Introduction

Acclaimed novelist Luanne Rice "touches the deepest, most tender corners of the heart" (Tami Hoag, author of A Thin Dark Line). Her stories remind us how precious and fragile life can be—and that we must risk our hearts every day to know happiness. Follow the Stars Home is just such a novel: a story of poignancy and heartbreak, grace and courage.

Being a good mother is never simple: each day brings new choices and challenges. For Dianne Robbins, being a devoted single mother has resulted in her greatest joy and her darkest hours. Weeks before her daughter was born, she and her husband, Tim McIntosh, received the news every parent fears. Tim had not reckoned on their child being anything less than perfect, and abruptly fled to a solitary existence on the sea, leaving Dianne with a newborn—almost alone.

It was Tim's brother, Alan, the town pediatrician, who stood by Dianne and her exceptional daughter. Throughout years of waiting, watching, and caring, Alan hid his love for his brother's wife. But one of the many hard choices Dianne has made is to close her heart toward any man—especially one named McIntosh. It will take a very special twelve-year-old to remind them all that love comes in many forms and can be received with as much grace as it is given.

As lyrical and moving as the poetry of nature, Follow the Stars Home is a miracle of storytelling that will take your breath away. If words alone can dare us to confront our fears and to choose joy over sorrow, then Luanne Rice's magnificent novel is a benediction and a call to celebrate our lives.

Editorial Review

With a startling sensitivity for human tragedy and the ability of the heart to heal, Luanne Rice has written a moving account of one woman's internal journey in Follow the Stars Home. Married young to Tim McIntosh, a passionate and charismatic fisherman with a troubled heart, Dianne Robbins expects a future full of happiness, security, and love. But when tests reveal that their unborn baby is severely disabled, Tim sails off for calmer waters. Faced with the responsibilities of raising her daughter Julia, Dianne finds support in Tim's brother Alan and her own mother Lucinda.

A decade later, Dianne has mastered the demands of nursing Julia and swears her life is completely fulfilled by these tasks. When Alan introduces Amy Brooks, a young and troubled girl, into Dianne's life, Dianne finds her heart opening and stretching in new and positive ways. As her mother Lucinda explains, "The biggest mistake any of us can make is thinking that love is a feeling, an emotion. It's not that at all. It's an action." And Dianne struggles over the choice to love again.

Beautifully written with exquisite moments of tranquility, Follow the Stars Home describes the multiple ways that love can be acted. With a dash of suspense included, this novel will keep readers' fingers flipping through the pages as fast as they can. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien

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