This is my first time reading Marci Bolden's work and I like it. The Road Leads Back is about second chances. Kara and Harry are both interesting characters and their story is good. I love how Marci brouggt the characters to life and the story line. This book makes me fall in love with characters like them. Also Harry, my gawd!! I fell in love with him as the story goes.
Overall, this book is a good read. A must read book.

Who would of thought that 30 years later, the one person you have hated and blamed would show up in your life.  Kara has been on her own since getting pregnant 30 years ago and Harry left in the middle of the night.  Kara didn’t run but was pushed out of her home pregnant with her son. Her son that was unknown to Harry.  
Harry has alway been in love with Kara and seeing the galley showing her work gave him a chance to she what she has done with her life after he slipped out 30 years ago.  Harry was in for the surprise of his life.  
Kara and Harry try grow, forgive and maybe even love again in this second chance romance.

This was my first book by this author but definitely not the last!  Kara and Harry had a one-night stand and when Harry left for college Kara was left with more than just memories. When she went to Harry's mom she was turned away and ended up across the country and now almost 3o years later Harry has discovered he is a father of a grown son. Kara is an accomplished artist and has raised their son, Phil, who is also a father of a 7-year-old daughter, and when Harry shows up and wants to get to know his son and get re-acquainted with "the one who got away" he convinces Phil to move and wants Kara to "come home."  This is a beautifully written story full of healing and heart. Don't miss this one!

**Received this ARC for review from the publisher via NetGalley**

This is my first time reading this author and I was very impressed.  The story is about former high school sweethearts who find each other almost 30 years later. 

Kara was 17 when she was found pregnant and thrown out of her home. She immediately went to find the father and he was off at college and instead his parents sent her away.

Now 27 years later she is an artist and runs into Harry, the father and discovers no one told him he was a father. 27 years later he has a son and a granddaughter so its a big homecoming for the entire family.

This is astory about forgiveness and going home again. The truth is the life Kara lead is the life she wanted. She is a bit of a hippie and is happy being one. Harry owns a company and is a little more set in his ways. He is very stable witna  ahouse and business and people who rely on him. He wants his family back and he will do anything to make that happen.

This was an amazing story and I truly loved every seicond of it.

Marci Bolden does it again! She knows how to tug at the heart strings and make it so beautiful!! Pleas check out this series and tell me what you think!

The Road Leads Back is a well crafted story about second chances. Kara is thrown out of her home as a pregnant teen. Harry heads off to college completely unaware of what he's  leaving behind. They have a chance meeting 27 years later.  
This is a lovely, engaging book that will have you cheering for a happy ending!

Thanks to Netgalley  and  the  publisher  for  allowing  me  to  read  this  book  in return  for  an  honest  review.

#Stonehillromance #NetGalley

I received a copy of THE ROAD LEADS BACK on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the publisher and author for the opportunity.

FIVE STARS! And here’s why:

MARCI BOLDEN’S story captivated my interest from the very first page. It has all the elements of a great women’s fiction book: family drama, regrets, second chances, and a story shrouded in passion and forgiveness. If you love sexy romances with witty banter and realistic characters, then this book is for you. Well written and engaging. Highly recommend.

This is an older book I've found. I'm thinking it's a rereleased version?

Ok, the story is indeed a relationship story about an unwed pregnant girl who is sent from Iowa to Oregon to a community for unwed pregnant girls. She was assured by her baby's daddy's mother that her son would send for her and baby once her son finishes college. Evil woman doesn't even tell her son that he's a father....30 years later he manages to see his former "girlfriend" in Seattle at an art gallery. She doesn't know he doesn't know about their son and now, granddaughter. Wow.

So there are chapters of hurts going way back. It's a story of forgiveness and going forward but mostly, forgiveness and coping. 

It has a wonderful man, Harry, who is very stable but likes challenging women. Kara was interesting to read but a difficult person to love, I think.

Thoughtful read.

This is Book 1 in the Stonehill Series.  Kara had one night with Harry that she has never forgotten.  It was hard to forget when she was disowned by her parents because she was pregnant.  But she got her son out of it so that was wonderful.  Now it’s 30 years later and they meet up again.  He’s still living in their old hometown, but she lives on the opposite coast.  This is such an emotional 2nd chance romance that you will need the Kleenex.  The choices made so many years ago and now the choices they must make today.  Kara has grown so strong with everything that she’s been through.  What a great book.  I voluntarily read and reviewed this book that I got from Netgalley.

Kara & Harry dated in high school. The relationship ended and with it many other family connections ceased as well. The couple finds each other again, and their relationship flourishes, but not without disturbances from other family members. 

