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Follow the Stars Home [Mass Market Paperback]

Luanne Rice (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)

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Book Description

January 2, 2001
Acclaimed novelist Luanne Rice "touches the deepest, most tender corners of the heart" (Tami Hoag, author of A Thin Dark Line). Her stories remind us how precious and fragile life can be—and that we must risk our hearts every day to know happiness. Follow the Stars Home is just such a novel: a story of poignancy and heartbreak, grace and courage.

Being a good mother is never simple: each day brings new choices and challenges. For Dianne Robbins, being a devoted single mother has resulted in her greatest joy and her darkest hours. Weeks before her daughter was born, she and her husband, Tim McIntosh, received the news every parent fears. Tim had not reckoned on their child being anything less than perfect, and abruptly fled to a solitary existence on the sea, leaving Dianne with a newborn—almost alone.

It was Tim's brother, Alan, the town pediatrician, who stood by Dianne and her exceptional daughter. Throughout years of waiting, watching, and caring, Alan hid his love for his brother's wife. But one of the many hard choices Dianne has made is to close her heart toward any man—especially one named McIntosh. It will take a very special twelve-year-old to remind them all that love comes in many forms and can be received with as much grace as it is given.

As lyrical and moving as the poetry of nature, Follow the Stars Home is a miracle of storytelling that will take your breath away. If words alone can dare us to confront our fears and to choose joy over sorrow, then Luanne Rice's magnificent novel is a benediction and a call to celebrate our lives.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

With a startling sensitivity for human tragedy and the ability of the heart to heal, Luanne Rice has written a moving account of one woman's internal journey in Follow the Stars Home. Married young to Tim McIntosh, a passionate and charismatic fisherman with a troubled heart, Dianne Robbins expects a future full of happiness, security, and love. But when tests reveal that their unborn baby is severely disabled, Tim sails off for calmer waters. Faced with the responsibilities of raising her daughter Julia, Dianne finds support in Tim's brother Alan and her own mother Lucinda.

A decade later, Dianne has mastered the demands of nursing Julia and swears her life is completely fulfilled by these tasks. When Alan introduces Amy Brooks, a young and troubled girl, into Dianne's life, Dianne finds her heart opening and stretching in new and positive ways. As her mother Lucinda explains, "The biggest mistake any of us can make is thinking that love is a feeling, an emotion. It's not that at all. It's an action." And Dianne struggles over the choice to love again.

Beautifully written with exquisite moments of tranquility, Follow the Stars Home describes the multiple ways that love can be acted. With a dash of suspense included, this novel will keep readers' fingers flipping through the pages as fast as they can. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Sufferers are transformed by the transcendent power of love in Rice's (Cloud Nine) uplifting if flawed new family relationship drama. Life has not proved easy for single mom Dianne Robbins, of Gull Point, Conn. Abandoned by her husband, lobsterman Tim McIntosh, just before their daughter Julia was born with spina bifida and Rett syndrome--a debilitating physical condition and an autism-like disorder, respectively--Dianne supports herself and Julia by building children's playhouses. At the age of 11, Julia weighs 29 pounds, and there is no guarantee she will live much longer; yet she has a magical radiance. Despite the difficulties of caring for a severely disabled child, Dianne is never bitter, and her relationship with Julia is hope filled and loving. Dianne had also believed that her strong love would repair Tim's damaged self-esteem and save their marriage. Now she is wary of getting involved with a man again. But Tim's brother, Alan, who also happens to be Julia's pediatrician, has been secretly in love with Dianne for years, and his steadfast devotion may be just what she needs. Meanwhile, Amy Brook, an adorable 12-year-old from a troubled family (and a familiar device in Rice's novels), finds sanctuary in the Robbins household and becomes Julia's best friend; through Amy's example, Dianne finally understands what true love means. The author takes an unaccustomed shortcut when she reveals the plot's conclusion through heretofore silent Julia's thoughts. Had Rice interwoven Julia's reactions throughout the book, the final chapter would not seem a quick device to tie up loose ends. Still, the novel's theme--love's miraculous ability to heal--has the ingredients to warm readers' hearts. Major ad/promo. (Feb.) FYI: Rice's Cloud Nine will be released as a mass market paperback in January.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 496 pages
  • Publisher: Bantam; 1 edition (January 2, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0553581023
  • ISBN-13: 978-0553581027
  • Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 1 x 6.8 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #966,152 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

LUANNE RICE is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-nine novels, most recently The Silver Boat. Her books, including Cloud Nine and Dream Country, often center on love, family, nature and the sea, and have been translated into twenty-four languages. A number of Rice's novels have been adapted for television, including Crazy in Love for TNT, Blue Moon for CBS, the Hallmark Hall of Fame presentations of Follow the Stars Home and Silver Bells, and Beach Girls as a summer drama series for Lifetime Television. She has contributed a theatrical piece to the new off Broadway play Motherhood Out Loud. Rice loves nature and frequently writes about it. Born in New Britain, Connecticut, Rice divides her time between New York City and Old Lyme, Connecticut, in the house where she spent all her childhood summers.

