MOUNTAIN HOMECOMING

I finished reading Sandra Robbins' newest novel, Mountain Homecoming, and I was so pleased to have read the book. It seems lately I haven't been able to finish a book. Nothing seemed to interest me, but this is one good book.

Sandra deserves 5 stars for a book filled with adventure, love, and honesty. If you read Angel of the Cove, the first in the Smoky Mountain series, you were introduced to several people mentioned in this book. You will remember Anna and Simon, Granny, and Matthew Jackson. This story takes place twenty years after the first book.

If you are from the East Tennessee area, you may have heard of the lumber companies who came into the mountains and stripped the land of their trees. The Cades Cove area is one of the most beautiful spots on earth. There were several farms in that area at the time of the book. I feel closer to God when I'm going through "the Cove."

Sandra begins the book when Little River Lumber Company was stripping the mountains of wood. People were beginning to realize the beauty of the Smoky Mountains and visiting the area. Tourism was beginning. The main characters are Rani Martin, daughter of Anna and Simon, and Matthew Jackson. Matthew had left the Cove with his mother and brother after his father was killed in book 1. He returns to the farm his father owned. Luke had been an employee of Little River. Rani loves the mountains and is upset because of the trees being cut and shipped away.

Rani and Matthew meet, and she realized her parents knew him as a boy. They are attracted to each other from the start, but he is eleven years older than she. Matthew has a lot of luggage, and he decides he cannot marry Rani. She leaves home for Maryville. Rani makes pottery the way the Indians did. It sounds beautiful. While in Maryville, she meets a potter who has a kiln and learns to make it the new-fangled way. David Brann falls in love with Rani and they plan to be married at her father's church in the Cove. Can you imagine the rest of the story? It is good.

This book is very heart catching. I cried and I don't cry often when I read a book. When I see a movie, I'll cry, but hardly every when reading a book. It is so good. I might have identified more with Anna and Luke because they had also lost a child. At Christmas, they relinquished Willie's baseball and glove to a young boy living with them. The whole Christmas scene took my heart. I guess I knew how hard it was to part with something that belonged to a child who had passed away. Anyway, I cried.

I also cried when the book ended. Maybe it was an emotional day for me. I don't know, but I loved the book. Sandra did a wonderful job writing the book. Her characters were well defined and interesting. I can't wait for the next one.