Coming Home

Review of Coming Home by Stacy Hawkins Adams

Overview from www.barnesandnoble.com: If forgiving your ex-husband was easy, everybody would do it. Brent had cheated on Dayna and coldly said goodbye to her seven long years ago—dashing her hopes of having children or growing old with the love of her life. Working hard to make herself successful as a hospital executive, Dayna has moved on, finding comfort in a new dating relationship with a faith-filled colleague, Warren. But when Brent resurfaces on her doorstep at just the wrong time, Dayna’s heart threatens to come unglued. Why is Brent asking for forgiveness now? And why are he and his new wife, Tamara, interested in reconciliation with Dayna? The unbelievable answers begin to surface in the ebook download of Coming Home as Brent boldly asks Dayna to support him at the most crucial time of his life. While Tamara’s heart brims with guilt, both women will discover what it means to reach beyond pain and baggage to love unconditionally, leaving the consequences to God.

My Review:

I surprised myself by picking this one out. Contemporary Dramas are usually not all that popular with me but something about this story piqued my interest. It's true that part of it was the fact that some of the situations that our main character faced in this novel seemed relevant to me but I think that there was more to it than that. It seemed more real.

The story centers on Dayna, a hospital executive who seems to be finally moving on with her life after a bitter divorce. She moved to a new city (and state), moved up the career ladder, found a new boyfriend, and seems to be doing alright.

One day, out of the blue, she gets a surprise visit from Brent, her ex husband. Just as she's about to dash out the door with her current main squeeze, he shows up on her doorstep bearing flowers and asking to take her to dinner along with his current wife. The current wife is the same woman he cheated on her with years ago in the fiasco that ended their marriage.

After discussing it with the new boyfriend, Warren, she reluctantly agrees to meet with him just to get him off her back. She then forgets to check the dates with Warren who can't make it and decides to go alone.

This first misstep initiates a downward spiral in her life as well as the lives of those closest to her. After finding out that her ex husband has not got much time to live, she struggles with using her expertise to help him achieve a life-long dream, or keeping the man she's got now at the expense of ignoring Brent. Who or what will she choose?

In the process of sorting through her feeling for her ex, her current boyfriend, and even a close friend who makes a series of bad choices that rub Dayna the wrong choices, she must also deal with the issues that she has with family members who seem to blame her for her ex husband's failure to stay married to her.

This was a beautifully touching story whose spiritual truths were conveyed in a more natural manner than many Christian Fiction stories. The characters seem more real and the author, less judgmental. 

It was not a perfect story and perhaps not the most entertaining, but it was something that touched me and might also touch others. There were flaws, like one point where the wrong character's name was used and it sometimes seemed to treat certain problems in a couple of characters a bit too lightly. Still, I think it is worth a read for anyone who has ever been through a difficult time in his or her life or just likes dramatic stories.