Rating: 
Summary: The Way Home satisfies -- great characters and settings
Review: Allison Johnson's novel deftly evokes the California landscape and the people who populate it. She writes with charm and grace about intertwined lives, imperfect lives, and redemption through forgiveness. She touches on universal emotions from the first page.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Read
Review: An emotionally grabbing story of the struggle by a young woman between the forces of family, lifestyles, career and romance. Colorfully images of Palms Springs make the setting for this book that is very easy to read, and difficult to put down. I have not enjoyed reading a book quite so much in many years.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Read
Review: An emotionally grabbing story of the struggle by a young woman between the forces of family, lifestyles, career and romance. Colorfully images of Palms Springs make the setting for this book that is very easy to read, and difficult to put down. I have not enjoyed reading a book quite so much in many years.
Rating:
Summary: Old fashioned reading with a contemporary style
Review: I read "The Way Home" in one afternoon, Once I got started, I couldn't put it down. It reminded me of my own birth family. The characters are refreshingly moral and the story is clean reading in this day and age. It has real characters that seen to grab hold and pull you in. The setting is one we all wish we could escape to at times. It would be nice to have a reason to get away from this fast paced life and do something for some one else. We have a real dilemma today with elder care. Parents are being put into homes and being left there to die. In helping her father, Carolyn found herself. The romance is sweet but it doesn't exploit sexuality. It has enough to peak your interest and keep it! It has a strong message about forgiveness, which is key to happiness. In reading this book, I found myself examining my own hidden anger and unforgiveness and was much more willing to let it go. I recommend this book to almost anybody. There are issues we all have dealt with or been exposed to in our lifetimes. It is like several sessions of free therapy; A must read!
Rating:
Summary: Old fashioned reading with a contemporary style
Review: I read "The Way Home" in one afternoon, Once I got started, I couldn't put it down. It reminded me of my own birth family. The characters are refreshingly moral and the story is clean reading in this day and age. It has real characters that seen to grab hold and pull you in. The setting is one we all wish we could escape to at times. It would be nice to have a reason to get away from this fast paced life and do something for some one else. We have a real dilemma today with elder care. Parents are being put into homes and being left there to die. In helping her father, Carolyn found herself. The romance is sweet but it doesn't exploit sexuality. It has enough to peak your interest and keep it! It has a strong message about forgiveness, which is key to happiness. In reading this book, I found myself examining my own hidden anger and unforgiveness and was much more willing to let it go. I recommend this book to almost anybody. There are issues we all have dealt with or been exposed to in our lifetimes. It is like several sessions of free therapy; A must read!
Rating: 
Summary: Deceptively Simple
Review: I read "The Way Home" primarily because it is set in Palm Springs, in Southern California, a fascinating area which generates unique energies. I stayed with it because Johnson is a gentle and skilled writer...there's more than a hint of Eudora Welty in her. She writes quietly but compellingly, demanding more and more of your attention. The characters are just as they should be...where they should be...doing what they should be doing. I wasn't bowled over by anything, just very involved with the timely and vital family problems...the kind that can test your agility and slowly break your heart. They are the kind of problems you know you'll deal with it and be the wiser for their challenges. Johnson's characters are vital. Palpable. They linger long after the book is back on your shelf. They are people you expect to bump into in town. You'll want to ask more about the Native American lore and lifestyle of the area, about Tahquitz, about the geography. You'll want to go out with Rex to watch him work the windmills. You'll want to find out when Johnson's next work will be out.
Rating:
Summary: Great love story with a personal touch
Review: Living in Los Angeles with relatives in the desert, I identified with the main character on many levels. One can really get a sense of what it's like to leave the hustle and bustle of LA in favor of the tranquility of the desert. This story is told with a personal touch that makes it as captivating to a native Southern Californian as it would be to one from the Midwest. Johnson's words evoke visions and emotions that were a delight to read.
Rating:
Summary: Great love story with a personal touch
Review: Living in Los Angeles with relatives in the desert, I identified with the main character on many levels. One can really get a sense of what it's like to leave the hustle and bustle of LA in favor of the tranquility of the desert. This story is told with a personal touch that makes it as captivating to a native Southern Californian as it would be to one from the Midwest. Johnson's words evoke visions and emotions that were a delight to read.
Rating:
Summary: A compelling read.
Review: The Way Home is spellbinding. It's been many years since I picked up a book I couldn't put down. I had to find out where Allison Johnson was going with this story. I was never bored and never skimmed. The Way Home is an excellent story...well told.
Rating:
Summary: Mesmerizing first novel
Review: The Way Home is the mesmerizing story of a woman's search for happiness and fulfillment, which she begins to realize she can achieve only by coming to terms with her difficult relationship with her alcoholic, aging father, and by letting go of her long-held belief that she can save him from himself. Ultimately she learns that forgiving someone (and one's own past behavior) takes time, but is necessary to open oneself up enough to trust and love another. Carolyn is an engaging, self-deprecating narrator with a wry sense of humor: when she looks at herself in the mirror after a trip through the heat of the desert (the evocatively described high desert of California, where windmills kick up the dust as they turn air into energy), she says, "Wilted lettuce came to mind." Johnson has written a beautiful book about a relationship between a flawed father and a daughter, and the way forgiveness and acceptance can transform one's notion of what "home" really means and what real love looks, tastes, and feels like. A lovely novel, beautifully written, suggesting great things still to come from this author.
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