Another Aussie rural romance which I found to be a little underwhelming…

The main romantic plot strictly follows the rural romance rules. The heroine, Ruby, returns to her [fictional] hometown, Brockenridge, when her mother passes away. She’d left for the big city after being bullied and accused of stealing. Upon returning, she finds out she’s inherited a roadhouse from her mother and, of course, meets back up with her old crush, Connor. Their conflict is that Connor’s family wants to buy out and demolish the roadhouse to make way for a golf course and resort.

There’s a secondary romantic plot. It features two of the roadhouse employees, Alisha and Harry. I preferred this pairing as they were older but their plot and conflict were still pretty cliched. (I guessed Harry's secret immediately; I've read many many romances where the hero has kept his distance for the exact same reason.)

Despite having two couples and, therefore, twice the conflict (apparently), Marsh still struggled in this arena. In fact, to be honest, the conflict of both storylines was pretty awful. The characters had arguments about nothing really and everything could have been sorted out in five minutes flat.

Marsh has written many romance novels, so I also expected her to write chemistry and sexual tension better. It was pretty forced between both couples. A bit of show, not tell, would not have gone astray either. Oh boy, there was a lot of repetition of the inner thoughts of the four characters. I did start to skim after reading about Ruby or Alisha being bullied, Connor’s sad family life, or that Ruby should have returned from Melbourne sooner for the umpteemth time.

The Aussie setting was just okay. There were some things which were authentic but others… I must admit I was sort of confused about the roadhouse itself! I didn’t find it a very Australian establishment. A roadhouse to me is an extension of a service station (gas station) where you can grab some fast food and visit the restroom. Marsh had apparently gone on a Patrick Swayze binge somewhere around the time of writing this as it was more like some odd mixture of a pub/club/restaurant.

Anyway, I guess I’ll still give the next book a go, but overall, Long Way Home was pretty disappointing. 2 ½ out of 5

Ruby ran away from her home town after a nightmare of a time at high school and has never returned to the small town she grew up in. Upon her mother Clara’s death, 11 years later, she reluctantly returns to settle her mothers affairs. While there she learns she has inherited the tones roadhouse, which local developer, Connor Delaney (whom she has history with from her high school days) wishes to tear down.

The other character we meet is Clara’s best friend Alisha. Who is conflicted between staying in the rural town and support her again parents or go on a journey of self discovery.

This was a great Australian rural romance, I really enjoyed it.

