I must firstly apologise for the amount of time it has taken me to provide a review of this book, my health was rather bad for quite some time, something that had me in hospital on numerous occasions and simply didnt leave me with the time I once had to do what I love most.

Unfortunately that does mean I have missed the archive date for many of these books, so It would feel unjust throwing any review together without being able to pay attention to each novel properly.

However, I am now back to reading as before and look forward to sharing my honest reviews as always going forward. I thank you f0r the patience and understanding throughout x

This story is both heart-warming and heart-wrenching, I definitely recommend this book. The author takes you on a journey through loss, grief, and healing- a story you won’t forget!

An absolutely lovely and captivating novel of lost souls, hurt deeply by hard circumstances in life finding each other in a small town. Evan now lives his life very differently from who he really is. Deep pain and heartache mark his every day until he meets Maggie. She has moved herself and her two sons away from the disaster her life became after her husband died. Deep pain and heartache also mark her days. But, life is not all rosy and tied with a bow as they both struggle to find something outside their inner hurt.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

An emotional story of a wife and mother who finds out when her husband dies that he was having an affair, she picks herself up after making a new start.

I was looking forward to reading this but sadly
I found this book to be extremely predictable and didn't really like the main character.

The Long Way Home by Shann McPherson was a novel based on a plot that I have read before. The familiar plot husband is killed suddenly and then the wife finds out all of his secrets and needs to start all over again with a broken heart. What is different this time (at least to me) are the characters. I did like the characters. They were flawed, struggling with what life gave them.

OH - and the story takes place in New Hampshire. There were a number of references to various places in New Hampshire that always makes me sigh. The only problem with all the references - Piggly Wigglys do not exist this far north - Market Basket, Hannafords would have been better choices.

Maggie and Evan were a good couple together and I like how each wanted to understand and accept the other! What I didn’t like as much as Maggie’s angst - I wanted her to be mad! I was!

The Long Way Home by Shann McPherson was an interesting read.

Unfortunately, this one fell flat for me. The characters were all lukewarm and the story was pretty basic and run-of-the-mill.

I also had to remove a star immediately over the ridiculous hand-holding, step-by-step walkthrough by the leading man on how to change a lightbulb. I mean, come on. A lightbulb?
"She gasped when the bulb came out after her "dainty hands" gently twisted to remove it"...
Teach her how to operate a breaker box or find and tighten a leaky pipe under the sink. Something that realistically a person with common sense may still need a little guidance to figure out. This woman has raised two boys and held down a home for 16 years. She can figure out how to change a lightbulb (yes, even with the switch still on).

In the end, this was a disappointing read because I absolutely LOVED Sweet Home Montana.

Maggie's husband has tragically passed away in an accident, she is now left to raise her two boys, aged 15 and 10, alone. As if things weren't bad enough, she learns something about her late husband that drastically affects how she and the boys will move forward. She spontaneously buys a house in Jewel Harbor, a small coastal town where she knows no one. She ends up making friends with the locals, including bachelor number one, Evan, who has his own history.
This book started out good, the middle dragged a bit, and the end was predictable and a bit boring. Everything just worked out too perfectly. I expected a bit more drama. I really didn't care for Maggie or Evan, the other characters were just there to help the storyline and had no depth of their own. Overall I found the book to be a bit boring.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the advanced copy of this book in return for my honest review.

Brilliant story of Maggie whose husband dies and she finds out he was cheating on her leaving her and their 2 sons bereft. Forced to sell her home she moves to Jewel Harbor to start a new life with her sons. This is a great story of one woman's struggle to cope with her cheating husbands death and being there for her 2 sons. Enter Evan the local builder who helps to repair the house and perhaps her heart, but has secrets of his own.
Would recommend a great read.

I found this book very predictable and I felt that I’d read this story before, husband dies in a car crash, wife is devastated then, wife finds out her husband has been having an affair. I’ve read so many books like this one that I found it boring. Plus it was very sad something I really didn’t want so I’m only giving this book three stars. My thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

This book started out well and grabbed my attention, but, once the big secret about Maggie’s husband is revealed, I felt that it lost momentum, becoming a sickly, predictable, romance story.

Truth be told, I did enjoy this book, having read it after a rather lengthy, complex story. However, it was just too bland for me to get excited about. It is clear that there is going to be an attraction between Maggie and Evan, even if Maggie is convincing herself it is too soon since her husband’s death. Furthermore, I could anticipate there would be a “bump in the road” with their fledging relationship – the kind you expect from this genre of book. It wasn’t completely predictable, but I found the soft narrative lack-lustre.

Maggie is quite a likeable character. I enjoyed watching her grow stronger from her husband’s death; seeing Maggie make the decision to leave her past behind and start afresh is definitely commendable, especially as she has two boys to raise on her own. I really sympathised with her when it becomes clear how difficult her elder son has taken the tragedy. In fact, during the scenes of some of their spats, my toes really curled at how awful he was being to his mother! I don’t actually know what I would have done in Maggie’s situation and could really understand her feelings of helplessness as the family try to move forwards.

