Coming Home by Stacy Hawkins Adams

Dayna is a successful executive with a beautiful home, a loving fiance, and a lot of baggage she believes she's left behind. One day she opens the door to find her ex-husband standing there with a bouquet of roses, wanting to apologize for having cheated on and divorced her years before. He's dying of terminal cancer, and wants her to help him and his wife, the very woman he's cheated with and left her for, establish a foundation to leave a legacy after his death. Can Dayna put aside her anger and allow Brent to find peace in his final days?

This is a novel of forgiveness in the face of ultimate betrayal. Adams bravely constructed a powerful scenario all women can relate to in one way or another. How many of us have been betrayed by a good friend or a love interest at one point and wondered how we could ever truly forgive them?

I enjoyed Adams' writing. She keeps unnecessary description to a minimum while somehow giving the reader a vivid picture of what is happening. The story never lags, there is always something happening. And while I normally care nothing for material trappings, she made me want a designer handbag and better hair and wardrobe with her characters' thoughts on such things. It takes a talented writer to create such desires in a reader.

There are only two negatives I can find in this book. First, Dayna's boyfriend, Warren, struck me as a jerk. I could tell I was supposed to like him, but he just wasn't likeable. Second, there are way too many details about phone calls. I can appreciate that there is realism in this, especially in our age of constant communication, but I found myself gritting my teeth every time Dayna is about to do something but gets a gossipy phone call. Perhaps because I hate it when I'm about to do something and am interrupted by a gossipy phone call. I think Adams was demonstrating Dayna's ties of friendships and the ways in which we are all influenced by and depend upon our friends, but it irritated me anyway.

Overall I enjoyed this book and appreciated its powerful message and the package Adams wrapped it in for us.

I received a copy of this book for the purpose of review.