I've not read this author before and what a joy it was. Her writing style flows so smoothly, I felt I had jumped right into the story. I live in Melbourne, so am familiar with the places in this book.
Connor and Ruby have history that goes back to highschool. About a decade later they meet up again under tragic circumstances. They're both on different paths so you have to wonder can the author make it work.
The characters in this story were so real, they made the book so entertaining.
Great story, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Nicola Marsh is a Melbourne based author that I have been aware of for many years, I reviewed one of her titles early on and followed her career from a distance as she published across different formats and genres. She has now published seventy books and is a USA Today bestselling and award-winning author.
Long Way Home is a rural romance published by the MIRA imprint and would make a solid start to a series, or a trilogy at least, so I will be sure to keep my eyes open for more stories by Marsh set in Brockenridge.
Ruby is Brockenridge born and bred but the mean girls at school never made it easy for her. She was bullied relentlessly and on the night of her Graduation Ball they took it one step too far and Ruby ran. She ran out on the best day of her life, as she counted down the hours to her date with the most gorgeous guy in school.
That was the final straw for Ruby, she ran to Melbourne and never looked back; never went back. Her relationship with her mother remained as strong but they caught up on the phone and regular catch-ups in Melbourne, Ruby couldn’t bear to return to the town that had caused her so much pain.
Eleven years later Ruby has achieved her goals and is making a life for herself in Melbourne, until the devastating phone call to tell her that her beloved mother had died.
Ruby hasn’t been home but Brockenridge was still her mother’s home so after making arrangements for the funeral from her home in Melbourne she heads to Brockenridge to say her goodbyes, planning a short visit before hightailing it back to Melbourne. She is concerned about what will become of The Watering Hole and her mother’s loyal friends and staff but hopes that the owner will put in a new manager and business will go on as usual.
Connor Delaney is the gorgeous boy Ruby ran from all those years ago, and he too left town as soon as he could; opting to begin his career in Queensland instead of the family business. Connor wanted to make a name for himself instead of trading on the family name, he’s done remarkably well but when his father calls and needs him to come home and prepare to take the reins of the family company he finds he can’t say no.
The money and prestige that come with the family name made it hard for Connor to find true friends, and to avoid the small town gossip. He treasured his friendship with Ruby because it was real, well he thought it was until she up and left town with no more than a single line text. It shook his already rattled view of relationships and left him a no-strings kind of man.
The project Connor returns to oversee, his first for Delaney Corp, is a new golf course with five-star facilities. A resort that will bring much needed jobs to the region. The only catch is that they haven’t quite acquired all the land they need to set the plans in motion.
Long Way Home is very much a contemporary rural romance but it relies heavily on the past for context and momentum. So much relatively recent history is relevant to the way the story unfolds. The history between Ruby and Connor is never far from the surface, neither of them ever really had closure after Ruby ran.
Long Way Home sees Ruby and Connor trying to forge their new futures while reconciling the issues they have with their pasts. Both ran far from Brockenridge, but their return reminds them that through it all, it was still home.
I loved the storylines and all of the characters in Long Way Home, because being a small town there is quite the cast of colourful characters to get to know.
Ruby returns to the town that shunned her, a successful businesswoman who has achieved her goals. On her return she discovers that a lot has changed, the mean girls at school have suffered a run in with the karma bus and none of them are recognisable as the popular, good-looking girls who made Ruby’s life at school a nightmare.
It isn’t just the mean girls that have changed, all the small town gossips who were happy to look down their noses at the hardworking Aston’s and spread gossip about The Watering Hole now feel the loss of Ruby’s mother deeply. Her welcoming nature and hardwork had slowly won over the town and turned The Watering Hole into a community gathering place as much for the town as the truckers and tourists who had always found it a welcoming oasis on their cross country travels.
The unfolding story shows us the differences between The Watering Hole and many of the other roadhouses littering the rural highways of the countryside. I’m sure anyone who has ever travelled rurally in Australia will know the kind of places The Watering Hole comes to be compared to; the ones with skyhigh prices, dusty old stock and tired, weatherworn staff. Compared to places like these The Watering Hole is clean, welcoming, friendly and looked after; and I know there have to be places like this scattered across the countryside.
Marsh has managed to create a small town filled with characters we come to care about, and want to know more about. The central staff of The Watering Hole are like family to Ruby and we become invested in their stories, some of which are explored with some depth in Long Way Home making it a double romance novel and some that will hopefully be explored in books to come.
Long Way Home was engaging and emotional but it also contained an interesting twist or two that I didn’t see coming. I really enjoyed getting to know the people of Brockenridge and I look forward to getting to know them a little better in upcoming books, and of course checking in on those we’ve already gotten to know quite well.
The story unfolds from multiple perspectives with alternating chapters, in the third person, by Ruby, Connor and Alisha. A story of love, loss, regret, new beginnings, second chances, homecomings and fighting for your dreams.
Long Way Home is Marsh’s first foray into mainstream rural romance and I certainly hope it’s not her last. Her style is compassionate, witty and engaging with a diverse character set and a palpable love of the region she has set the story. I look forward to following her rural romance journey and I am interested in chasing down some of her work in other genres.
Thanks to NetGalley and Mira for a digital copy for review.
Long Way Home is well worth a look for lovers of character driven stories and rural romance; chase down a copy, you won’t be disappointed.

Rural romance by Australian authors seems to be my go-to reads at the moment as I get to read this book one of a new series by an author I have never read before. This one was set in Victoria in a small town of Brockenridge. I very much enjoyed this read as you go two for the price of one in the romance line a second chance and middle age co-worker romance, but brought many things to this novel. The novel is full of many topics from Mean girls, grief, forgiveness, hope, duty, secrets, betrayal, friendship, acceptance, love, regret but most of a community.

We start this book in this past when Ruby Aston is still in school at Brockenridge. We get a small insight as to the depth of the small-town gossip that makes her leave her home suddenly one night. Eleven years later Ruby will return home for the most difficult days of her young life. She finds the place the same but also so different but still the roadhouse is still full of the people she loves and missed. She soon finds out her mother did more than just work and run the “The Watering Hole” roadhouse she own it and now it is Ruby’s. Will she sell it or keep it?

The day has finally come for Connor Delaney to return to the folds of his family and the family company as the New CEO of his father’s property development company of Delaney Corporation. The first development of the books is one locally, a new golf course and resort to be built just outside Brockenridge. Conner left straight after school to make a name for himself in the development industry without the help of his family’s name to which he has an achieved this goal. He has taken of the company but he is not home for long as this job will have him moving around the country just the way he enjoys it. Home has never been a happy place of Conner as the Delaney name has not been a popular name in the community as his father business grow his company without care and respect for the little people of the world. Conner is happy being on his own but when he finds out the one property that is still needed to the resort to go ahead belongs to the girl that stood him for a high school graduation ball, he may just need to take a different look at this life and business plans.

As both return home, they also remember the ones they left behind when they moved away to start their new lives.

Alisha Nathieson has had a very happy life here in Australia with her adopted parents, but she dreams of travel and finding her birth mother back in India. She feels she must stay to take care of her aging parents and she does enjoy her job at the Roadhouse just out of town. But when her friend and boss passes away it takes her for a surprise and makes her take a good restock of her life and plans. She wanted a husband, kids, to travel the world and to find her birth mother but at 42 years-old a few of these things might already be removed from her list anyway.

