Homecoming (Mass Market Paperback)

by Jill Marie Landis (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
For the first time, Eyes-of-the-Sky prayed to the white man's God. One look in the mirror told her she was not a Comanche…yet she remembered no other life. She watched the whites who had taken her in after her "rescue," the mother, Hattie, and her handsome son, Joe, and wondered what her life had been like before her childhood abduction. She looked at Joe, who had suffered much and forgave little, and knew longing in her heart. But questions remained: What am I? Who am I?

Jill Marie Landis weaves an unforgettable story about a young woman adrift in two worlds, and her courageous journey to discovery, belonging and love.…

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Steeple Hill (July 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0373786247
• ISBN-13: 978-0373786244
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 3.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #438,073 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An exceptional tale from a gifted storyteller, July 7, 2008

By	Cheryl St.John "Cheryl St.John" (the Midwest USA) - See all my reviews

Honestly, I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a book as much as I enjoyed HOMECOMING. It's been a long time since one of my favorite authors wrote a book in my favorite genre and drew me into the characters the way Jill does with this story.

A fish out of water or an underdog are my favorite characters. Jill does it all here: emotional trauma, motivating backstory, worlds colliding, humor and family drama, all wrapped up in her captivating style that takes the reader right into the lives and emotions of her story people.

This is a single title Steeple Hill Historical, which means it's longer, with room to explore the hero and heroine and fleshed out secondary characters.

Jill won RWA's Golden Heart award for her first book, SUNFLOWER. It was published in 1988 and I've been a fan ever since. This is one fangirl who is delighted that JILL MARIE LANDIS returned to her roots in this outstanding western tale of love and faith.

The good news? She has more westerns coming our way!

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Author's first inspirational romance is an enjoyable read, June 28, 2008

By	Esperanza (Tallahassee, FL USA) - See all my reviews

As a long-time fan of Jill Marie Landis, I was looking forward to finally reading her first foray into inspirational romance. Overall, this was an enjoyable (though fairly forgettable) novel.

First, the story. Hattie Ellenberg and her son Joe have lost two family members to a Comanche raid. Hattie herself suffered an "attempted scalping" during the raid, and Joe suffers huge amounts of guilt because he'd been in town preparing to engage in nefarious activities when the raid took place. For some reason, after the attack, the entire town ostracizes the Ellenbergs, especially Hattie, though it was never explained why. Maybe it is historically correct that families who'd been attacked by Indians would have been labeled outcasts from then on, but I would have liked to have been told WHY. There was never any kind of flashback that would tell us what really happened to Hattie; that was kind of bothersome and made it seem like their outcast status was really just some kind of plot device.

The Ellenbergs are asked to take in a white woman who had been captured by Comanches and lived as one for most of her life. There is lots of nice tension and conflict there, because the woman, Eyes-of-the-Sky, believes she is truly Comanche and wants to go back to her Comanche family, even though she is more and more drawn to Hattie and Joe and their way of life.

The faith elements of the story are very well done. They fit in nicely with the rest of the story and seemed fitting for the time period/setting of the novel. I think Jill Marie Landis did an especially nice job of showing how Eyes-of-the-Sky came to rediscover the faith she'd held as a small child. Joe, too, learns to trust the Lord again. But nothing is over-the-top, preachy, or syrupy sweet.

As for the actual writing, structure, technique, etc. Well. There is a glaringly distracting (confusing, even) typo in the VERY FIRST PARAGRAPH of the book. I have a feeling this was not the author's fault but probably happened during the typesetting or some such thing to do with the publishing process. Steeple Hill should be more careful about things like that.

If you can get past that, the rest of the novel reads pretty smoothly. The story is told from three points of view (but in third person), and there is a lot of overlap in recounting the various scenes, which sometimes gets tedious. Hattie calls Joe "son" way too much, which got on my nerves. And at a certain point in the novel, we were in Eyes-of-the-Sky's point of view, yet the author kept referring to her as "the girl." Who thinks of herself as "the girl"? That was distracting.

There are a few inconsistencies in the book, too. For instance, at one point a character is described as having green eyes, then later her eyes are called "dark." If they were dark green, fine, but we hadn't been given that info beforehand. Another time, Eyes-of-the-Sky "started crying even harder." Except that we hadn't been told she was crying in the first place! Mistakes like that pull the reader out of the story and make us aware that there are other things we could be doing---washing dishes, folding laundry.

There are LOTS of other characters in this book who Jill Marie Landis could tell stories about. This could be a whole series. I'd love to see Hattie Ellenberg, Jesse Dye, Amelia Hawthorne, Reverend McCormick, Charity McCormick, and Laura Foster all find true love.

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful, heartwarming book, May 27, 2009

By	Liz M (Oregon) - See all my reviews

Homecoming is one of my favorite books of all time. The story line was unique and well written. The character's emotions leapt off the page. Jill Marie Landis has always been an amazing talent, but Homecoming is by far my favorite of hers. Joe and Eyes of the Sky both have such painful histories, it was a true to joy to follow their journey to overcoming their pain and finding love together. When I got to the end of the book I cried from happiness. That is the highest compliment I can give a book.