"home to chicory lane" by deborah raney

I love a good family book series. From Janette Oke's Love Comes Softly series to Karen Kingsbury's Baxter saga to Susan May Warren's Christiansen series, there's something about a set of books about one family that pulls me in.

Landyn longs for home, but her mother may have other plans.

Audrey Whitman's dreams are coming true. Now that their five kids are grown, she and her husband, Grant, are turning their beloved family home into a cozy bed and breakfast just a mile outside of Langhorne, Missouri.

Opening weekend makes Audrey anxious, with family and friends coming from all over to help celebrate the occasion. But when Audrey's daughter, Landyn, arrives, the U-Haul she's pulling makes it clear she's not just here for a few days. Audrey immediately has questions. What happened in New York that sent Landyn running home? Where was Landyn's husband, Chase? And what else was her daughter not telling her? One thing was for sure, the Chicory Inn was off to a rocky start. Can Audrey still realize her dream and at the same time provide the comfort of home her daughter so desperately needs?

In Home to Chicory Lane, Deborah Raney begins her Chicory Inn novels, which center around Grant & Audrey Whitman and their grown children. While the book sets up what seems to be a promising series, I didn't love it. It's a well-written story, yet the plot and characters never grabbed hold of me. Instead, it was like I was a passive observer who bounced around among the four main characters. Sometimes, multiple points of view work well in a novel, but in this case, I think I would have enjoyed the novel more had it only been from Landyn's and Chase's perspectives.

That said, I did enjoy the story itself, and I am interested in learning what happens to some of the other Whitmans, namely Grant & Audrey's son Link and their daughter-in-law Bree.

If this was the first book by Deborah Raney that I'd read, I'd probably write her off as an author whose writing style doesn't click with me. But I have experienced her books before, and I've been moved by them. So while I can only give Home to Chicory Lane a mild 3-1/2 star recommendation, let me highly recommend the following Raney books/novellas: The Face of the Earth, "A January Bride," Forever After, and After All.

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Deborah Raney's books have won numerous awards, including the RITA, National Readers Choice Award, HOLT Medallion, and the Carol Award, and have twice been Christy Award finalists. She and her husband, Ken, recently traded small-town life in Kansas—the setting of many of Deborah's novels—for life in the (relatively) big city of Wichita, where they enjoy gardening, antiquing, movies, and traveling to visit four children and a growing brood of grandchildren who all live much too far away.

Find Deborah online: website, Twitter, Facebook

Giveaway Information
The first book in Deborah Raney's new Chicory Inn series, Home to Chicory Lane, introduces us to Audrey Whitman, a mother who has launched all her children into life and now looks forward to fulfilling some of her own dreams during her empty-nest years. However, not all of her children are ready to stay out of the nest quite yet.

Deborah is celebrating the release of her new series with a $200 B&B Weekend Getaway and a Facebook author chat party.

 
  One winner will receive:

• A B&B Weekend Getaway (via a $200 Visa cash card)
• Home to Chicory Lane by Deborah Raney

Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on September 9th. Winner will be announced at the Home to Chicory Lane Author Chat Party on 9/9. Deborah will be hosting a heartfelt book chat, giving away prizes, and answering questions from readers. She will also share an exclusive sneak peek at the next book in the Chicory Inn series!

So grab your copy of Home to Chicory Lane and join Deborah on the evening of September 9th for a chance to connect and make some new friends. (If you haven't read the book, don't let that stop you from coming!)

Don't miss a moment of the fun; RSVP today. Tell your friends via FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning. Hope to see you on the 9th!

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Litfuse Publicity Group. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Also, some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."