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The Long Road to Heaven
"It sucked me in and didn't let go until the last page." -- New York Times best-selling author Lynn Rush on THE LONG ROAD TO HEAVEN
Happiness is Brayton, Nebraska, in your rearview mirror.
That's the adage Heather Montgomery has lived by since leaving home on that cold April night in 1975. She left a lot of things unsaid back then. She never told her high school sweetheart about their baby. She never told anyone what her father did to drive her away.
But keeping secrets is growing increasingly difficult. In the years since her departure, she's found unrivaled success in the music business, and her high-profile marriage to her band's drummer has made Heather the apple of the paparazzi's eye.
When she stumbles in her father's footsteps and forsakes the love of her family and friends for the comfort in a bottle of sour mash, Heather faces the possibility of losing her child for good.
The choice is clear -- the booze or her baby, which is more important?
While the answer is obvious, choosing her child means facing the demons that drive her to drink and confronting those demons means going back to the one place she swore she'd never see again -- home.
Happiness is Brayton, Nebraska, in your rearview mirror.
That's the adage Heather Montgomery has lived by since leaving home on that cold April night in 1975. She left a lot of things unsaid back then. She never told her high school sweetheart about their baby. She never told anyone what her father did to drive her away.
But keeping secrets is growing increasingly difficult. In the years since her departure, she's found unrivaled success in the music business, and her high-profile marriage to her band's drummer has made Heather the apple of the paparazzi's eye.
When she stumbles in her father's footsteps and forsakes the love of her family and friends for the comfort in a bottle of sour mash, Heather faces the possibility of losing her child for good.
The choice is clear -- the booze or her baby, which is more important?
While the answer is obvious, choosing her child means facing the demons that drive her to drink and confronting those demons means going back to the one place she swore she'd never see again -- home.
294 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2015
41 people are currently reading
1092 people want to read
About the author
Kathryn Harris
1 book70 followersKathryn Harris has a one-track mind and an eight-track heart.
Her love for the written word is rivaled only by her fascination with rock 'n' roll music and performers from the early 1970s through the early 1990s.
At the tender age of eight, the Nebraska-born dreamer began hiding in the bedroom closet with her parents' manual Smith-Corona typewriter. There, she would write stories that blossomed from her reveries of being a groupie for the Bay City Rollers or the mistress of a member of Duran Duran.
Harris' efforts to become a groupie in real life ended when her mother found out how much money she'd actually spent chasing Def Leppard's tour bus around the Midwest. In addition, her attempts to become a famous musician in her own right failed when she realized it was time to grow up.
Refocusing her goals, Harris began writing professionally in 1998, when she took a job penning obituaries for a mid-sized daily newspaper. She eventually became an entertainment editor, interviewing such performers as Dierks Bentley, "Weird" Al Yankovic, Styx and Nickelback. (Please don't hold the latter against her.)
In 2015, her debut novel THE LONG ROAD TO HEAVEN began running as a weekly news site serial and was simultaneously published by Sunset Street Publishing.
She currently lives in Northeast Nebraska with her guitar-playing husband (go figure), two daughters, two dogs and a raging addiction to college football. #GBR
Her love for the written word is rivaled only by her fascination with rock 'n' roll music and performers from the early 1970s through the early 1990s.
At the tender age of eight, the Nebraska-born dreamer began hiding in the bedroom closet with her parents' manual Smith-Corona typewriter. There, she would write stories that blossomed from her reveries of being a groupie for the Bay City Rollers or the mistress of a member of Duran Duran.
Harris' efforts to become a groupie in real life ended when her mother found out how much money she'd actually spent chasing Def Leppard's tour bus around the Midwest. In addition, her attempts to become a famous musician in her own right failed when she realized it was time to grow up.
Refocusing her goals, Harris began writing professionally in 1998, when she took a job penning obituaries for a mid-sized daily newspaper. She eventually became an entertainment editor, interviewing such performers as Dierks Bentley, "Weird" Al Yankovic, Styx and Nickelback. (Please don't hold the latter against her.)
In 2015, her debut novel THE LONG ROAD TO HEAVEN began running as a weekly news site serial and was simultaneously published by Sunset Street Publishing.
She currently lives in Northeast Nebraska with her guitar-playing husband (go figure), two daughters, two dogs and a raging addiction to college football. #GBR
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
November 15, 2015
This book was received from Goodreads in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed it immensely and found it hard to put it down. I immediately became immersed in the lives of the characters who all had struggles that were insurmountable at times.
