Very enjoyable read about love, loss and the importance of family. It kept me captivated until the last page.

This is my first book of the author’s and was very impressed with how easy it was to follow.

Thank you for the advanced reader’s copy.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
I read When We Believed in Mermaids almost 2 years ago and loved jt so when I saw Barbara was re-releasing a bunch of her older books I got them all on NetGalley and set a goal to finish each before the release date (we’ll see how I do)
I didn’t LOVE this book all throughout and felt it was fairly predictable but I loved the ending which made me change to a 5 star rating 🩷 I am the Jewel of my family. Luckily my dad still loves me and I didn’t make all the mistakes she did but I live far away while my siblings and parents live in the same state. I’m the oldest of 3 and single, no kids, while my siblings are all settled down. All that to say I really had an emotional connection to this book. I loved how Jewel and Shane had a found family with Michael, love how she comes home and realizes how much she missed it, love her reconnecting with her dad when she needed and oh my gosh do I love her with Malachi. Very excited for the rest of the re-releases!

I really enjoyed this book. It was different than anything else I've read recently. I couldn't put it down! I will keep an eye out for this author's future work!

This was a well-written, wonderful book. It's about family, love, forgiveness, being yourself, and returning home after a long time away. While reading this book, I laughed, I cried, and I fell in love. This was an amazing book.

Can you go home again? Jewel Sabatino is going to find out. Jewel has been estranged from her father for over 20 years, according to him, Jewel disgraced and dishonored him and her family when she ran off with a musician, Billy, when she was 17 years old. She has had minimal contact with her mother and three sisters, however she has not seen them. It's time to return home when Jewel inherits her Aunt's home and her friend Michael needs a place with fresh air and peace to cope with his terminal illness. Jewel, Michael and Jewel's 17 year old son, Shane pack up, leaving behind the City and moving to Pueblo, Colorado.
No Place Like Home by Barbara O'Neal is a lovely book about families, friendships, reconciliations and love. There were times I laughed out loud, and times when I cried. I highly recommend No Place Like Home, and thank NetGalley, Lake Union Publishing and Barbara O'Neal for the opportunity to read an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Jewel Sabatino ran away from home when she was seventeen, and went to New York, all because of a boy. Now, her son is seventeen, that boy she fell head-over-heels in love with is dead, and her best friend Michael is dying. When she receives a surprising inheritance - her aunt’s Pueblo farm and one hundred acres of land - Jewel knows it is time to return home, and bring Michael with her so he can live out his final days somewhere comfortable and serene. The only sticking point is Jewel's father. He still hasn't forgiven her for running away all those years ago, and he may never forgive her. Jewel isn't sure she is ready to face him, either. When Michael's brother Malachi rides into town to be with Michael during his final days, Jewel finds that he may be the one to heal her heart as well.

I adored Jewel. I really rooted for her, and wanted her entire family to accept her back into the fold. It broke my heart the way her father treated her once she came back home. My heart hurt for Michael as well. He was dying from AIDS and it was especially hard to read about his not wanting to die in a hospital, as he was hooked up to a respirator when he had pneumonia. This book is perfect for fans of Nora Roberts and Adriana Trigiani.

No Place Like Home is a story of returning home after leaving as a teenager some twenty years before. Barbara O'Neal gives the reader a rich emotional story of forgiveness, reconnections for the older, connections for the younger, personal growth and remembering not only the difficult times growing up but the many good times too. Jewel comes home to Colorado with teenage son in tow, mostly because a late aunt left her a farm and land. Her close friend Michael needs care and a peaceful place now. So home she goes.

Family reunited and created family is so much a part of this story with traditions, sisters, loving mother. Father is a different story but in life isn’t there usually one or two suborn ones. Jewel’s story will touch your heart, remind you of your own journey in life and inspire you to continue growing. Read today.

No Place Like Home by Barbara O'Neal is a revised edition and I’m so glad I was able to read such a stunning story.
Barbara sucks you into her characters and her descriptions making you want to stay there with them and connect to them.
The pages of this book are filled with love; loss and the bonds of family and friends.
O'Neal described each characters so well.
The story is very well written and will keep you engrossed in its pages without even realizing where the time has gone when you finish reading it.
Overall, this was a wonderful, very engrossing story,
It is an uplifting, satisfying book, and I’m glad I finally got to read it!

