WELCOME TO HARMONY

Author: Jodi Thomas ISBN: 9780425235102 6/2010 CONTEMPORARY Publisher: BERKLEY

A PLACE TO BELONG Sixteen-year-old runaway Reagan has always wanted a place to belong. She's never had a real home of her own, but maybe she can borrow someone else's. At least for a little while... At the nursing home where Reagan works, Miss Beverly Truman's fond memories of Harmony, Texas, seem to fill an empty space inside the girl. After Miss Beverly passes away, Reagan travels to Harmony, pretending to be the woman's granddaughter, and is taken into the home of Beverly's surviving brother. Still, Reagan is afraid to trust the gruff kindness shown to her by Jeremiah Truman and the warm friendship offered by another teenager named Noah, who dreams of being a rodeo star. She keeps her distance from Noah's sister, Alex McAllen, who's the town sheriff and busy with her own stormy relationship with volunteer fire chief Hank Matheson. But when prairie fires threaten Harmony, Reagan learns the true meaning of family, friends, and home...

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

WELCOME TO HARMONY is the perfect comfort read! Harmony, Texas, was founded by three families with a long, stormy past. The story revolves around the Mathesons, McAllens, and Trumans, who are the fire chief, sheriff and town grump respectively.

Reagan, a teen with a tough past, runs away from foster care and finds her way into a better life with the remains of the Truman family. A plucky heroine in her own right, you have to wish this kind of fairy tale luck on any foster kid who has been through hell, not that Reagan doesn’t work for what she has or fails to feel her scars.

Noah McAllen is the teen who tries to break through her walls. He’s quite the hero and the perfect friend for Reagan. Unfortunately his siblings haven’t been so lucky. His oldest brother died in circumstances that emotionally scarred his sister. Only in a small town could Alex McAllen get away with her lifestyle, I suspect. The two have a lot to cope with.

But then there’s Fire Chief Hank, forced to live with more female relatives than any man should have to. He’s carried the torch for Alex for years and sees past her demons. Can he help her to forgive herself?

Not just a light, small town story a la Macomber, there’s also an arson sub-plot that is genuinely suspenseful and a sweet story about the heroic-in-his-own-way town undertaker that I hope continues in book two, SOMEWHERE ALONG THE WAY, out this fall. Don’t miss WELCOME TO HARMONY!

Heather Hiestand