Heather fled an abusive father and started a new life for herself when she met Nick. He raised her child as his own and she became a part of his musical world. Heather's life comes tumbling down when tragedy hits. She spiralizes down a path of addiction when she is alone and pregnant. After her baby daughter is born, Heather has a long lonely road ahead of her in a rehab facility. Her past torments her , but she fights back again and again until she is reunited with her child and members of her band. When her faith is restored , she finally finds a reason to believe again and forgives herself.
I highly recommend this book and was so glad to receive it.
Heather fled an abusive father and started a new life for herself when she met Nick. He raised her child as his own and she became a part of his musical world. Heather's life comes tumbling down when tragedy hits. She spiralizes down a path of addiction when she is alone and pregnant. After her baby daughter is born, Heather has a long lonely road ahead of her in a rehab facility. Her past torments her , but she fights back again and again until she is reunited with her child and members of her band. When her faith is restored , she finally finds a reason to believe again and forgives herself.
I highly recommend this book and was so glad to receive it.
August 23, 2015
I won this from Goodreads. This novel is about Heather Montgomery. She ran away from home to escape her alcoholic, abusive father. She has an accident that wrecks her marriage and career and she becomes an alcoholic herself. In the end she decides to reconcile with people and she needs to go back home.
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November 5, 2015A Fantastic Read
Kathryn Harris has written a story of life, a live of first love, abuse, love lost, lives lost, redemption, and hope. The agony of running away from home and then the rise to music stardom and the and the search for answers for Heather, the main character, leads her down The Long Road to Heaven.
Kathryn Harris has written a story of life, a live of first love, abuse, love lost, lives lost, redemption, and hope. The agony of running away from home and then the rise to music stardom and the and the search for answers for Heather, the main character, leads her down The Long Road to Heaven.
July 23, 2020
One of the best books I've read in several months.. I wasn't ready for it to end, and almost wanted to start over and read it again.
June 15, 2016
I discovered The Long Road to Heaven by chance, on the Wikipedia page for my mother’s home town, Brayton Nebraska. Brayton was a tiny village even in its prime, and its prime is long gone. In fact, Brayton has not existed for decades. To my surprise, Kathryn Harris imagined a Brayton that survived the economic and demographic shifts of the mid 20th century that had depopulated Brayton and many other heartland villages.
So I downloaded the book to my Kindle but began reading it reluctantly. My expectations tend to be low when beginning a first novel. How good could it be? Sometimes a first novel feels like a good effort with promise of better novels later, sometimes it offers evidence that some writers have ambitions that terminally outstrip their skills, and some fully satisfy my hopes for a good read. But I could not be dispassionate about this novel; I was personally invested because of its connection to our ancestral village. I did not want to be disappointed and, fortunately, I was not.
Above all, I value craftsmanship with words. Kathryn Harris is a journalist and knows her way around the English language. Not once, as I read, did I sigh about a poorly chosen word or awkward syntax. Not once did I howl “Omit needless words!” and threaten to send a highlighted and post-it noted copy of Strunk and White to Ms Harris.
But on to the story.....
The action-filled prologue captured me with unanswered questions. I wanted to know more about Nick Tyler and the mystery woman who appeared without introduction, and I wanted to understand what had led to the events in the prologue. The following chapters took shape as a more conventional narrative, with a story of family, love, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Heather Montgomery’s character began to take form, with the complexity, inconsistencies, virtues, flaws, and inexplicable choices of people I might see in my own friends and family members.
I thought I was settling contentedly into a sort of pleasant but ordinary story of family life and career stresses when the plot took an excruciating turn that I did not see coming. A roller coaster ride followed, and I could not stop reading. I cannot say that I enjoyed every minute of the ride. It was at turns exasperating, harrowing, hopeful, infuriating, and gratifying. This is not a combination I want in real life; I crave predictability and serenity in my home and family, but that does not make for an interesting novel. Fortunately, Kathryn Harris provided the requisite level of chaos, turmoil, indecision, frustration, and fury that made me keep reading.
The Long Road to Heaven is not a perfect novel. The story arc plateaus in one place and drops precipitously in another. The histories and motives of some pivotal characters are not as fleshed out as I might have liked, though I recognize that sometimes people behave in ways that no amount of knowledge about their lives can explain. Still, it was a good read, and I hope Kathryn Harris writes another.
So I downloaded the book to my Kindle but began reading it reluctantly. My expectations tend to be low when beginning a first novel. How good could it be? Sometimes a first novel feels like a good effort with promise of better novels later, sometimes it offers evidence that some writers have ambitions that terminally outstrip their skills, and some fully satisfy my hopes for a good read. But I could not be dispassionate about this novel; I was personally invested because of its connection to our ancestral village. I did not want to be disappointed and, fortunately, I was not.