At first I thought the story wasn’t developed well and was far-fetched. The characters did too many things that probably wouldn’t happen in real life. For example, who would agree to move to another state during their first visit with a long-lost relative? 

All that being said, I began to like the characters! I would love to be friends with Kara; she’s such a creative, free-spirit that was always helping others even though she had her heart broken many times. Towards the end of the book, there are some sexual scenes with steamy descriptions. Oh my…it’s been a long time since I've read details like that! 

All in all, if you’re looking for a fun, light, fluffy-type book and you're ok with knowing how the story will end, you may like this. I see where this is the first in a series of books that will include some of the same characters. 

Thank you Netgalley for this book in exchange for my honest review.

A Seasoned Romance Genre short read bonanza, set within the fictional confines of a quaint picket fence Iowa city, The Road Leads Back is the first offering of the Stonehill series, crafted by Marci Bolden. The opening delivers a punchy cute-meet set at a local watering hole, with our heroine Kara, an otherwise commune-living organic loving chemical-phobia type, knocking-back tequila shots served by “a walking tattoo” bartender when lo and behold, there he is: Her high school crush who left our Kara with an unknown bun-in-the-oven and skipped town twenty-eight years ago. Within moments, Harry’s eyes explode at the discovery that Phil, the twenty-seven year old doppelganger now standing at Kara’s side, is indeed his son. Bonus, there’s a granddaughter, too. You’ll cheer at young Jessica’s character introduction and applaud the author for her diversity inclusion.
We’re rapidly immersed in a roller coaster world where everyone’s wet-cat mad at everyone else, all for good reason. That special treat awaits, a Peeping Tom skirmish, as we get to watch adults behave like spoiled children and cry their eyes dry. Harry rises to the occasion and becomes the tonic by “using his thumb to brush the tear away” in darn near every chapter as our super-talented albeit independent grown-ass woman Kara spends the majority of the book awash in tears while she tries to grapple through past hurts. This is not an understatement. Mind you, even during an expertly crafted love scene that encompassed not only how the “parts” fit together but also provided a hefty realization that our characters honestly loved one another…the type of love scene you read over and again to remand to memory…our poor befuddled Kara finds another reason to cry. Meanwhile our handsome hero Harry is aptly named as he doesn’t seem to be able to keep his hands out of Kara’s hair, said hair till the exact same color and style since high school, with nary a pesky gray in sight. My prayer for a passage encompassing how the twenty-eight years of changes wracked their mid-forties bodies went answered. My longing to hear Harry pay homage to the faded tiger-stripes on the flabby skin of Kara’s once tight lower abdomen that carried the son of his dreams? Yeah. It didn’t happen, either.

But that’s okay. Blam! Out of nowhere Harry busts his self-righteous bottle of tonic image by declaring war on his own recently widowed mother. Watching him pull his foot out of his ass and wriggle back to normalcy just in time to save the day and provide our happily ever after? Priceless and nicely done.

Marci Bolden’s teaser for her next offering in the series involves Kara’s and Harry’s once high school acquaintances; a Lothario pain-in-the-ass husband Mitch and his sweet yet spineless easily-duped wifey-poo Diana divorce…and I can’t wait to meet her alpha male hero and strap my eyes to their roller coaster. Marci Bolden…where have you been all my life?

I received a complimentary copy of this book from publisher PinkSandsPress via NetGalley and this is my voluntary and unbiased review.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2757426077
I really liked the cover and premise of The Road Leads Back by Marci Bolden. Unfortunately the book just didn’t work for me. The character building fell short somewhere for me. I never cared what happened to any character. I never really felt that magic of getting to know them. 
In the end I felt like 3 stars was being a bit generous.

The Road Leads Back is an emotional, second chance romance. I liked this story, although I didn’t always feel the connection of emotion between the characters this was only minor and didn’t detract from what is an overall good read.

This is a voluntary review of an advanced copy.

I just need to say that this is not a typical romance - which is not a bad thing - just different. There is a lot of pent up anger that both Harry and Kara have to work through and it is not a quick process like - confront, forgive, then live happily ever after. 

If you want a quick fall in love story then this is not for you. Harry and Kara are older, 30 years past their high school graduation, and Kara has been hoping that Harry would show up and claim his son, but Harry didn't know he had a son, thanks to his manipulative mother.

There are just so many chains and interconnections that keep Harry and Kara stuck - if Kara's parents had not thrown her out of the house, if Harry's mother had not sent her away, if Harry had not sneaked out of bed with Kara, if Kara had ever come back to her hometown, just on and on but they have to face the realization, that the past cannot be changed so can they live with what has happened!?

