The Way Back Home: A sweet small town romance (Aspen Valley Homecoming) Paperback – 5 Nov. 2021

First book in the series and I really enjoyed it .A good second chance romance

Sweet romance of coming back home and realizing it’s where she always belonged. I’ll read more from this author for sure!

As a person from Northern Alberta myself, I love the fact that Carolyne inserts names of places and towns that I am so familiar with. It's so unusual. Usually stories are placed in locals in the US. I feel like the story is evolving in my own backyard. I know this won't appeal to folks not from Alberta but for me it's such an refreshing change. I really enjoy Carolyne's writing style. I would recommend this story for anyone.

Held my attention, trying to figure out everyone’s secrets. Each character was multifaceted & took some digging to figure them all out. Other characters brought into the story have secrets too & I’m looking forward to getting to know them all.

I found this story so real as though I was sitting or standing next to the characters. When they were sad, I was. When they were joyful, I felt alike. Anyone who has ever gone back home after a time away will love this story.

There’s a lot to like about this book. It’s touches upon a lot of today’s issues. It show the damages of secrets, the hopelessness of insecurities and the outcome of second guessing. It is slow burn, very slow burn, however, it’s understandable considering the situations involved. It’s not easy being a single dad and it’s not easy being an only child living with that single dad. But it was really easy for Courtney to jump to conclusions and play the victim.Feeling unloved at home wasn’t easy but when she was dumped by the one she thought was the love of her life, the one she would marry, she broke. Her faith suffered, she felt all alone and took off to the Netherlands for a vacation. That ‘vacation’ lasted several years. Making rash choices led to more pain, a bad marriage and being ’stuck’ in another country. When finally able to visit her childhood home again, she sees how much she’s missed. She learns how jumping to conclusions leads to trouble for herself as well as others. Little by little she seeks to rebuild her faith and learn to trust her creator.As much as I liked this book, I did have some ‘wishes’ listed below …🤔OBSERVATIONS✒︎ Fenna was adorable… to be so young this little girl knew what she wanted and wasn’t against using her charms to get those wants.✒︎ Courtney’s Dutch husband,Stijn, was a cheater and a controller. He had good connections and wasn’t afraid to use them to get his way. Did he actually love Fenna or was she his ‘tool’ to control Courtney?✒︎ Stijn died after their divorce. What happened, how he die? We never know.✒︎ How did the work partnership with Griet get resolved? I kept thinking Courtney would get Aria, her childhood friend and now lawyer, to challenge the issues legally. Or, Courtney could have sold her portion of the partnership to someone and Griet wouldn’t have a leg to stand on, so to speak. We never find out how this was handled. (I hope she didn’t let her dad pay Griet off, not when there were other good choices.)✒︎ There was too much ‘woe is me’ in the story but very little ‘happy ever after’✒︎ How long was she in the Netherlands? The book keeps referring to eight years and then 11 years? Which is it?