Above all, I value craftsmanship with words. Kathryn Harris is a journalist and knows her way around the English language. Not once, as I read, did I sigh about a poorly chosen word or awkward syntax. Not once did I howl “Omit needless words!” and threaten to send a highlighted and post-it noted copy of Strunk and White to Ms Harris.
But on to the story.....
The action-filled prologue captured me with unanswered questions. I wanted to know more about Nick Tyler and the mystery woman who appeared without introduction, and I wanted to understand what had led to the events in the prologue. The following chapters took shape as a more conventional narrative, with a story of family, love, sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Heather Montgomery’s character began to take form, with the complexity, inconsistencies, virtues, flaws, and inexplicable choices of people I might see in my own friends and family members.
I thought I was settling contentedly into a sort of pleasant but ordinary story of family life and career stresses when the plot took an excruciating turn that I did not see coming. A roller coaster ride followed, and I could not stop reading. I cannot say that I enjoyed every minute of the ride. It was at turns exasperating, harrowing, hopeful, infuriating, and gratifying. This is not a combination I want in real life; I crave predictability and serenity in my home and family, but that does not make for an interesting novel. Fortunately, Kathryn Harris provided the requisite level of chaos, turmoil, indecision, frustration, and fury that made me keep reading.
The Long Road to Heaven is not a perfect novel. The story arc plateaus in one place and drops precipitously in another. The histories and motives of some pivotal characters are not as fleshed out as I might have liked, though I recognize that sometimes people behave in ways that no amount of knowledge about their lives can explain. Still, it was a good read, and I hope Kathryn Harris writes another.
January 13, 2016
"Please,” she gulped back tears. “I think my baby’s dead.”
From that moment, in the prologue of THE LONG ROAD HOME, I was hooked.
Very well written, emotionally gripping, and very engaging story. The characters are real--"fleshed out"--and their stories become so personal to the reader. As least they did for me. I found myself putting myself in their shoes: "I would have said the same thing", "I would have reacted in just that way, too." When you can imagine yourself as part of the story then you know you're reading a good book!! When I closed the last page...I started thinking about a certain someone I've needed to forgive, for a long time. I don't know that I'm ready yet...but this story has me thinking about it. That's got to tell you that this book is well worth the read!!
(January 12, 2016) Just re-read this book. I was two or three pages in when I said to myself, "Hey, you've already read this." I ALMOST put it down to search for another...when I realized...I WANTED to read it again! It's a really good book!
From that moment, in the prologue of THE LONG ROAD HOME, I was hooked.
Very well written, emotionally gripping, and very engaging story. The characters are real--"fleshed out"--and their stories become so personal to the reader. As least they did for me. I found myself putting myself in their shoes: "I would have said the same thing", "I would have reacted in just that way, too." When you can imagine yourself as part of the story then you know you're reading a good book!! When I closed the last page...I started thinking about a certain someone I've needed to forgive, for a long time. I don't know that I'm ready yet...but this story has me thinking about it. That's got to tell you that this book is well worth the read!!
(January 12, 2016) Just re-read this book. I was two or three pages in when I said to myself, "Hey, you've already read this." I ALMOST put it down to search for another...when I realized...I WANTED to read it again! It's a really good book!
June 21, 2016
Man, this book was a ride! The MC Heather is a rock star with a past, secrets, a sexy new husband, an adorable kid and a boatload of trouble headed her way. The writing is tight. The characters are well drawn and compelling. Having been behind the scenes in the music business before, I was impressed with the accuracy of this part of the story, but what grabbed me were the emotional descriptions of drug and alcohol abuse and dysfunctional family life. This one's a tear-jerker, though (warning), but worth it. After all . . . the best books make you feel, right? This one delivers on that count. You'll care about the MC from the first page and the writing will keep you wanting to read all the way through.
August 27, 2016
This is the story of Heather. The singer of a rock band who's past changes her future. One fatal day makes her life spiral out of control. A story filled with secrets, love, heartbreak and tragedy.
I was given a copy of this in exchange for an honest review and I can honestly say I loved it. Could not put it down! The storyline gripped me from beginning to end and I felt I was with the characters in the heartbreak and emotions. Extremely well written with fantastic characters this is a must read!! xx
I was given a copy of this in exchange for an honest review and I can honestly say I loved it. Could not put it down! The storyline gripped me from beginning to end and I felt I was with the characters in the heartbreak and emotions. Extremely well written with fantastic characters this is a must read!! xx
April 11, 2018
I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway in exchange for a review. I have never read anything by this author but the book was well written and kept my interest until the very end. It was about love, loss, heartache, forgiveness and a new beginning. I highly recommend this for an enjoyable read.
