*I received a free copy of Coming Home from Harlequin UK via Netgalley. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review, which is honest and unbiased *
Coming Home by Annabel Kantaria Published by Harlequin UK on 7 May 2015
Genres: Adult, Contemporary
Pages: 384
Format: eARC
Source: Netgalley
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Evie has been away from home long enough to bury the pain that shaped her childhood. Now, with the sudden death of her father, she must return. Back to the same house. Back to the memories. Back to her mother.
At first, coming home feels unexpectedly comforting. But, as she goes through her father's files, Evie uncovers a secret that opens old wounds and changes her life forever.
That's only the beginning.
As Evie's world starts to shatter around her, she realises that those she loves most are also those capable of the deepest betrayal.
Coming Home is definitely a very different kind of contemporary story, what with the betrayal, the secrets and the lies.
My Coming Home review:
Coming Home started out innocuous enough, with Evie leaving Dubai to go back to London to help her mother after her father’s sudden death. Funeral arrangements, bank statements, insurance papers and more needed to be taken care of, and Evie was quite happy to help. Evie’s mom was pretty cold, though, and little by little, the readers learned at least part of the reasons why.
Because Coming Home is so filled with secrets and lies, it’s a little difficult to write a full review without spoiling anything, but I promise I will be very vague! Evie stumbles upon something that makes her suspicious when she goes through her father’s papers, and as she manages to uncover a little bit of truth here, a little bit of truth there, she plays detective to unravel all the things that still seem hidden to her.
Reconnecting both with her best friend from college, and also with her own ex-boyfriend, Evie is busy on several fronts as she tries to see just how far her fathers secrets have gone. I had quite a bit of trouble connecting with Evie – she was smart enough to find out a lot of things, but still a little dense about other things. I had no soft feelings for her mother at all! And that continued all the way through the story. Because I found the main character to be a little flimsy, and not all that fleshed out made the story less enticing to me as well.
Written in past tense, first person point of view from Evie’s perspective, Coming Home could have been more than I thought it was. I was able to figure out several things that took Evie very long, and so the excitement and suspense didn’t really work for me, and things didn’t come to a resolution by the time the story ended.
Some of my favorite Coming Home quotes:
I stopped short, realising with a jolt that Dad would now never see this sight; that there were so many things he’d now never see.
In my replies, I echoed Mum’s style. We exchanged huge quantities of useless information in a literary ballet that meant little.
Easing myself along the ancient floor beams (I vaguely remembered Dad telling me as a child that I must stand only on the beams – was it true? I didn’t know), I looked around.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms
Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.
Twitter: limabean74
Sorry you didn’t connect with the character and vague reviews are so hard to right when a book has so much that can’t be given away but I thing you did a fantastic job writing it with no spoilers 🙂
Glad it was enjoyable! Great review, lexxie!
Yeah, vague reviews are difficult to write, but since I abhor spoilers, I really do try my best to make sure there aren’t any in my reviews 🙂