Customer Reviews

Follow the Stars Home

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

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

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.

This was my first opportunity to read a Luanne Rice book. Once I began it was hard to put the book down. The characters came to life and left you wanting to know more about each one. I enjoyed the switching back and forth between various character's stories - current and present. The two questions I had were what finally brought Diane to the fact after 12 years of indifference that she was in love with her brother-in-law. Although it was a beautiful love story it seemed to have elements missing. The biggest disappointment to me was the ending. Although it was sweet - I really wanted to know what really happen to these two characters - did they get married, did they have children, what happen to Amy and Diane's mother??

I would have liked to see the author place a 2-3 page Epilogue to round out the story.

This is the first Luanne Rice book I've read, and I'm very worried. It appears that my wallet will become lighter after buying more of her books! Just by reading the previews, you 'think' you know how it will turn out, but it left me surprised at the end. I can't say I shed tears over it, but it did pull on my heart strings! Very wonderfully written; very descriptive, and all the details make you feel apart of the story. I've been to many of the locations mentioned, and she's nailed them down right to the bends in the road. I highly recommend this book for those rainy days when all you want to do is read a good book.

This book will take your breath away! The characters were written so well, I felt like I knew them myself. Dianne is an incredible person, the unconditional love she gives her daughter Julia, who was born with birth defects. Her strong heart for over coming the blow of her husband Tim leaving her when Julia was born. If I could have had a word with Tim myself, I would have blown him out of this world! At first when I started reading this story, I thought, "This is so cheesy", but man, I changed tunes about half way through the book. Amy's character will warm your heart and take you by surprise as well as Lucinda. Even though the story is really about Dianne and Julia, the others fit in so well and make it seem so heart warming. I have to admit, Alan, Tims brother almost seems to good to be true. Get your tissues ready and enjoy a heart warming story. The end will simply make you cry - Julia's Story. Some how I felt so much better about how Julia felt and what she really understood after I read the ending, you will absolutely close this book and think about it for days, It is definetly a story of "Following the Stars Home",as difficult as it was, Dianne did, she followed her heart!!!

The most impressive thing about Luanne Rice's writing lies in her ability to tell a lovely, poignant story using characters you feel you have met somewhere before. In "Follow the Stars Home," a realistic human situation provides the opportunity for the author to take a look at love from several perspectives.

Dianne Robbins, initially attracted to Alan, a charming and upstanding young doctor, is wooed away by his brother, Tim, who is battling his own personal demons. Dianne falls into the common trap of thinking she can save a man by marrying and loving him and chooses Tim over Alan. Tim ends up breaking her heart by leaving her pregnant with their severely handicapped child. Wary of men, she spends the next eleven years lavishing her tremendous capacity to love on her handicapped daughter, Julia. All this time, Alan, who has secretly loved her, has maintained a steadfast devotion to Dianne and Julia and has become their guardian angel.

In an effort to help both Diane and Amy, a troubled young girl, Alan brings Amy into Diane's life to assist with Julia. This placement ends up being positive for everyone involved and allows the author to explore another facet of the healing power of love. I found this story beautiful and honest and not sappy at all until the author decided to write that atrocious ending.

This brings me to my criticisms of this book, mostly in the area of mechanics:

Luanne Rice doesn't appear to trust her readers' intelligence. This is the only reason I can think of that she would repeat descriptions almost verbatim throughout her book. This is terribly annoying and distracts from the story. How much more satisfying to read a description ONCE then be shown in the remainder of the book how these initial descriptions affect the behavior and/or perceptions of this character by others.

I have seen this next problem in other well-known authors--Research. What is wrong with basic research? The constellation Orion figures heavily in this book. It would seem to me that with a couple of clicks of the mouse on the Internet, she could manage to find out that Stella the cat could not be sitting at a window looking up at Orion in the summer as Orion is visible at night in North America only between December and March.

My biggest problem, however, is with the ending. It was designed to preach at us--making certain we understand once and for all that Julia is a fully sentient human being. Rice did a far, far better job with this objective by developing it slowly over the course of the book. We see Julia through Amy's eyes. Despite her rough edges, Amy is kind and caring and not willing to accept the limitations even Diane sees in her daughter. Diane's love for her daughter is tenderness bordering on desperation. Amy, however, helps us to validate Julia as a fully realized person because she validates her. We did not need the spiel at the end. It did not tie up any loose ends since nearly all of the information had been given out earlier and Julia's comments do nothing to assure us of Amy and Diane's full recovery or the fate of Amy's mother, which would be new information at this point. It would have been much easier to swallow this tell-not-show summary if it was written as Julia's reminiscences of perhaps a year later following the patients' recovery and the subsequent wedding and life in the new house. This is a great story not managed as well as it could have been, but still worth reading.

Our book club chose this book from a list of others not being familiar with the author. It was definitely a favorite out of the 10 books we have read since the beginning of our club. Everyone felt a connection to the story and were unable to put it down. It is a quick read and when you're done you want to have another book to pick up immediately because you become so involved in the story and in reading - you hate to have it end.

I would highly recommend reading this book. The ending is a blessing to all who read it!

I read this book soon after a friend gave me a copy of Cloud Nine. I like Luanne Rice's writing style, which is very similar to that of Nicholas Sparks who is my favorite author of fiction. I sometimes find it hard to get going with novels, but this one held my attention. Maybe because I had a child with spina bifida who passed on, but I believe the whole story will capture your attention and heart. The characters are likeable, even when they are supposed to be "bad". It flowed nicely and didn't drag on and on. My only disappointment was the ending, which I felt could have been wrapped up a little more completely. I look forward to Ms. Rice's next novel

This book is not the typical novel that I normally read. I read it for something different than the everyday romance novel. I will most definately be looking for more books by Luanne Rice. This book was so real in the emotions that the characters portrayed. I truely felt for Dianne and Julia when I read how cruel Tim had been to them. I felt bad for Alan having to live and see the women that he loved week after week. I really felt for Amy, having a mother she loved, who didn't have enough self-worth to save herself to help the girl that she loved. I was happy to see that almost everyone got what made them happy in the end. Unlike others who read this book, I didn't shead a tear, but I felt the book was very heartfelt and the emotions real.