 

Customer Reviews

58 Reviews
5 star:
 (27)
4 star:
 (16)
3 star:
 (8)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (5)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (58 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Luanne Rice is MAGIC....., March 13, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Follow the Stars Home (Hardcover)
I love romance novels but I hate tear-jerkers. I won't read a story if I know it's going to make me cry. Luanne Rice's previous book, Cloud Nine, was absolutely wonderful even though I cried buckets over it. (I didn't know that it was going to be that sad.) Even though this new book, Follow the Stars Home is magical, I must warn you that it also has a few tears. The characters - Alan, Dianne, Lucinda, Amy, Julia, Tim - are all so real, you don't want to let them go when the book is finished. The plot is pure soap opera: woman marries the "wrong" brother, bears a disabled child, husband leaves, while angelic doctor-brother lovingly and patiently waits in the wings to take over from irresponsible brother. Small scenes are full of love and caring; big dramatic scenes make you catch your breath in fear and apprehension. This book is far above a standard romance. Rice is truly gifted and talented and I will continue to read her with great joy, even knowing there's bound to be some teary moments.
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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Very inspiring relationship drama, February 1, 2000
This review is from: Follow the Stars Home (Hardcover)
Lobsterman Tim McIntosh worked the New England coast. He loved his wife Dianne, but could not deal with the sickly child that was born to them. Instead, Tim abandoned his spouse and little Julia. She sufferers from illnesses that leave her physically and mentally dying from birth. Perhaps because he loves Dianne or just feels bad by his sibling's abandonment, Tim's brother Alan constantly is there for Dianne and Julia. Alan's actions add to the guilty feelings and shame that fill Tim's heart, but his soul cannot take the steps needed to reconcile with his beloved wife nor shower his child with the love she needs.

As Dianne supports herself and Julia, she meets a troubled twelve-year old Amy Brook, who becomes a little sister to her. Amy helps Dianne fully understand what love is all about, but will Tim ever learn the same lesson before it is too late?

FOLLOW THE STARS HOME focuses on the meaning of love and its capacity to meliorate many human frailties. Dianne, Tim, and Amy seem very real because their characters are fully developed. The audience will dislike what Tim did, but understand his actions and frustrations. Reader's empathy towards Julia will gush throughout the novel. This emotion on the part of the audience shows how talented Luanne Rice is in sensitizing her fans, though for most of the novel the audience "sees" the ailing child through the eyes of the other characters. Using Julia's thoughts as a climax leads to a feeling that this was a contrived closing but Ms. Rice reaches inside our very hearts and souls with an inspiring novel that reflects on how precious but fleeting is life.

Harriet Klausner

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars TRUE MEANING THE WORD "LOVE", March 12, 2000
This review is from: Follow the Stars Home (Hardcover)
I have read stories of people turning a truly bad life situation into an inspiration for us all, but Luanne Rice has accomplished the ultimate with this book. This was a first Rice book for me, but I am here to purchase more. Her ability to weave the lives of her various characters and mingle their individual personalities, weaknesses, and most of all strengths is struly inspiring. Her love for her disabled child, and I question that word disabled when it comes to Julia, and her ability to include another "well in body, not spirit in child" into her life made me reevaluate what it means to be a mother. Dianne is the epitome of what I consider the word mother and also daughter to mean. Alan was what all fathers should be defined as. Rice is a genius with story and words.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Follow the Stars Home, Luanne Rice, New York, Nova Scotia, Tess Brooks, Malachy Condon, Dianne Robbins, Prince Edward Island, The Nutcracker, Lucinda Robbins, Anne of Green Gables, Cape Cod, Julia Dianne, Marla Arden, Amy Brooks, Gull Point, Alan Dianne, Thames Street, Jetty Beach, David Bagwell, Tim Alan, Julia Amy
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