The setting and supporting cast are all really pleasant. The writer’s description of Maggie’s house on the lake seemed perfectly idyllic and I felt a little envious at all the open space she had acquired! Despite feeling rather overwhelmed at the work needing to be done on the house, it was lovely to see the community come together to help Maggie. It was selfless help and reinforced the supportive community that Maggie has moved to.

Seeing the relationship develop between Maggie and Evan was sweet. However, it did feel like it took a long time to get going and this didn’t help maintain my interest in the novel. Knowing they would eventually become a couple meant I didn’t really care about their relationship – because it was so obvious it would happen. Furthermore, seeing how Evan becomes so popular with Maggie’s sons meant it was even more clear that this is how the story would conclude.

To be honest, this story felt a little bland and this is why I could only rate this as an average read. It is a sweet love story that focuses on two characters that are mending broken hearts. Their reasons are different but it was nice to watch the two come together. On the other hand, I think I would have preferred a story that was a lot less predictable and had a bit more fire and energy.

With thanks to HQ Digital and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Long Way Home by Shann McPherson is a story about Maggie, a recent widow with two boys, 10 and 15 years old. When the secrets of her husband, the boys’ father, come to light, she and her boys move so she can protect them as best she can from ever finding out. This is a heartwarming story of a mother's love, a husband's betrayal, strength, trust, and forgiveness as Maggie finds a way to move forward with her life. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more of Shann McPherson’s books.

This is an emotional and touching story of loss, forgiveness, recovery, second chances, moving forward, and love. We meet Maggie and her two sons, dealing with the death of their husband/father, and the betrayal Maggie discovers after his death. It’s about losing everything and learning to move forward. I very much enjoyed this book.

Maggie has two sons the and Jack. She is married to a very successful man and thought their massage was happy until the lies came out. In Tom's death she found out about the affair with a co-worker. She has to sell the house due to bad financial decisions and get a house by a lake that needs fixing up

This is a heartwarming story of loss, pain and being able to find yourself again. This was a quick, easy read which is a nice summer break read. The story follows Maggie who has recently lost her husband in an accident but finds out that he has been keeping secrets from her and her two sons, Jack a teenager and the younger TJ.
Circumstances mean she has to move house and picks a small costal town Jewel Harbor where she find herself with a neglected house which is going to cost lots to fix up but at least nobody knows her or her husbands secret.
She meets local boatbuilder Evan, a bit of hunk and he offers to help her fix her new home. She makes friends, finds community and self confidence. I liked the idea that Maggie did not share her husband's secrets with her children and focused on her relationship with them and their healing. I enjoyed how the relationship bloomed with Jack showing how he matured. I enjoyed this book although yes there were parts that were rushed and others that seemed unbelievable in the timing provided but enjoying the story as well as the unraveling of the plot I liked the book.


Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

A sweet book surrounding Maggie, a widowed mother of two, who finds out after her husbands death that things were not as they seemed. My heart broke for her and her kids, but I was also so proud of her for picking up her life and seeking happiness again. When she meets Evan, it was clear these two were a fantastic match! Evan had his own tragic story that left fighting to leave the past behind. I enjoyed the storyline, but I did find myself sometimes skipping around sometimes as the transitions were a little rough. I was also quite disappointed with the ending, I felt like we had some pretty incredible build up during the story, just to rush the ending and leave everything with loose ends.
I'd give the author another go, again I thought the storyline was great.

This is an emotional story about Maggie losing her husband and finds out he was cheating and not able to confront him. Also starting over again with her two boys letting go and finding her own happiness.
⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was a quick, easy read which helped me out of a reading slump.
The story follows Maggie who has recently lost her husband in an accident but finds out that he has been keeping secrets from her and her two sons, Jack a teenager and the younger TJ.
Circumstances mean she has to move house and picks a small costal town Jewel Harbor where she find herself with a neglected house which is going to cost lots to fix up but at least nobody knows her or her husbands secret.
She meets local boatbuilder Evan, a bit of hunk and he offers to help her fix her new home. She makes friends and hopes that this move will her family the peace and happiness she craves.
I liked the cosy sense of community that this book described. An easy read with a storyline that was predictable but worth a read. 3 stars - okay but didn’t set the heather on fire.
Thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for an honest review.

This was a beautiful nuanced book which had two damaged souls coming together and slowly healing, then falling in love.

I loved the characters in the book, they had a depth to them. There was nothing instant about them, they gravitated toward each other, taking care as in real life.

A character based story, the author managed to pique my interest by keeping it close to reality. Friendship felt to be genuine. I liked the angst written in added to the depth.

A sweet beginning for both.

The blurb of this story had me wanting more. It sounded intriguing. Something I enjoy within my stories.
But sadly, I couldn’t get into this one. It doesn’t have good flow for me. No good transitions from scene to scene. I started skipping around to finish it… never did capture my attention.