Thank You NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

Jewell Sabatino returns home after 20 plus years with a teenage son and her ailing best friend in tow, Home is Pueblo Colorado a tight knit Sicilian community where everyone knows your name. This prodigal daughter left her large Italian family at 17 by jumping on the back of her musician boyfriend’s motorcycle and heading to New York City. Scandals are not easily forgotten or forgiven and that sets up a lot Jewells emotional journey. How do you return and still be true to yourself?
Barbara O’Neal writes women’s fiction well and I thoroughly enjoyed this story. Forgiveness and second chances play heavily here along with a major dose of new found love. This is a reissue of an older book and so glad I had the opportunity to read it. Thanks to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing.

From the first lines of Barbara O'Neal's NO PLACE LIKE HOME, my heart was drawn into the tight-knit family and life of Jewel Sabatino, long gone from the family business and the land of Pueblo, Colorado, where her Sicilian ancestors settled and built a new life. As always, O'Neal's dialogue is spot on, her descriptions enticing (I'm craving blueberry pie), and her characters fully dimensional, totally believable individuals. I deeply enjoyed this story of returning to place where you started with your child and a dear friend and making it your home once again. I received a copy of this book and these opinions are my own, unbiased thoughts.

Not my favorite Barbara O'Neal by a mile - I found it very hard to swallow the circumstances that still found the MC estranged from her father and the commentary on the life of the sister about to be married and it made me not want to read the book - but in the end, it was still readable.

Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review

At face value, this is a book about friendship and family. I wasn’t counting on how slow it would be for me to get through. Or that it’s a re-release, originally published in 2002. The romance part of the plot was the least appealing to me. From the minute Jewel meets Malachi, she just wants to have sex with him. Includes several descriptive scenes which I skipped over. Some of their conversations were cringe worthy.

The best part of the book is the friendship Jewel has with Michael, who is a gay man dying from AIDS. Jewel takes him in to care for him during his last days. Michael is also Malachi’s brother. I’m sad to say that I just didn’t enjoy this book. It seems to have been popular through the years though. I don’t know what parts are original. This version includes some recipes. I buddy read this book with my friend Lindsey, and she tried one of the recipes and her family enjoyed it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for an advance electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, I don’t think I’ve ever cried so much while reading a book! This story really brought out all the emotions in me. Barbara O’Neal is quickly working her way on to my favorite authors list. No Place Like Home is the story of Jewel Sabatino. She’s the oldest daughter of 4 girls in a very large Italian Catholic family. She breaks all the traditional rules by running off with a young musician named Billy during her last year of high school. Because of this she has brought shame to her father Romeo and he will have nothing to do with her. It’s Billy’s band mate Michael who becomes her best friend and confidant in life. After Billy’s drug related death, Michael, who has already lost his gay partner, becomes sick with AIDS. Jewel along with Michael and her teenage son Shane return to Pueblo, Colorado to live in a house that she’s inherited from her deceased Aunt. It’s there that she tries to rebuild her life by making amends with her family and starting her own pie baking business. She does this all while taking care of her sick friend Michael and keeping her wayward son on the straight and narrow. It’s then that Malachi, Michael’s younger and very hunky brother enters the picture. He has come to spend time with Michael during his last days here on Earth. This was a wonderful story of friendship, of finding forgiveness, and of finding true and lasting love. It’s a book I don’t think I’ll ever forget reading because it really touched my heart! I’d like to thank Lake Union Publishing and NetGalley for the arc that I obtained off the Read Now section. This was a beautiful story, one I truly enjoyed reading and highly recommend. I’m giving it a much deserved 5 star rating and am looking forward to reading more books by Barbara O’Neal very soon!

I loved this book.
It was beautifully written. The characters plus setting were well-rounded.
The whole theme of the book was, to me, homecoming and acceptance and family.
There were times I had to put the book down as there were too many tears to see clearly.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this book.

It's always a pleasure to read Barbara O'Neal's books. It's like sitting on a porch overlooking the beach with an iced coffee and enjoying the breeze. The stories are always smooth, natural, and easy to relate to.

This novel features Jewel, who hasn't been home in years after a falling out with some family members. She returns for an inheritance and learns what it means to have a home and family that loves her.

