mañana no me acuerdo de mis males.
Me gustan las historias en las que los personajes tienen que esforzarse por salir de una mala situación, tienen que luchar para conseguir lo que quieren y parecen sinceros cuando no pueden avanzar todo lo rápido que quisieran los demás.
Aunque podría haber sido una de esas historias con mucho melodrama y líos y malentendidos, la autora huye de ellos y consigue que todo parezca casi real.
Los puntos fuertes han sido que no hay ni insta lust, ni insta love, ni malentendidos, ni melodramas gratuitos.
El punto débil ha sido que al final todo es un poco empalagoso, había que cerrar muchos asuntos y se cierran demasiado rápido y a la ligera. A lo mejor hubiesen venido muy bien algunas explicaciones o un epílogo más extenso… pero esto no quita que la historia me haya encantado.

I was delighted with this story, but... that end... that end has been overly sweet for such a realistic story, but I still enjoyed it a lot. I don't know, this is one of those books where everything goes slowly, in which the characters have enough real problems and this problems affect them in a real way and they can´t get over them in a half a second. They had to work to overcome them.
I like stories where the characters have to strive to get out of a bad situation, they have to fight to get what they want and it looks sincere to me when they have to take their time to achieve their goals.
Although it could have been one of those stories with much melodrama and trouble and misunderstandings, the author don´t go there and she manages to make everything look almost real.
What I like more is that there have not been neither insta-lust, nor insta-love, nor misunderstandings nor a lot of melodrama.
The weak point has been that at the end everything is a bit cloying, it had to close too many issues and they had been closed too fast and lightly. Maybe the story would had need some explanations or a more extensive epilogue... but I love it all the same.

[Lori ◡̈ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another good example of "Don't judge a book by it's Goodreads rating". As I am typing this, the GR rating is for some reason a 3.68.... Maybe I am alone on this one, but this book kept me up all night and I couldn't put it down :) It was not actually full of steamy sex scenes, but it was full of feels everywhere. You totally get to see every sweet moment of the hero and heroine fall in love. The characters were all written so realistically and perfectly flawed. The heroine might have been a little rougher around the edges than I normally like, but it was so realistic and she had many great moments of being a strong, independent, loving person. And Duncan was the perfectly damaged loving hero. If I could have changed anything about the book, I would have extended the ending a bit more to show Duncan's interaction with the baby and to see some justified retribution to Bobby's bullying of the town.

[Trina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually listened to this one on audiobook. It was predictable but I liked it and it was worth "reading."

[Erin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked this book. I thought it gave one possible view of a small town and the scenarios that can exist from such a view.

[Jeanne (love2cook) · Rating 4 out of 5]

An accidental death sent Duncan Malone to prison for seven years. He has returned home to Washita, Texas to claim the life he lost. Only one woman would be desperate enough to hire him. Franki Taylor is willing to take the chance. Surrounded by the farm that he grew up on, it has good and bad, Franki isn't willing to sell it. They must work together to fix the broken parts in each of them. A good story. Well written.

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointing...

I adore Janis Reams Hudson's books set in the 1800's, but this book was not anywhere near as good. The typos alone were highly irritating. Initially, it's hinted to be 1950's but then a comment about a song from the 1990's, and later a mention of internet left me curious about just when the story takes place. Cell phones are never mentioned, and farming as if it is 1860 is constantly mentioned... I think I've read all of the authors good books! (I can't recommend the Apache Colton series enough!)

[Nikki · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked the characters in the book - especially Franki. She doesn't take anyones shit and is a smart, independent woman who knows when she needs help so she doesn't make stupid stubborn mistakes. The only thing missing was a little more romance - there was clearly a connection but i think there could have been more too it. I also think the ending felt rushed I would have liked to see everyone settled once their paths were clear.