REVIEW: ‘Longing for Home’ leaves you wanting more
She came to earn money to return home, but she ends up throwing a wrench in a town feud.
In “Longing for Home” by Sarah M. Eden, Katie Macauley finds herself in Hope Springs, Wyo., to be the housekeeper for the wealthy Joseph Archer. Working for Archer would mean Katie would earn the money she needed to return home to Ireland in one year, but when Archer hears her accent and realizes she’s Irish, he tells Katie she no longer has a job.
Katie doesn’t understand, even with Archer’s explanation that hiring another Irish servant would erupt the already simmering town feud. She convinces Archer to hire her, but another problem arises when she realizes she is to take care of Archer’s two daughters, Emma and Ivy. Katie claims she didn’t realize she had to take care of them as well, while Archer insists he had mentioned them in the telegrams he sent. With Katie not being able to read or write, it becomes clear her helper had misled her. For the second time, Katie finds herself without a job.
Katie travels through an awful rain storm and ends up in the barn of Ian O’Connor. If only it was Ian or his wife, Biddy, who had found her; but it had to be his charming brother, Tavish, a man Katie has vowed to loathe. The O’Connors take her in and she befriends them, although she wishes Tavish would keep his distance.
Katie convinces Archer to hire her and have Biddy O’Connor continue to care for his daughters. Katie begins to settle in her role as a housekeeper and as a member of the community. She eventually becomes friends with every Irish family in Hope Springs and becomes invaluable to the Archer family. The Red Road – the non-Irish – show their hatred for the Irish when Johnson, the owner of the mercantile, ignores Katie while she is shopping. Archer, who has been neutral in the conflict, convinces Johnson to let Katie continue on with her business, but not before Johnson called Katie a “filthy Irishwoman.”
As time goes on, Katie starts to not hate Tavish with his teasing and smiles. But she also starts to care for her employer Joseph, who turns out to be a caring man and a good father. Joseph helps her start a baking business where she bakes homemade bread and other foods for the Irish community. At the weekly Irish ceili gatherings, Katie starts to find a new home.
But Katie has a dark secret, a past that has been haunting her since she was 8 years old, a past that has driven her to work for 18 years to save money to return to Ireland. Nothing will stand in her way. She must make restitution to her father for what she did as a child.
The Red Road increases in hostility as they post a guard to watch Katie work at Archer’s house, sending her threats and cutting the tail off of Tavish’s horse. Things are getting out of hand. Archer is trying to keep the peace and Katie is falling in love with Tavish while struggling with the expectations and hopes the Irish have put on her.
Bad news comes in the form of a letter, and Katie is faced with a hard decision: stay in Hope Springs to prevent the Red Road from winning or return to Ireland to make amends with her dying father.
I give this book five stars. Eden’s historical research and use of it in this novel is really interesting and almost never included in works like this. The romance is cute and clean, and most importantly, the ending makes you anticipate the sequel, expected to come out this spring. The writing and humor in the book is entertaining and makes you remember what it’s like to read for fun.