Can two women find their dreams at the same time as doing the right thing for everyone?

Will Conner be able to put his business first before anything/anyone else?

Ruby will learn more about her mother as she comes to terms with her death.

Will Alisha finally show her true feelings towards a co-worker or continue to live her life in the shadows?
This was a wonderful story with real characters experiencing real-life events in this great country of ours. The author has done a great job of entertaining us with these characters and at the some time having us wonder how maybe next to tell us their story in the next book of the Brockenridge series. I am hoping we get to read and learn more about single mother Tash in book two.

Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Australia and Nicola Marsh for the opportunity to read this great book. My review is my honest and voluntary opinion of this book that I have read.
@HarlequinAus

I thoroughly enjoyed this rural romance, there are two romances running in this story, one second chance romance, and one for an older couple that had me turning the pages as I got to know Ruby Aston as she returns home to Brockenridge after running away eleven years before and Alisha Nathieson who gets her well-deserved HEA as well.

Ruby is coming home to the town she ran from years before, her mother Clara has just passed away suddenly and Ruby is heart-broken, she is met by her friends that are more family to her seeing as how there was only ever her and her mother, Harry, Alisha and Tash, but there is also someone else who has returned and that is Connor Delaney the person she had a crush on at school, the person she stood up.

Connor has finally come home to take over the reins of the family business with a big project to get off the ground he hits a brick wall when he discovers that the property he needs to purchase is now owned by Ruby Aston the girl who stood him up eleven years before and discovers his feelings for Ruby have gotten stronger in these years.

Alisha is rocked by losing her best friend Clara and this makes her want more from life she is caring for her elderly parents and the need to travel and to have a family are now stronger than ever and the pull she feels for the chef at the roadhouse Harry are getting stronger, but Harry seems to have some demons from the past that he needs to get over first.

There is a lot going on in this story, it is moving and emotional as all of the characters are working through feelings from the past and need to look to the future to find happiness, the characters are strong and are bought to life on the pages by MS Marsh and I love that it is the first book in a series and we will be back in the lovely country town of Brockenridge for more stories. If you enjoy rural romances then this is one that I very much recommend.

Set in northern Victoria, Long Way Home showcases all the good things about rural communities. This is very much a David and Goliath story in which Ruby Aston, who has returned home from Melbourne for her mother’s funeral, takes on the powerful and wealthy Delaney Corporation in a battle to save The Watering Hole roadhouse from being demolished to make way for a golf resort.
It’s the characters in this book that made it special for me. Within the roadhouse there are loyal staff members Alisha, Tash and wonder chef Harry, each with their own issues to deal with. Thrown into the mix is Connor Delaney
Connor Delaney, who has also returned home to take over the reins as CEO of Delaney Corporation.
Ruby and Connor have history and the push and pull between these two as the story progresses is one of the things that kept me turning the pages. I also loved the way that the townspeople supported Ruby through the challenges she faced.
I guess the only things that didn’t appeal so much were the that the investors in Delaney Corporation were so utterly vile and that the mean girls from school got quite such stupendous comeuppances when Ruby returned. That all seemed a little contrived. That aside, this was a thoroughly entertaining story.

Long Way Home is the first book of a new rural romance series set in the fictional town of Brockenridge from Nicola Marsh.

After the sudden death of her mother, Ruby Aston reluctantly returns to the small country town of Brockenridge she had fled eleven years earlier. Planning to go back to Melbourne after the funeral, Ruby is stunned to learn that she’s inherited the roadhouse and motel she assumed her mother had simply managed, and when a local developer, Connor Delaney, reveals his plan to tear the place down, Ruby realises she can’t let go of her legacy.

In this (kinda) second-chance romance, Ruby and Connor, who were on the verge of a relationship as teenagers, find that their attraction to one another has endured, but Connor’s plan to acquire and raze The Watering Hole to make way for a resort complicates any thoughts of a reunion. I thought the conflict was realistic, and Marsh handled it well. I enjoyed the flirting between the pair and the eventual resolution.

Long Way Home also features a second romance. With Clara’s death, The Watering Hole’s hostess Alisha, and chef, Harry, begin to consider their plans for the future, and Alisha is contemplating leaving Brockenridge to travel, just as Harry finally seems to express an interest in her. I liked that the author chose to make Alisha a person of colour, which is rare in rural romance, but Alisha’s race is mentioned often enough, that it becomes a little gratuitous.

While I thought it was possibly a bit of a stretch that all of Ruby’s high school nemeses had not fared well during her absence (though it was pretty satisfying), the author ably captured the dynamics of a small country town. I’d guess that single mum Tash, The Watering Hole’s waitress, will be one of the character’s featured next.

Long Way Home is a pleasant and engaging read, sure to satisfy fans of the rural romance genre.