Sunday, June 23, 2024

The Wild Road Home by Melissa Payne

 

My thoughts

By the author of The Night of Many Endings and A Light in the Forest, both of which I loved. Melissa Payne has written a story here that is so filled with love and hope. Of dreams and acceptance. Of family and loss. It's such a beautiful and sad story. 

This story starts out making you have lots of tears. It's a subject that is sad.. Alzheimer disease. Also drug addiction. Also the love a sister has for her little brother. A story of a man who loves his wife so much he truly believes everything will be ok if only he can take her away. To a small cabin in the woods. This is like reading two books in one that intersect in a way that will have you rooting for and weeping for the characters. The main characters that is. 

Mack's wife Daisy has Alzheimer’s  and her unbeknownst to him her cancer has returned. Her best friend Peggy has power of attorney over her medical decisions. Daisy knew that Mack would not be able to let go. He would want to hang on to her even knowing that is not what she wants. She thought she was making it easier on him. But was it? 

Brandi manages to get away from the group home she is in to go see about her brother Sy. He's just a little boy and is living with their drug addicted mother. Nancy, their mother is hooked on Meth and puts that first. She doesn't see what she is doing or has done to her children. Brandi finds Sy and they go on the run. Sy has lots of fears and he doesn't seem to remember Brandi completely. She's thirteen years older than him and has always been more of a mother to him than Nancy.

When paths cross these three will never be the same. Things will go in a direction that Mack never saw coming and Brandi could not have predicted. The things they go through and do together make them a force for sure. They build a friendship that will last a lifetime. But the things in their lives will make it much harder for them to remain together. Things take a turn rather quickly.

This book reminds me of a Catherine Ryan Hyde story. The way it brings two very troubled families together then keeps you hoping for all to be ok. If you love Ms Hyde's books you will love this one. It has all the love and beauty that you will adore. All the ups and downs that keep you on edge hoping they make it. All the emotion that keeps you grabbing tissues.

Thank you #NegGalley, #MelissaPaybe, #LakeUnionPublishers, for this ARC. This is my own true thoughts about this book.

Five big stars. 

About

A beautiful and enriching novel about unforgettable love and the power of friends and family by Melissa Payne, the bestselling author of The Night of Many Endings and A Light in the Forest.

Mack Anders will do anything for his wife, Daisy. Even die. With the woman he loves fading away from Alzheimer’s, Mack fakes his own passing. The insurance makes certain that Daisy will be taken care of with dignity and comfort until the end. In a lonesome cabin in the Wyoming wilderness, he lives off the grid with nothing but thoughts of the past to keep him company and the belief that Daisy is better off without him.

Strong-willed eighteen-year-old Brandi has just been released from juvie. Willing to risk everything to save her young brother, Sy, from their unstable mother, Brandi takes him on the run. Her destination is their aunt’s house in Casper. Maybe there she can finally find a stable home for Sy. After a busted tire strands them in the remote wildlands of Wyoming, they cross paths with Mack. Brandi quickly realizes this quiet stranger might be their only hope of reaching safety.

On an unpredictable road ahead, escape brings these three kindred souls together. But the real world is closing in, and to help Brandi and Sy, Mack will have to come back to life in ways he never imagined.


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