Where My Heart Belongs

Tracie Peterson
Bethany House (2007)
ISBN 9780764203619
Reviewed by Tammy Petty Conrad for Reader Views (3/08)

 

This story follows the tale from the Bible of the Prodigal Son. Only this time, it is a daughter in modern-day Kansas who comes home having lost her inheritance and hurting her family deeply. The author, Tracie Peterson, gets right to the heart of things on page one and keeps moving all the way to the end, undoubtedly changing a few hearts along the way.

Kathy is a Kansas farmer’s daughter who has done her duty. She stayed home and cared for her parents when her younger sister Amy left the stifling confines of their small town and the high-school sweetheart she was afraid she’d end up marrying. Actually it was “Sunshine” who left, because even her birth name seemed to hold her back from the future she yearned to have.

The story moves easily between the present and the past with the use of flashbacks into the family’s history. Kathy remembers exactly what it was like when Sunshine left and what she had to give up during the twelve years her sister remained absent. Although Kathy has just become engaged, she pushes her young man away once her mother becomes too ill to care for herself.

Of course Sunshine knows nothing of the tragedy that befalls her family after her departure. And her family knows nothing of the horrors she endures. They fear she is dead and Amy often wishes she was.

This is a tale of how Kathy comes to grips with the actual reality of Sunshine’s existence and how she allows her to become part of the family again. But it is not a quick and easy adjustment for Kathy or her sister. Although raised in a Christian family, she finds it extremely hard to accept her sister back into the family and to forgive her. Finally she does realize something about grace:  “But isn’t that what grace is all about? Getting what we don’t deserve?” She has this light-bulb moment with a particularly annoying woman which makes it all the more meaningful!

I appreciated that this wasn’t just Kathy’s story, but Sunshine’s too. Although both were selfish at times, their motivations were revealed and I could imagine becoming friends with either of them and understanding where they came from and why they made the choices they did. The author has written over 70 books in a variety of genres. “Where My Heart Belongs” entertains, inspires and encourages readers to look at people and events from every angle before drawing conclusions.

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