Homeward by Melody Carlson

Meg Lancaster is return to her Oregon coast home. She'd left twenty years ago after the death of her grandfather and a squabble. She'd become a successful corporate executive, all on her own. She'd even been engaged to the owner's son – until she found out he was sleeping with another woman.

Meg wasn't sure why she was going back home after all those years. The relationship with her mother, Sunny, had never been all that good. And she was returning to a farm of cranberry bogs. From San Francisco to cranberry bogs. But she needed her family. A month's leave of absence to get her life back together at the cranberry bogs.

Much to Meg's surprise, she is welcomed by her sister, even after her abrupt escape from home and lengthy absence. Seeing her mother again made Meg nervous. But the reunion was better than she had expected.

Meg goes to the family farm where her grandmother still lives. She is saddened to see her grandmother bedridden, perhaps near death. As she walks out to the bogs, she is shocked to see that they have been left unattended for years.

With cranberry juice “flowing in her veins', Meg is determined to get at least a couple of the bogs cleaned out and producing again. She enlists the help of Cal, an old cranberry farmer himself now feed and seed store owner. Along with Cal comes his son Matt and granddaughter Clive. It takes a while for Meg to learn that Matt lost his wife years ago...

But opposed to Meg's plans for the bog is cousin Abner. A wife beating alcoholic, her is determined to see to it that the land is developed. He can only see future houses where the cranberry plants now lie buried in weeds.

Carlson has woven a good story of a “lost” woman returning home to find herself and the God she once loved. In the process, Meg discovers her long lost love of cranberry farming and reunites with her family. Not all of the relationships go well, however, as her mother dies before Meg can re-establish a close relationship. Meg senses her ailing grandmother is hiding a dark secret. As the story progresses and all the family secrets come out, Meg finds out how active God has been in her life. She returns to faith in Him, trusting Him for her future and that of the farm.


This Melody Carlson novel is a RITA Award winner.  It is a well crafted story and, as a bonus, you learn about farming cranberries on the side.

WaterBrookMultnomah Publishers, 450 pages.  This book is currently available as a Kindle ebook for only $2.99 or used paperback.

I received an egalley of this book for the purpose of this review.