Review -- N.J. Walters's THE WAY HOME

The Way Home is a classic marriage of convenience book -- the hero Jake has inherited his orphaned niece after the death of his brother and sister-in-law, and he needs a wife. The heroine Rebecca has loved her best friend Jake for years and sees the marriage as a chance she can't turn down.

However, just as Jake's proposal isn't what Rebecca had always dreamed of -- a business-like proposition rather than a hearts & flowers offer -- the marriage throws her for a few loops. Jake's not immune from the emotional turmoil either, as he tries to adjust to sharing his home and life after years spent alone.

Like I said, a classic MOC plot, but once I started reading, I couldn't put the story down. I love watching a rather clueless hero come to his senses about his feelings, and Walters delivers that in Jake. He's not perfect, and his tendency to speak before considering Rebecca's POV results in his hurting her more than once. But he redeems himself quite well as he realizes his love for her, how close he's come to losing her through his own actions, and sets out to make it right.

Rebecca is a quietly strong heroine, and Walters paints her with very realistic strokes -- I could envision myself responding much the same as Rebecca does in several situations.

The pacing of the book drags some at the beginning, with backstory revealed through chunks of character thought, and I would have liked to have seen more of Jake's feelings for Rebecca layered in during his early POV scenes . . . however, as a whole, The Way Home is a fantastic read, earning three stars on this teacher's grading scale.