⭐️⭐️.💫/5. No Place Like Home by Barbara O’Neal. Thank you to the author, the publisher and NetGalley for this advanced reader copy. I am not a fan of romance novels. I received this novel expecting a family drama, however it is actually very harlequin-romancesque, and I am just not a fan of that genre. I struggled to finish this book. Jewel left Colorado and her big Italian family over twenty years ago on the back of a musician’s motorcycle. Her father hasn’t spoken to her since. Jewel is back in Colorado as she’s inherited a farmhouse. Her dear friend Michael is dying and Colorado seems like a good place to care for him. Jewel’s teenage son is also with them. Michael’s rugged brother soon shows up, and that’s when the novel goes south for me. So many descriptions of his beefy manliness. Come on. Too much romance; not enough family. This just wasn’t for me!

No Place Like Home follows Jewel, a young woman who defies her traditional Italian Catholic family in Pueblo, leaving for New York at 17 with her rock-star quasi-husband Billy and their friend Michael. After two decades, Jewel feels the pull of her roots and returns home with her son Shane and Michael, seeking reconciliation and redemption. As Jewel navigates familial tensions and personal growth, she finds unexpected love and forgiveness. Barbara O'Neal masterfully crafts a tale of longing, family ties, and second chances, with characters so vivid they leap off the page. From the immersive settings to the richly developed backstories, readers are transported on a journey of love, loss, and forgiveness. Though the book contains sensitive themes, O'Neal handles them with grace and sensitivity. Overall, No Place Like Home is a poignant and unforgettable read, showcasing O'Neal's talent for storytelling and leaving readers eager for more.

"No Place Like Home" is one of those books that provides you with warmth and honesty, and it constantly hits you right in the feels. The novel provides the reader with beautiful writing that offers depth and authenticity in the character development.

The close-knit family dynamic that is centered around Michael is what truly shines in this story. Overall, this novel is such a heartfelt story that provides humor and insight into the human experience. It is a testament to the power of love, family, and the spirit of optimism.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for this ARC.

Barbara O'Neal's book are so moving, you feel every emotion she puts on the page. No Place Like Home was the same.... you could feel the heat of the environment, the rush of the river...and I loved who Jewel was as a person, I read this in 24 hours, was just so absorbed in it.

Overall this was a good book, but just good. I felt like there wasn't a lot of destination - where was it going? What got accomplished.....Very neatly everything tied up in a package.

No Place Like Home by Barbara O'Neal

What I Loved:
The descriptions. On every level. From the characters to the setting. I could visualize everything.
Jewel. I loved Jewel as a main character.

This book moves slowly through Jewel trying to find her place amongst her family she left behind some twenty odd years ago. She's coming back with her tail a little between her legs. She's now a single mom to a teenaged boy and is taking care of her best friend Michael who is slowly succumbing to AIDS. She inherited an orchard and is trying to establish her own business while doing her best to make ends meet. Michael's brother finally shows up and proceeds to be the love interest.

While I loved the descriptions of the town, and the rainstorm was a particularly visceral scene for me, sometimes the descriptions went too hard and also started to feel repetitive.

I loved how uncomfortable Jewel was in her body. I loved the descriptors used for her. I think this inclusion is so important as what women hasn't felt uncomfortable in her skin? Especially when it comes to aging? But there never really was much of a resolution to this thread. I would have loved to see more here.

I also wish there was more of Michael. I'd have loved to get flashbacks of when Michael and Jewel were young and becoming friends. Flashbacks when they were older and running Michael's restaurant. Flashbacks that included Andre. So much of their relationship was built and based in the past and I feel if I got to see those moments as a reader, it'd be so much stronger.

It also felt weird to me that Jewel was still so hung up on Billy when she had quite a few years to deal with the loss. Especially since it was known to the characters that he was spiraling and getting bad with drugs. I've also never dealt with drug-related loss or addiction so maybe I just don't understand, but that would be a brilliant addition to the novel so readers like me could understand.

At the end of the day, this book reads more like a drama than a romance, so why did it have a cheesy romance ending? I'm not saying they can't get together, but it felt so rushed and forced.

Overall, I love the basis of this story but I think there's a lot of room for improvement. It reads very, very slow. At times it was a lot of work to get through. I'd love it if there was flashbacks to when Jewel and Michael were younger, to show the reader their relationship rather than tell it. I also spent most of the book confused on who/what the book was about. Was it about Jewel trying to find her place in her home town? Jewel's relationship to Michael? In the end, I think it was a bit of both, but I think some work needs to be done to better express that. Michael feels so minimal until near the end of the book, and while his death is sad, I think with some changes, and showing his relationship with Jewel grow and strengthen over the years, could make his death devastating to the reader.

