Where My Heart Belongs
By editor on Jan 7, 2008 in Contemporary Fiction
Where My Heart Belongs
by Tracie Peterson
Imagine sitting at the dinner table with your mother and father, getting ready to tell them that the love of your life has proposed and you’ve accepted! Before you can open your mouth, your baby sister comes bouncing in informing the family that she wants her trust fund money now, that she’s moving out. Suddenly your whole world is turned upside down.
Soon after Kathy Halbert departs, her mother is rushed to the hospital with a possible heart attack. Her mother’s heart is broken because her sister has left and she doesn’t know where she is or how she’s doing. There goes all the plans for college and marriage since she’s needed at home to take care of her mother who is going to need constant care. Tests have revealed that her mother’s heart is in such bad shape she’s going to need a heart transplant.
So Amy tells her fiancé to go on with his life, to find someone new. Plans for college are canceled and Amy helps her father take care of her mother and the farm. Her mother ends up not living that much longer, but the dye has already been cast. The life Amy dreamed about is gone forever.
Now it’s twelve years later. Amy is back into nursing again, but this time it’s her father. He’s been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Amy’s thoughts are interrupted when someone comes to the door. When she opens it, her heart stops. Standing there in front of her is her sister! Standing in front of her is the source of all her pain and suffering for the last twelve years! She wants to come in, but before Amy can slam the door in her face, her father hears her voice and is overjoyed. He makes it slowly to the door to welcome the prodigal daughter. His prayers have been answered!
Once Kathy opened the door her life was once again turned upside down. Her sister Amy now goes by the name Sunshine, but answers to “Sunny.” Sunny has come home. She is devastated to learn that her mother has died. Then she learns that her father is going to die soon, too.
Kathy struggles throughout the book with her feelings. She knows she should forgive Sunny but every time she tries to all the pain and anger that filled those twelve years come boiling to the surface. She blames Sunny for everything that’s gone wrong in her life. Sunny is trying to come to grips with the life that she’s had since she left, and the problems that she caused her family by leaving.
The author puts the parable of the prodigal son into a modern day setting quite effectively. You get to know what’s in the heart of each of those involved. You feel their pain and their struggles. And you learn a lot about forgiveness and what it really means.
I highly recommend this book. It’s very thought provoking and heart warming. A very good read!
Reviewed by Lynn Worley
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