There were so many things that I loved - when Harry told Phil to stop the bitterness toward his mother, yeah Harry! When they had their best day at the amusement park!

Wow, when Harry and Kara got into a bitter discussion after they got married, I thought for sure that would break them. It was not until Kara's father died that things fell apart and she took off. Good thing that Harry did NOT listen to Phil and went after her.

I really enjoyed the story, the characters, and the emotions that I felt as I read this book. There were times that I just felt so sad for all of them (Harry, Kara, and Phil) as they wanted to be a family but were denied for 27 years and trying to get it right now was hard work!

I love a second chance romance and this one, with a twist, was a good read. Harry and Kara are really great characters with flaws and fears and they just felt so REAL. At times they both annoyed me and then turned around to do things that endeared them both to me. Between the hurt and anger and the big bad past looming right behind them, this was a happy ending well worth the journey! 
There were a few minutes where I thought I might not be able to get into The Road Leads Back because of Phil. I know he went through a lot but he was a parent and old enough to cut his mom a little slack. I appreciated how much he grew throughout the story and I'm kind of hoping that he'll get his own story sometime soon.
But Harry and Kara...I LOVED them! She was fun and sweet with her boho style and ability to make the most out of an unexpected life. She hung on to her anger and to me, it felt justified, which only frustrated me when everyone else made it seem like she was overreacting. She wasn't. I found Kara to be a highly sympathetic heroine who was strong and capable, even more than she realized.
I believe this is my first book my Marci Bolden but so far, I'm a fan!

The Road Leads Back is a story of healing, forgiveness and reconnection. This was my first Marci Bolden book, but I enjoyed it very much.

When one passionate encounter on graduation night left Kara pregnant and disowned by her parents, she turns to Elaine, the mother of the boy she slept with, only to be left heartbroken when she's sent away to a place all the way across the country. Twenty-seven years later, Kara comes face to face with Harry, the father of her child, and they quickly discover that he was deceived by his mother, who never told him of the son that Kara had carried and delivered. 

Harry is not only reunited with Kara, but also with Phil, his son, and his granddaughter Jessica. As they all work to connect, they go through highs and lows, they encounter challenges and are left to deal with the deception and rejection of their parents. Harry and Kara also try to see if the relationship they never got to experience back in high school might be in the cards for them now.

This is a heartfelt book that shows how hasty decisions and words said in anger can change the course of everyone's life forever. I found these characters easy to root for as you know that everything they are feeling is warranted based on the circumstances they've had to overcome. In the end though, the most important thing is realizing that life is short and time is fleeting and you have to open your heart to those you love even if it is the hardest and most uncomfortable thing to do. In the end, it's all worth it.

I enjoyed  this book because  it  was full of emotion.  The two main characters  meet up after many years. He  doesn't  realise that he is a father and a grandfather.  The book tells of the troubles that they have gone through  and now they have the chance of happiness  again. I would recommend  this  book  to be read.

Kara, pregnant, abandoned by her own parents, and deceived by Harry’s parents. They gave her some money and sent her away , promising to pass on letters to Harry and that soon as he’d graduated he’d send for her, but in reality told him nothing.

Fast forward 27 years & Harry reappears in Kara's life to unexpectedly find out he is a father. The story follows their journey as Kara & Harry reconnect & Phil gets to know his father.

Well, there’s a few 5 star reviews for this story so I really expected to enjoy it but unfortunately it kind of underwhelmed me. It’s one of those that seems like a good book, just not a great one for me.

3.5 stars

Loved this emotional, heartwarming, engaging and relatable second chance romance filled with longing, regret, family dram, forgiveness and passion.... This is a thrilling and sweetly sexy romance filled with witty banter, lovable charters and life altering, regrettable miscalculations. Loved this journey and looking forward to more from this series.

This beautifully written second-chance romance immediately pulled me in and I held on for a rollercoaster ride of emotions, unable to put the book down until I read the last word. I laughed, cried, sighed, rolled my eyes, and I loved every minute of it! I felt a real connection to smart and independent Kara and enjoyed her dynamic with the other characters especially her granddaughter, Jessica, and Harry, who she hadn't seen in 27 years when he shows up at her Seattle art gallery opening.

The Road Leads Back is the perfect debut for the Stonehill series and a must-read for fans of this genre. This is the first book I have read by Marci Bolden and I look forward to reading more by this gifted author. She far exceeded my expectations with this heartwarming and at times heart wrenching contemporary romance.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley and this is my voluntary and unbiased review. I liked it so much, I purchased a copy for my keeper library.