Kathleen Hill is eager for college. At home in Hilltown, her family’s namesake, she is pressured by her father to one day run the family business, the town’s steel mill, and her mother’s depression, alcohol dependency, and pill-popping are getting worse. When her acceptance to Northwestern comes, she is ecstatic, but she soon finds romance in an unlikely place.

Jase Thompson works at the mill, and while Kathleen’s father only wants her to learn the ropes to continue their family legacy, Jase is able to show her the real blood, sweat, and tears of the mill: the workers. When it’s time for Kathleen to go to college, their different backgrounds causes friction, and they part ways. Soon, she joins a sorority and meets Richard, a guy who woos her with fancy restaurants, galleries, and Chicago events.

When Kathleen eventually returns to Hilltown, what she sees flips her world upside down. Addiction and drugs have taken over the town, and Jase’s brother might be in trouble. The mill is gone. Soon, her family home will be too. But the biggest question of all is where is Jase? Journey Back to You is a story of love, heartbreak, survival, and reconciliation.