Throw Back Review: Longing For Home

February 26, 2015

Every Thursday I want to feature a “throw back” review from my old blog.  I have so many books that I posted and loved on my old reading spot. I’m throwing back to join them all together.

Longing for Home
Sarah M. Eden
432 Pages

Hard copy edition

From the Publisher:
Though she was only a child during the darkest days of Ireland’s Great Famine, Katie Macauley feels responsible for the loss of her family’s land and the death of her sister. Now a woman grown, Katie has left Ireland for America and the promise of earning money enough to return home again and plead for her family’s forgiveness. She arrives in Hope Springs, Wyoming Territory, a town sharply divided between the Americans who have settled there, with their deep hatred of the Irish, and the Irish immigrants who have come searching for a place to call home. Her arrival tips the precarious balance, and the feud erupts anew. Even in the midst of hatred and violence, however, Katie finds reason to hope. Two men, as different as they are intriguing, vie for her heart, turning her thoughts for the first time toward a future away from Ireland. Katie must now make the hardest decision of her life: stay and give her heart a chance at love, or return home and give her soul the possibility of peace.

Longing for Home, Hope Springs
Sarah M. Eden
400 Pages
Hard copy edition

From the Publisher:
Katie Macauley gave up her lifelong dream of returning to Ireland in order to make a home for herself in Hope Springs, Wyoming, but her future has never been so uncertain.

Katie’s heart still remains sharply divided between playful Tavish and steady Joseph, though she feels ill-prepared to make a decision. Furthermore, the town is more divided than ever with both the Irish and the Reds stealing property, burning buildings, and endangering lives. In the midst of the growing unrest, tem­peratures drop quickly, too quickly, and Irish nightmares of famine and cold resurface as the little Wyoming town struggles to beat the harsh winter.

Katie makes one sacrifice after another to keep the peace and help see her loved ones through the difficult days ahead, but will her efforts be enough? Can the town make amends before their hatred consumes them all? And will Katie find the love she has been searching for as well as a home to call her own?

Throw Back Reviews:
Longing for Home:
I was saving this book to read this month because the second book would be coming up shortly after I read it.  I really enjoyed this book!  It is much longer than Sarah’s other books and not regency, but I did find it kept my interest the whole time.  I couldn’t wait for the second book as soon as I finished it!

Hope Springs;
I don’t think this book has been released yet, but I was able to attend a book signing that Sarah did and got a copy to take home!  I was so excited!  I think I loved this book more than the first, which I think is a hard thing to do in a series.  I was very happy with the ending, but I do hope that Sarah writes some more books with some of the characters!

I have now read every book by Sarah M. Eden, with the exception of some of the Romance Anthology collections.  (Although I did read the Regency one and enjoyed it).  Those are fun books and I might have to read all of those sometime this year too. 

Here we are at the book signing.  My husband had some work to do that night with his dad and brother, so in a moment of weakness, I lost my mind and thought taking 5 kids would be easy.  The baby was a compete mess.  She was ready for bed and couldn’t figure out the hype. She wanted me to let her down so she could crawl all over the store and make a mess.  It was worth it to get a copy of the book though.  But next time I am going to leave the kids at home!



Updated Review:
I discovered Sarah M. Eden about a year and a half ago and I have LOVED her.  In just a matter of months I read every book I could find by her. They are some of my favorite books and favorite characters.  I held off on reading Longing for Home because I knew I would want to read Longing for Home Hope Springs immediately following the first book.  These are two books that I loved.  It would have hard to pick my favorite book by Eden, but I think these two would be very high on the list.  I wish that she would write another book, or at least a small single book about Tavish.  

I still laugh about myself going to the book signing that Sarah did a year or so ago.  I don’t know why I thought taking the 5 kids by myself would be a good idea.  We were all a hot mess by the time we got done that night, but I still think it was worth getting a copy of Hope Springs and having both of these books signed.  Sarah has done a couple more events that are pretty close to me in the past couple months, but I haven’t been able to work it out that I could go without kids…and I vow to go to another event, but without kids this time.  She is one of my favorite authors and I would love to go and meet her without so many distractions.

If you love regency romance, if you love clean romance, if you love historical fiction, I think you should look up Sarah M. Eden.  I recommend any of her books.  These are just two I could call some of my favorite.  There are high on my to-re-read list.  A friend and I were just discussing  Sarah Eden’s books last night and she said these are some of her favorite to re-read because you can sit down and re-read most any of them in one day.  I thought that sounded like a great plan…now I just need to clear my schedule and find a day I can sit down and read all day long.

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