While I did enjoy this book, it's not the best I've read from O'Neal, and I probably wouldn't read it again

With her son Shane and dying best friend Michael in tow, Jewel Sabatino returns home after twenty-one years to Pueblo, Colorado when she inherits an old family home. Still estranged from her father, Jewel soon assimilates back into the traditions of her large Italian family as she builds her pie-making clientele, plans for her sister’s wedding and meticulously cares for Michael. When Michael’s brother Malachi arrives for a visit, Jewel is forced to confront her past, present and future.

With a very slow burn first half, the story picked up for an enjoyable and emotional second half. The recipes and religious intonations before each chapter were also a distraction for me. There are lots of themes including family ties, estrangement, dying and grief and of course Ms. O’Neal’s signature romance.

Thank you NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the opportunity to read this revised edition in exchange for my honest opinion.

After leaving home a lifetime ago, Jewel finds out she has inherited her aunt's house just when her life is falling apart. So she packs up her teenage son and dying best friend to return home to her estranged family. As she re- acclimates to her family and place of her youth, she finds herself with a new opportunity for love. Another beautifully written and heartfelt novel by Barbara O'Neal.

I've read several books by Barbara O'Neal and loved them all, so I was very excited to read this updated version of No Place Like Home with writers edits. The story is beautiful and I could connect with Jewel and her relationships with her family, Michael, and Malachi. The underlying story of Jewels relationship with her father was an added layer that I wish we could have gotten more of.

It started off a bit slow for me and I almost put it down twice. I stuck with it the second half was wonderful. Honestly, not one of my favorite books from Barbara O'Neal, but a good read. This is why I'm giving it 3.5 stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for providing me with an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Loved this book.

Beautiful setting. Beautiful family. Beautiful story about life, in all its joy and suffering.

Makes you want to eat and drink and get cozy and notice the little things and hug the ones you love and forgive and just stop wasting time.

It wasn’t a five star because some of the relationships were just too unbelievable for me. That and I could have done without romance scenes.

But. Overall this was a really good spring/summer read that I could have read in one sitting if I didn’t have to work.

No Place Like Home is a re-release of a 2014 novel by Barbara O'Neal.

This is a story of the family we are born into and the family we make for ourselves. The main character Jewell is from a large family in Colorado. Jewell left home as a teenager and returns to her traditional Italian family with her son and best friend.

The family relationships are well written as is the platonic love story between Jewell and her best friend Michael.

This would be a great read for any book club with its themes of rebuilding your life after love and loss, surviving family expectations and forgiveness.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an advanced copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own.

First, if you do not like reading about sexual tension between two consenting adults, this is not a book for you. Having said that, I loved this book. Jewel ran away from home with a musician when she was 17 . Her father did not approve and disowned her. Now she has a 17 year old son, the musician, Billy, who she never married is dead, her best friend Michael, who she is caring for, has AIDS, and her apartment was sold. Therefore, since her aunt has died and left her house to Jewel, the obvious thing is to go back home. And when Michael's brother comes back to be with him, Jewel finds a second chance at love. This is a story of forgiveness, the importance of family and friends and coming home. And yes, you might occasionally shed a tear. Thanks to NetGalley for an arc, and for no pressure for a positive review.

Review of No Place Like Home by Barbara O'Neal

No Place Like Home by Barbara O'Neal is a book that generally dwells on the family. The narration involves a main character, Jewel, who is surrounded by several similarly significant characters, namely Michael, who is her best friend; Michael's brother Malachi; Jewel's son Shane; not to mention Jewel's family, her parents, sisters, and even her grandmother. In her teenage years, Jewel was what one would call a wild teenager who made an impulsive decision to run off to New York with her lover, an upcoming musician who unfortunately did not become a successful artist and ended up miserable, a misery in which he likewise swept Jewel along with him. Things turned around when a relative left her inheritance to Jewel, who now had no choice but to go back to her roots with her son. She decided to take his friend Michael along with her since he was now sickly, and later Malachi was to join them. When she went back to her family, for obvious reasons, she didn't seem to fit in, and life became quite awkward for her. Find out in this captivating book how things will end after many years of being away from home, having run off to get a taste of the big world.

What I like about the book is how it has brought out strong family ties that don't seem to break, no matter the circumstances. Moreover, I like how the author has taken the good, the bad, and the ugly and put them together and has made something good out of everything; life is all about this, not just the good but also the bad and the ugly. I additionally like how profound the book is—the way the author narrates the story deeply so that it takes the reader to another world—and how it manages to capture the reader's imagination so that it is simply difficult to put the book down.

I rate this book 5 out of 5 stars.

