Cover Image: Going Home

Going Home

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Member Reviews

This book is truly fantastic! The journey of Lettie from age 18 to being a mother and then Grandmother is phenomenal. I devoured this book in one sitting. The love and loss in this book are heartwrenching.
The book is so well written, the characters so real. To say I loved this book is an understatement!

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Going Home by Judith Keim is a beautiful story about friends, family, and overcoming struggles while building a beautiful life.
Author Judith Keim does an amazing job making you fall in love with Violet (Letti) Hawkins. This is an amazing book!

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I have such mixed feelings about this book. The story was great and the characters unforgettable but I think it tried to encompass too many years and had to skip over huge clumps of time. Lettie, the main character, had so much tragedy in her life. It was good she had Rafe to give her a small amount of happiness at the end. I will look forward to the next book and hope it doesn't skip through 50 years so quickly.

I was gifted this book by the author and publisher in return for an honest review.

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Judith Keim's Going Home is the story of family and not your traditional family. This is also the story of belonging, love, loss and Oregon's wine country. The lead character is a strong female, there is a good plot, and decidedly different family dynamics than in most women's literature. Would recommend this book.

#GoingHome #JudithKeim #NetGalley #fostercare #Vineyards #winemaking #love #family #loss

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An emotional rollercoaster of a story. This book made me cry, laugh, and cry again. I love the strong women in all roles throughout this book. The journey of a lifetime with Lettie was amazing. From girl to wife to mother to grandmother was a journey I felt privileged to experience with her. There should a box of tissue alert with this book.

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Author, Judith Keim, pulls us to a story spanning the 1970’s, 80’s, 90’s and very early 2000’s with all the background of what was going on at that time. The central character, Lettie Hawkins, a young woman finds herself in a world she could only have imagined. She spent her life in foster care and has no confidence and is very naïve about a lot of things. Lettie is a wonderfully imaginative, honest person and catches the eye of a young man who happens to be the son of a very famous man with great ambitions for his land and life. A first immature but wonderful love gives way to stability and marriage with another. She finds herself growing up and becomes a stronger individual once taken under their wings.
Lettie’s romantic relationships may be naïve, but her natural instincts for the land the Chandlers want to turn into a winery and Inn are mature. In the years staying and working at the Inn, she will know many joys and gain self-confidence. The price is great sorrow, though, and we are taken through times of the Vietnam war, PTSD, losing family and friends to cancer and accident, but gaining a beautiful daughter in the process and hard won success at the Inn and in the fields.
This is much more than a romance and tells of successful women who build, create, and love in equal parts and strength. I look forward to the second book in the series by Judith Keim.

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An intriguing story that pulls you into the life's of these characters that will have you laughing with them then crying at the losses. The strong will keep moving forward. Their resolve will have you cheering them forward.

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Going Home is truly about the heroine and main character of the story, a green girl trying to find her way in the world. Quickly becoming disillusioned with life in California, Lettie meets what she hopes is a nice guy and agrees, on a whim to travel with him to Oregon for a job. She winds up accepting the job and her life truly changes in a very short time. This novel allows the reader to watch Lettie grow up into the woman she is meant to be. Tangled love interests, secrets that come to light, wine making by day, love making by night. and frustrated relationships between mother and daughter keep this book moving when it could have slowed down. I would say the book goes down easy enough but has a tender bite to it that needs to be explored.

Lettie's joy and innocence and the way she connected with the land and the people around her really touched my heart. I also felt like she was real enough not some virtuous woman that only belongs on a pedestal. Well done, Judith Keim.... Going Home is about what home is and who we choose to make a place in our heart for along the way. I can't wait to read the next one!!!!!

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The warm, inviting cover design sets you up nicely for this multi-decade tale of Violet Hawkins. Starting in the early Seventies and cascading into the twenty-first century, the rollercoaster of life for Lettie, her nickname, makes us check our seat belt over and over through the bumps and turns. I did not expect the entirety of the storyline when I first started reading. Yet I enjoyed each new chapter delving into the characters surrounding our protagonist throughout her tale. A few twists I thought would happen didn't, and I got hit with a few surprises. This book goes down like a smooth, sweet glass of wine which you might as well be drinking while living in these virtual vineyards.

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Home - it means something different to many people. Judith Keim has captured the sense of home in this novel. Well written plot with mystery, romance, tragedy, friendship, and family. Once one picks the book up, one will not want to put it down. I didn't want it to end and can't wait until the second in the series comes out. I am positive that anyone that begins this novel, will want to read all of Ms. Keim's stories. Excellent read and I highly recommend it.

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I am so glad that this is the first book of a new series! I am looking forward to the next one!
This novel is about a young woman named Lettie and her life. It spans over fifty years. She runs to California at eighteen, looking for freedom and a new life, after coming from the foster system in Ohio,
Lettie meets a kind man who offers her employment in his family's bed & breakfast in Oregon. She has nothing to lose. This is just the beginning.
There is lots of romance, a hint of suspense and lots of overall goodness in this fabulous book.
Lettie finds the family she has always wished for. But as in every family, heartache as well.
I loved Lettie! You can't help but admire her compassion and kindness!
I will say that I definitely needed tissues at more than a few times!

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Loved this book,didn't know what to expect but once started reading didn't want to put down. Glad there is going to be a book 2.
Story follows Lettie from when she leaves Ohio as a 18 yr old foster kid thru her adult life and loves thru to her daughter and granddaughter. Majority of story set in wine country of California.
Quick very enjoyable read happy parts and sad parts, some tears, you won't be disappointed. Read it!

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This is a very touching story of a young girl, Lettie, who grew up in a foster home in Ohio. At 18 she leaves and makes her way to San Francisco. A young man befriends her and invites her to his father’s vineyard and Inn in Oregon where she begins a new life. She is fascinated with the area and the prospect of working with grapes and making wine. She eventually marries the owner’s son, Kenton. Rex, the owner, has big plans for the vineyard and Inn but dies suddenly. Then Kenton passes away in a car accident. Lettie now has the winery and Inn and is in charge of making Rex’s dreams come true. She sees the business grow and become a great success. While at the same time she is trying to raise a child by herself. From beginning to end this book will captivate you. The characters come alive and you can just feel their emotions. The author describes the vineyard area beautifully. Having been in that area, she has me wanting to go back! This is definitely a book you won’t want to put down. I received Going Home by Judith Keim as an ARC.

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