A friend sent me this is in a box of Love Inspired books. It earns a 3 (average) mostly for the faith-life lessons. The story seems pretty much recycled--it almost seems like Love Inspired has outlines they give their authors and expect them to follow by plugging in their own characters and making events to fit--all of which left me checking to see if I'd read this book in the past because it seemed so familiar. (I hadn't.)

Control: It's something both Gemma and Linc struggle with. Linc struggles to keep things from changing. I think partly because he's already had significant changes in his life with his father dying and having to take over running the family business. Gemma's been hurt in the past and is trying to prevent that from happening again as well as protecting her son from life's hurts.

To some extent, I can see Gemma's point in that she doesn't want to have Evan getting attached to a man only to have it not work out between that man and Gemma. It's probably not good for a kid to keep thinking he'll have a dad only to have that father-figure ripped away. But we, as readers, get a glimpse of how much Evan wants a father-figure in his life, and I do have to wonder, as Linc did, if there wasn't a way that Gemma could have discussed Evan's father with him rather than just never talking about it at all.

As far as Linc, well, I both understand his not wanting things to change, his desire for traditions to continue, and see the pitfalls of holding on to them so hard that it drives others away or stunts his own growth.

Another reviewer said she felt like the Montgomery family was all a bit self-centered. Each doing what he/she needed to heal without considering other members of the family and their needs. It's a fine line. If one's mental health truly is at stake (as Tori seemed to feel hers was), then doing what you need to do is what you need to do, regardless of whether your brother feels like the entire family needs to stay together in town. When a child's welfare is at stake (as in Gil's case), you need to be taking care of that, regardless of whether your brother would prefer you stayed in Mississippi rather than be in Alabama fighting for custody. But I also agree that discussing some of the changes with Linc before just making them and surprising him with them would have been helpful too. (such as the white Christmas tree or wanting to change the Thanksgiving dinner type). It did seem like no one seemed to care about the traditions he cherished.

The subseries title is a bit confusing. Yes, Gemma and Evan end up finding a home in Dover, but Seth's moving to Texas (at least for a bit--long term yet to be decided), Bethany's not around, and Tori's planning to spend time in California--so most of them aren't Home in Dover. ( )