February 28, 2016
This book takes the reader on a journey. It's not always easy, but completely worth it. The characters are relatable and I found myself really connecting to them, especially MC Heather. The author takes time to explore the emotional world of Heather and sets an engaging, yet unhurried pace. Definitely recommend this one, but make sure you have a box of Kleenex.
August 2, 2016
Take the gift
I'm in tears after reading this book. There are triggers in it, so be warned. However, this has to be the purest, rawest, REALEST novel that I've read in a very long time. I couldn't put it down - didn't want to. It broke my heart over and over again, but it was an amazing story!
I'm in tears after reading this book. There are triggers in it, so be warned. However, this has to be the purest, rawest, REALEST novel that I've read in a very long time. I couldn't put it down - didn't want to. It broke my heart over and over again, but it was an amazing story!
November 7, 2015
This book is a must read! It is a page turner!
July 8, 2016
Summary
I really enjoyed this book, it was hard to put down. Perhaps it was because I identified with the situations and issues featured in this book.
I really enjoyed this book, it was hard to put down. Perhaps it was because I identified with the situations and issues featured in this book.
March 10, 2017
WOW....
If your looking for a light and fluffy HEA, well then this brook is definitely not for you.
But if your looking for a book that grabs you, makes you feel, and drags you in and doesn't let you go until the very end then I SOOOOO RECOMMEND YOU READ IT!
AMAZING!!!
If your looking for a light and fluffy HEA, well then this brook is definitely not for you.
But if your looking for a book that grabs you, makes you feel, and drags you in and doesn't let you go until the very end then I SOOOOO RECOMMEND YOU READ IT!
AMAZING!!!
August 16, 2017
The Long Road to Heaven
Its a good book. It made me really think about what we need to do to return to Heaven.
We must sincerely forgive others for their trespass against us or it may stop us from getting into Heaven ourselfs.
Its a good book. It made me really think about what we need to do to return to Heaven.
We must sincerely forgive others for their trespass against us or it may stop us from getting into Heaven ourselfs.
August 26, 2016
This book is a bit melodramatic, but it's also a well-written and enjoyable read. It deals with some dark issues like physical abuse and addiction, as well as with the uplifting role of faith in our lives, but the author manages to handle both without falling into the trap of becoming either too heavy-handed or preachy. Even in its darkest moments, though, I sensed an undercurrent of syrupy sweetness and simplicity, reminding me of the kind of stories that are serialized in publications like "Guideposts" or televised on an after-school special.
I liked this book, but I didn't love it, and I'm not sure exactly why. Maybe because it felt a bit shallow and under-developed. But bottom line? I'll admit it. Parts of this book made me cry. I guess that makes me a bit shallow and syrupy sweet, too.
I liked this book, but I didn't love it, and I'm not sure exactly why. Maybe because it felt a bit shallow and under-developed. But bottom line? I'll admit it. Parts of this book made me cry. I guess that makes me a bit shallow and syrupy sweet, too.
December 29, 2016
This book was ok. The main character Heather Montgomery, is a rock singer married to bands drummer. He's s very likable guy. I won't post any spoilers but Heather had a very traumatic ordeal happen to her before she got with the band. But she can never overcome her problem and when another tragic event happens she totally loses it. Ok. But she is her own worst enemy and at times you just want to shake her and tell her to get on with it. I give the book 3 stars.
August 19, 2016
The long road to heaven is a really Wonderful book ,
Katherine Harris did such a great job writing this. I felt like crying most of the time ,it was full of Love,and Sad too. I couldn't put it down. I ate with my Kindle right beside my plate...... Great Book....Great Author. I will look for more !
Katherine Harris did such a great job writing this. I felt like crying most of the time ,it was full of Love,and Sad too. I couldn't put it down. I ate with my Kindle right beside my plate...... Great Book....Great Author. I will look for more !
November 19, 2016
This book rocked on another level!
I can't describe how close some of this storyline struck my heart.
I cried, laughed and cried again...
A fantastic novel of love, loss, betrayal and so much more!
I recommend you read with a box of tissues and chocolate.
Finished in one day... A book I shall remember for a long time coming.
I can't describe how close some of this storyline struck my heart.
I cried, laughed and cried again...
A fantastic novel of love, loss, betrayal and so much more!
I recommend you read with a box of tissues and chocolate.
Finished in one day... A book I shall remember for a long time coming.
October 6, 2016
Some times you just can't get into a book, even if it was liked by others. Such was the case for this one. I generally like Kathryn Harris' writing, but this story line just left me yawning.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews