Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Full of laughs and will generate tears, June 27, 2005
Cassie is returning home to Walton, Georgia after a 15-year self-imposed exile from her family, after her sister Harriet ran off and eloped with Cassie's beau. Harriet and Joe now have five children that Cassie has never met. Now a successful advertising executive, with a fiance of her own, she returns home in time to say goodbye to her dying father, who in a last ditch effort to patch things up between the two sisters, has willed his home and all its possessions to Cassie in hopes that she'll return for good.
Cassie is reticent to see her sister, and still has ambivalent feelings for Joe. But what she doesn't count on is her feelings for old pal, Sam, who once was the class geek, and is now the respected town doctor. Sam has always had a crush on Cassie, but never revealed his true feelings (and when he does, he packs an emotional wallop). She is hoping to sell the house quickly and return to her fiance and her life in Manhattan; Sam has other ideas, as he tries to create a preservationist group to keep developers from turning her home into commercial property.
This story is so well written, and packed with so much humor and emotion, that it easily garners 5 stars. White manages to make you feel for the characters, and really relate to them (though Andrew was a bit one dimensional). And just when you think you know what is going to happen, a twist comes in to throw you off (though the supposed mystery really is not a mystery - you see that coming a mile away). I finished the book in a single day - I just couldn't put it down. It is very rare that a novel can elicit tears from a reader. "Falling Home" does that and more. It'll make you laugh, and it'll make you cry, but most of all, it will make you want to reconcile with your siblings. The Walton saga continues with "After the Rain."
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's never too late for love to heal., May 31, 2002
By A Customer
Karen White writes from the heart to bring you a story of love and forgiveness when a young woman returns to her small hometown and finds that what she really wants and values in life is there and not in New York's distant avenues. You will laugh and you will cry as Cassie discovers true love with an old friend and builds new bridges over old hurts with her sister. Cassie is a modern heorine who learns that for her, being "keeper of the hearts," is the most important job she can have.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Falling Home is Real and it has Heart, August 15, 2002
It's rare that I am moved to tears when reading a book. Movies can often make me cry but books, almost never. Falling Home managed to reduce me to tears but that is certainly not why I loved this story and it is not my criteria for what constitutes a great book. But when a book can elicit that kind of emotional response from me it's because the story is well written, it's real and it has heart. Cassie Madison has spent 15 years in Manhattan building an enviable and powerful career in advertising. She hadn't spoken to her younger sister, Harriet, in those years since Harriet ran off and married the love of Cassie's life. During her absence Cassie kept in touch with her father and would meet him in Atlanta for a weekend once a year but refused to return to her hometown of Walton. Cassie believes she has outgrown the small town life and has become a big city snob. The story begins when Cassie must return to Walton after receiving a phone call from her sister with the news that their father is dying. Cassie leaves Manhattan, her job and her fiancé, Andrew, to return to Walton to see her father for the last time. After arriving in Walton one of the first people Cassie meets is the town doctor, Dr. Sam Parker, one of her childhood friends. Sam is no longer the nerdy, goofy kid she knew but has morphed into an incredibly gorgeous hunk and one of the towns most loved and respected citizens. There are surprises, mysteries, and twists in this book that kept me reading until 4:30 a.m. on more then one night. I could not put this book down! There is hardly an emotion that isn't played on in this story about returning home, old hurts and heartbreak, growing up, letting go, learning what is really important in life and finding one's heart. Karen White's first book, In the Shadow of the Moon, convinced me that she is an author whose books I will always look forward to reading and re-reading. Falling Home contains the excellent character development, story line, twists and turns and emotional depth that Ms. White consistently creates in her work. Those who read her work will not be disappointed and will ultimately become fans.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Run,, don't walk, for this book
Welcome to Walton,Georgia, with all it's quirky, flawed, but, oh so lovable residents.This book is a wonderful mix of southern fiction & romance, with a little mystery thrown in,...
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Published on February 23, 2003 by bookexchangemarietta
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