About the Book

Product Details

ISBN-13:9780800746025 Publisher:Baker Publishing Group Publication date:03/04/2025 Pages:304

When life feels like it’s closing in around you, sometimes the solution is to open the doors wide and invite others in . . . 

Jewel McKerry is on the brink of unraveling as she heads home to Oregon to help care for her father who has early-onset dementia. Her thirteen-year-old daughter is upset about the move. Her beekeeper dad is a humorous handful. Her mom is overworked and overwhelmed. Finances are stretched tight. And, according to her father, the neighbors are nothing but trouble.

Despite all of these challenges, Jewel takes on one more when she convinces her parents to turn their decrepit farmhouse into a B&B in order to make some needed money. Her old high school flame turned contractor steps in to help, but Jewel isn’t sure she can really trust him. And those “troublesome” neighbors? The handsome widower and his teenage daughter just might be the key to making all this work.

My Thoughts

This is a somewhat humorous and totally empathetic look at a family dealing with the dad having dementia and all of the problems that result from his illness. Jewell returns home to help out her mom with her dad and decides that changes have to be made and quickly in order to keep him safer. The two-story house that her parents have lived in for years will not work any longer for a man who continues to stumble and fall, so she resolves to turn the old house into a B & B and install her parents on a new manufactured home on the property nearby. The determination of Jewel to help her parents is heartwarming, even if she does seem to move faster than they can keep up with. I really enjoyed the multi-layered plot, with a teen daughter not wanting to move and having to establish new friendships, a mom with her own health problems, a neighbor who is helpful and kind but whom her dad does not like and a former classmate who is trying to strike up a new romance. Jewell manages to keep her eyes on her goal, get the help she needs and awakens to new insight into the lives of her parents and some self-discovery truths, too. I liked the dynamics between the realistic characters and the way they each had their own individual strengths that made the well-paced story work so well. I liked Jewell’s ability to think outside of the box and to be willing to make sacrifices for herself and Cooper in order to help out her parents. This is a wonderful story, with a hint of romance and a lot of love for family on every well-written page.
Disclaimer: I voluntarily received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. I was not required to write a positive review and all opinions expressed are my own honest ones.

About the Author

Melody Carlson has written more than 200 books (with sales around 6.5 million) for teens, women and children. That’s a lot of books, but mostly she considers herself a “storyteller.” Her novels range from serious issues like schizophrenia (Finding Alice) to lighter topics like house-flipping (A Mile in My Flip-Flops) but most of the inspiration behind her fiction comes right out of real life. Her young adult novels (Diary of a Teenage Girl, TrueColors etc.) appeal to teenage girls around the world. Her annual Christmas novellas become more popular each year. She’s won a number of awards (including Romantic Time’s Career Achievement Award, the Rita and the Gold Medallion) and some of her books have been optioned for film/TV. Carlson has two grown sons and makes her home in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and yellow Lab dog.

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