"Insightful relationship drama"

As a teen over two decades ago, Jewel Sabatino fled her Pueblo, Colorado home never looking back over the years. However, the Greenwich Village resident knows that it is time to go home. So Jewel, her teenage son Shane, and her dying best friend Michael Shaunessey return to her hometown not sure of the welcome she will receive.

In Pueblo, Jewel is back in the fold of her Italian family except for her unforgiving father, who has not spoken to her in all this time. He refuses to welcome back his daughter. The rest of the family opens their arms to Jewel and her entourage. Michael's brother Malachi arrives to help his sibling through his final days. However, as death is in the air, renewal is too as Malachi and Jewel begin to fall in love, but will the family crisis keep a relationship from fully forming between them?

NO PLACE LIKE HOME is an insightful relationship drama that plays out on several stages. The key cast is a warm ensemble though they seem stiff at times, but the story line belongs to the lead protagonist. Jewel feels like sandwich meat trapped between the two generations that surround her as well as trying to come to grips with her different types of love for the Shaunessey siblings. Barbara Samuel shows that with love you can go home even if much has changed in the interim.

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted December 1, 2001

Nominated for 2003 RITA Single Title Contemporary by Romance Writers of America

Summary

NO PLACE LIKE HOME tells the unforgettable story of a family bound together by tradition--and the emotional journey of an estranged daughter risking everything for a second chance at life and love. Twenty-one years ago, Jewel Sabatino left her childhood behind and never looked back. After a magical taste of fame, she found herself alone with a son to raise and not much else. She survived with the help of Michael, her one true friend. But now Michael is too sick to care for himself and Jewel has run out of options. She leaves New York for the hills of Colorado, unsure if the family she ran from will welcome her back.

For Jewel, coming home is falling back into a world that smells of Italian restaurants and home-baked pies. It is the laughter of sisters preparing for a summer wedding, and the peaceful haven for a treasured soul mate's last days. It also means facing the unforgiving eyes of a father betrayed by his favorite child--and letting go of a son who is ready to become a man. But most of all, it is the love she discovers in her own wary heart when Michael's brother Malachi unexpectedly arrives on her doorstep.