This Is Home

~ I received no compensation and opinions are 100% my own or my family. ~

Synopsis (from Amazon):  From the author of book club favorite The Salt House comes a deeply affecting novel about a teenage girl finding her voice and the military wife who moves in downstairs, united in their search for the true meaning of home. 

Sixteen-year-old Libby Winters lives in Paradise, a seaside town north of Boston that rarely lives up to its name. After the death of her mother, she lives with her father, Bent, in the middle apartment of their triple decker home—Bent’s two sisters, Lucy and Desiree, live on the top floor. A former soldier turned policeman, Bent often works nights, leaving Libby under her aunts’ care. Shuffling back and forth between apartments—and the wildly different natures of her family—has Libby wishing for nothing more than a home of her very own.

Quinn Ellis is at a crossroads. When her husband John, who has served two tours in Iraq, goes missing back at home, suffering from PTSD he refuses to address, Quinn finds herself living in the first-floor apartment of the Winters house. Bent had served as her husband’s former platoon leader, a man John refers to as his brother, and despite Bent’s efforts to make her feel welcome, Quinn has yet to unpack a single box.

For Libby, the new tenant downstairs is an unwelcome guest, another body filling up her already crowded house. But soon enough, an unlikely friendship begins to blossom, when Libby and Quinn stretch and redefine their definition of family and home.

With gorgeous prose and a cast of characters that feel wholly real and lovably flawed, This Is Home is a nuanced and moving novel of finding where we belong.

One (or more) Sentence Summary: What a really unusual (in a good way) story.  I really liked all the characters and how their stories were all inter-related. My favorite character was Libby who is connected to every person in the book.  She is young, smart, strong, kind, concerned for others, and independent.  That is a lot for a young teen to take on and she does it so well.  She has a lot of role models too that are all part of the story.

Her dad, Bent - ex-military and current day police officer, is over-protective, but rightfully so. Libby's mom left them when Libby was very young to "find herself."  She returned with cancer and soon died leaving Bent with medical bills.  They moved into a 3 apartment house owned by Bent's sister, Lucy house.  Lucy and Desiree (Bent's other sister) live in the top apartment, Libby and her dad live in the middle apartment and a new tenant has moved into the bottom apartment.

As everyone's own story unfolds, we get to know the new tenant and realize that her and Bent already know each other.  Everyone in the story is dealing with their own personal battle and I loved how they are all there for each other when it counts the most.  

I really enjoyed This is Home.  Just like the title, it made me feel right at home!  

Would I Read Other Books by the Author:  After reading This Is Home, I listened to The Salt House and really enjoyed it too! 

Lisa Duffy is the author of This is Home and The Salt House. The Salt House was named by Real Simple as a Best Book of the Month, one of Bustle’s Best Debut Novels by Women, a She Reads Book Club selection, and Refinery 29’s Best Beach Reads. She lives in the Boston area with her husband and three children.

Amazon