"A Mainstream Warm-Hearted Novel"

Annie Hunter comes home from work one day to find a young teenager asleep on her front porch swing. Somewhat disconcerted, she calls the police. When the boy awakes, he tells her that he thinks she is his mother. Not ever having had any children, she knows that this could not possibly be true but when he mentions her deceased husband, Richard, she wonders if there could be some truth to his story. Could her husband have fathered the thirteen year old? She had been in the throes of desperately trying to conceive years before but it had never happened and when they finally decided to adopt, Richard had a heart attack and died before they could find a child.

Cullen lives at Noah House -- a home for wayward and troubled boys. Although he had been adopted as a baby, the adoption had not worked out well. Cullen respects Linc who is the administrator of Noah House. Linc has cared for the twenty boys in his care, always hoping he can turn their lives around so that they can live productive lives. He comes for the boy but leaves the message that Annie's husband could be Cullen's birth father. Although Annie and Linc are attracted to each other, they realize that they come from different walks of life but as Annie draws closer to the truth about Cullen, she also draws closer to Linc.

THE BOY ON THE PORCH is a mainstream warm-hearted novel in the tradition of Kristin Hannah. It is a love story as well as a family tale of betrayal and learning to live with the truth. Cullen is a good boy who has had a lot of bad breaks and Linc is always there for him as well as the other boys in his care. He knows he cannot save them all but with true caring, he makes some inroads in their lives. Annie is a lonely woman who has nothing but good memories of her husband. Now she has to adjust her thinking and come to terms with his past. She also has to take a look at her rigid and up-tight life and what she really wants. I have been a fan of Dee Holmes and this book is another to add to her string of good reads. All of the characters are appealing enough to make another very intriguing novel by this not-to-be-missed author.

Reviewed by Marilyn Heyman
Posted December 15, 2002

USA Today bestselling author Dee Holmes brings us a deeply moving story of a woman whose life is transformed by a boy who suddenly appears on her porch one day...

Summary

On the one-year anniversary of her husband's death, Annie Hunter comes home to find a ragged-looking boy asleep on her porch. When he awakes, she discovers his name is Cullen Gallagher--and that he's convinced that Annie is his mother. Everyone knows his claim is preposterous, especially because she and her late husband, Richard, never had the chance to fulfill their dream of having children. Yet Annie finds herself drawn into the boy's search for his birth parents--and to Linc McCoy, the handsome, rough-edged director of the home for troubled boys where Cullen lives. Slowly, Annie begins to imagine making a place in her life for young Cullen--and for Linc, the one man who could heal her wounded heart...