I recommend the book No Place Like Home by Barbara O'Neal to those with a past that needs redeeming—those whose past has become their worst nightmare, particularly where family ties are concerned. I likewise recommend it to those readers who love fascinating romantic books from seasoned authors.

I had a tough time getting into this book at first, I think primarily just because the writing style was different than the last book I read, but I ended up falling in love with Jewel and Michael and Malachi, and all of Jewel’’s family. The friendship between Jewel and Michael was so beautiful, I shed some tears several times!! Wonderful book!

What a beautiful story! Absolutely loved so much about this book: the writing, the characters, the setting, etc… As far as I understand, this book was written in 2002 and one can tell when compared to the writing of today. The author let the story unravel beautifully while acknowledging tough topics: AIDS, sexuality, and family, instead of much of the writing today where there is a bit of virtue signaling or feeling the topics are forced.

Jewel (main character) is at the stage in life where you question who you are and how you want to live the next phase of your life. How the way you have been living your life may have been from old thoughts or patterns and as one experiences the nuances of life, wanting to shift into a different or more authentic part of self because of the experiences lived.

Overall, beautiful story and this would be a great option for a book club.

Thank you to NetGalley and Lake Union Publishing for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Jewel inherits a farm and returns home after twenty years, her son, Shane, can meet his extended family. This is a a story of family, good read.

The plot is both layered and complex and flows. The telling of the dynamics of a large family made me wish I had grown up in a family filled with siblings. I always wanted sisters, and so I lived vicariously through Jewel reading No Place Like Home. The family is populated with many characters, but each one has a distinctive personality and so it is easy to remember each one. The depictions of friendship are beautifully drawn. I love the idea of how dreams are realized and how they sometimes fall apart. In a large family there is always someone to step in and help. As the lead character, Jewell is perfect as a woman who has much but who deserves even more.

This is a tale of families - both blood and those we form on our own. A father who is upset of his daughter’s bad behavior (in his eyes), a dying friend, and a heir to an old house, Jewel has a lot to contend to in this book. But yet I was captured by engrossing depth of character development that the author does for the many characters that you can clearly know and there a lot - they are a big Italian family, you know!

Also I have to say, during one part of the story a song gets put on - Long as I can see the light by CCR - make sure you put it on while reading the next few pages. It really brought this story to life and I felt like it was a movie being played out.

I have read many of her books and will continue to read them - all so wonderfully written!

★★★★ ½

Oh my gosh! I know this book is 20 years old, but it still reads so fresh! I absolutely LOVED Jewel, I was rooting for her the entire time. The relationship she has with Michael is a friendship everyone dreams of. I’m soo grateful she made up with her father. I haven’t cried during a book in a long time, make sure you have tissues ready!

This is a heart-felt story of a prodigal daughter returning home. Jewel left at age seventeen on the back of a motorcycle and never looked back…until she learns that she has inherited her aunt’s home and farm back in Pueblo, Colorado. Since she has been disenfranchised from her family and the family business (an Italian restaurant), her return is embraced by her mother and sisters, while her father continues to reject and ignore her presence.

The novel is an exploration into the many faces of love. Shane, Jewel’s teenage son, is meeting his extended family for the first time and testing the limits of his boundaries with predictable results. Michael is a long-time best friend who is in the final stages of AIDS, having lost his life partner to the disease a few years before. Jewel’s devotion to him is touching and the sources much of the emotional tone of the storyline. It had me in tears by the end of the book. Scattered among the family descriptions are solid, caring relationships and marriages. Jewel, herself, entertains the possibility of a mature loving relationship after years of being involved with a troubled musician who fathered her only child. Lastly, father and daughter are reunited with a feel-good ending.

I understand that this novel was previously released and is being reissued with editorial revisions. This is my first exposure to the book, and I enjoyed it. I felt connected with the protagonist and her relationship challenges. I have always enjoyed this author’s work and look forward to future offerings.

My thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for the privilege of reviewing this book. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This review is being posted immediately to my GoodReads account and will be posted on Amazon upon publication.

It is always a thrill to review a book by Barbara O’Neal. I was excited to read “No Place Like Home,” which is a re-issue of a novel originally published back in 2014.

Jewel left home at a very young age, heading to New York where she falls in love and has a child. More than two decades later, she inherits property back in Pueblo and returns to determine whether she can go home again.

I remember reading this book and enjoying it, but after reading O’Neal’s more recent books, I found that this plot line dragged just a bit. At the same time, O’Neal is quite skilled at creating well developed female characters and their complicated relationships. While this isn’t as strong a novel as “When We Believed in Mermaids,” it is still an enjoyable story.

Three out of five stars.

Thank you very much to Netgalley and Lake Union Publishing for the advanced reader’s copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.