The Long Road Home [and] A Gathering of Memories

A friend (MH) sent me this book in a box of books. I've heard of Lori Wick before--I definitely remember being in a used bookstore one time trying to decide if I wanted to buy a book or two (titles unknown) by her. I think I decided not to buy them at that time. After reading this book, I wish I had purchased them back then. My friend included one or two other books by this author so time will tell if I continue to like her books.

This book contains 2 novels: The Long Road Home and A Gathering of Memories. I haven't read the first two books in this series, so at least The Long Road Home can be read as a stand alone--though, as always, you may understand more of the other characters's history if you've read the series in order. I am not show more sure if A Gathering of Memories could be read as a stand alone as one of the characters from The Long Road Home is one of the main characters in the romance part of the book.

These two titles remind me a bit of Grace Livingston Hill novels.

In The Long Road Home, two people who've lost their spouses after only a short period of marriage meet when the widow (a nurse) is asked to nurse the widower (a pastor turned logger) back to health after an accident. Along the way, they lead the mill owner's son to Christ.

In A Gathering of Memories, the mill owner's son has become a lawyer and relocated to the hometown of the pastor. One of the pastor's brothers (and his wife) take in 5 foster children (later orphans) after their mother dies (while attempts are made to locate the children's father. During the story, 2 of the 5 foster children become Christians, and the lawyer and the oldest fall in love. They're the main romance in the book, though other side plots involve the grandmother of the family (a widow) getting remarried and the second oldest foster child getting engaged to a man she's loved since she was 14. show less