The novel was more of a standard romance than I realized it would be, although it tries to combine that with a sentimental story about sickness and healing and seem more serious. I found it hard to root for Jewel. She doesn't seem to have learned too much in her time away, and she's obsessed with a new man in town. That's where it veers from romantic to very detailed intimacy scenes, which isn't really my vibe.

Fans of the author will love this book, as will fans of this general genre.

I would give 3 stars for the plot, and 4 stars for the author's excellent writing style, which I'll average out to 3.5 rounded up to 4.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for an advanced copy for review.

This is a reissue of a novel originally published in 2002 and I wonder if I would have enjoyed it more had I read it then. It's mostly a tale of family and it did engage me but it didn't pull at my heartstrings the way it has affected others. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I was excited to see this book. I read Barbara O’Neils last two books and really enjoyed them. I was disappointed to find out that it is a re-release of a title originally published in 2014.

WHAT I LIKE ABOUT THE BOOK:
The storyline is good. Jewel has returned home to Colorado after estrangement for 20 years. She had burned some family bridges with her departure. Now she has returned to family.

There are recipes between some chapters. One is for an apple pie with crushed ginger snaps as the crust. It sounds delicious.

It is April, we celebrate Earth Day. I love that Jewel has a garden and grows her herbs for cooking. She has a wonderful garden that she inherited from her aunt.

The writing style is good. There are passages describing Jewel's hometown in spring and summer. The descriptions evoked pictures in my mind. It also shows that the author is on the right road and that she is capable. The previous two books I read prove that.

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE ABOUT THE BOOK:
It has a lot of fluffy romance in it. I don’t want a couple of pages detailing a make-out session. And, I don't want to read about Jewel's constant lusty thoughts.

Jewel is very self-deprecating about herself, constantly. She has no self-confidence. I prefer a stronger woman as a lead character.

Instead of a recipe, a Devotional (Homily) from Pope Saint Gregory appeared between 2 chapters. WTF? I have no idea if it was relevant to the storyline. I didn't read it even though it was only a page long.

MY SUMMARY:
Not every book is for every reader. If you don't mind pages of a make-out session, and many mentions of lusting, then it might be the book for you. I liked the family aspect of the story. I liked the setting of the story. And the descriptive writing was good.

But, sadly, this book was not for this reader. A disappointment after looking forward to it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the Advance Readers Copy.

No Place Like Home
Barbara O’Neal
April 09, 2024

This is an incredible story of Jewel Sabatino,the Italian, Catholic daughter who left home at seventeen on a day when her beloved Billy picked her up from school. Her father has never forgiven her for leaving her family, her mother was heartbroken. Billy took off on his motorcycle with her.They traveled while he and friends performed in a band. Jewel became pregnant and after giving birth to Shane, she and Billy led a life without her family in Colorado.
No Place Like Home will be published on April 09, 2024 by Lake Union Publishing. I was able to read the ARC via NetGalley. I appreciate Lake Union allowing me to read and review O’Neal’s latest edition of No Place LIke Home. It is a fabulous tale of her return to live in her Aunt Sylvia’s home in Pueblo. When she inherited the farm after her auntie’s passing, Jewel packed up Shane, her best friend,Michael and took the train to relocate. It’s a journey into the incredible cast of family characters that influence and love her back into the family. It’s excellent, don’t pass this one by. Enjoy!

"Barbara Neal's 'No Place Like Home' is a heartwarming journey that envelops readers in a warm embrace of nostalgia and hope. Through vivid storytelling and relatable characters, Neal effortlessly transports us to a world where love, family, and the meaning of 'home' take center stage. With every turn of the page, I found myself drawn deeper into the lives of the characters, rooting for their triumphs and empathizing with their struggles. Neal's writing is both tender and uplifting, reminding us that amidst life's uncertainties, the bonds of family and the comforts of home are constants we can always rely on. 'No Place Like Home' is a delightful read that leaves a lasting impression, reminding us all that indeed, there's truly no place like home."

Thank you to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book.

This is a story of love and loss. It’s a bit of an emotional story that will have you reaching for the Kleenex. I really like this author’s book but this one just wasn’t my favorite
Thanks to the author and Netgalley for the early copy