Home at Last Book Review

I was given the chance to read Home At Last: A Chicory Inn Novel _ Book 5 by Deborah Raney.  I missed the first book in the series (I think) and I read the rest of the series back in 2015.  I was given the chance to review this book and they kindly sent the book before it which I read first.  I picked up this one right after and couldn't put it down.  It was a great read with lots of insight into a character that I didn't know much about before.

Why did their differences matter so much?

Link Whitman has settled into the role of bachelor without ever intending to. Now he's stuck in a dead-end job and, as the next Whitman wedding fast approaches, he is the last one standing. The pressure from his sisters' efforts to play matchmaker is getting hard to bear as Link pulls extra shifts at work, and helps his parents at the Chicory Inn.

All her life, Shayla Michaels has felt as if she straddled two worlds. Her mother's white family labeled her African American father with names Shayla didn't repeat in polite--well, in any company. Her father's family disapproved as well, though they eventually embraced Shayla as their own. After the death of her mother, and her brother Jerry's incarceration, life has left Shayla's father bitter, her niece, Portia, an orphan, and Shayla responsible for them all. She knows God loves them all, but why couldn't people accept each other for what was on the inside? For their hearts?

Everything changes one icy morning when a child runs into the street and Link nearly hits her with his pickup. Soon he is falling in love with the little girl's aunt, Shayla, the beautiful woman who runs Coffee's On, the bakery in Langhorne. Can Shayla and Link overcome society's view of their differences and find true love? Is there hope of changing the sometimes-ugly world around them into something better for them all?

Link Whitman is the only remaining Whitman child that is not married.  Although there has always been pressure on him because he was mothered by his three sisters and the rest of his family, they want him to be settled with a family of his own.  Link feels that his small apartment and entry level job is not enough to support a family and attract a woman.  He is working double shifts and doing all that he can to put away money for his future.  He meets Shayla Michaels at the bakery where his mom frequently sends him for the Inns baked goods.  Link has a near accident and learns that Shayla is raising her niece, Portia, and is very busy with working and her new role as mother.  Link is set that he wants to get to know Shayla so he invites Portia to come along on a date to the movies.  There are many problems along the way but you have to pick up the book and find out what happens with Link and Shayla.  I hope that you check out this book and you enjoy it as much as I did!!  I know that I couldn't put it down once I started.  I think that I read it in less then 24 hours.  I know that I lost some sleep but it was totally worth it.  The only sad part is coming to the end of the series and knowing that there isn't another one out there to read.  I have to go back and figure out if all of the people in the Whitman family have been covered but I hope that there will be another one because I enjoyed this family and all the ups and downs in this series.  I hope that you enjoy it as much as I have and check out the rest of the series too!!!

**I got a copy of this book for my review and honest opinion.  All opinions here are my own.