"Earth-Shattering and Emotional!!"

Jessie Ryder has returned to Edenville, Texas. After 16 years, she has returned to see the daughter that she gave up at birth to her sister and her husband. Jessie is losing her eyesight and wishes to see her daughter, Lila one last time. Jessie's return brings mixed emotions for her sister, Luz and her husband Ian, for Lila and Jessie herself. Jessie is at a stand still on where to go from here. Then Jessie meets Dusty Matlock and begins to fall in love with him. Jessie is confused, bewildered and hopeful. Can Jessie, Luz and Ian work together to tame the rebellious Lila? Will Jessie stay with the man she has come to love? You will have to get a copy of HOME BEFORE DARK to find out....you won't regret it!

Spectacular! Words escape me after reading this earth- shattering and emotionally intense tale by Susan Wiggs. What a roller-coaster of emotions and has readers believing in second chances. Ms. Wiggs reinforces family loyalties, shows the true meaning of the word Family and the power of love. I love a story that makes me really thing, say what if and touches me in everyway....thanks Susan Wiggs!

Reviewed by Tracey West
Posted June 8, 2003

The hardcover debut of award-winning author Susan Wiggs, HOME BEFORE DARK is a contemporary novel that of the emotional story of the lives and loves of two sisters in the Texas Hill Country. Facing a life-altering crisis, Jessie Ryder returns home to Texas to find the child she gave up for adoption sixteen years ago, to her very own sister, Luz.

Summary

In her career as a photojournalist, free-spirited Jessie Ryder has seen the world through her camera lens. But she's never traveled far enough to escape a painful moment that has haunted her for the past sixteen years: the day she gave her baby daughter away. Now she faces a life- altering crisis, and she's decided to fix the broken pieces of her heart and seek out Lila, even if it means she has to upset the world of Lila's adoptive mother, her very own sister, Luz.

Jessie and Luz are drawn into an emotional tug-of-war filled with moments of unexpected humor, surprising sweetness and unbearable sadness. And for Jessie, life's bittersweet irony plays its hand. She meets Dustin Matlock, a young father who has survived devastating loss. Jessie begins to see the hopeful possibilities that lie buried in the most wrenching tragedies. But as the pain, regrets and mistakes of the past rise to the surface, a new picture emerges--a picture filled with hope and promise and the redeeming power of the human heart.