Sarah Graham's plan is to collect her inheritance and run. But her plan is wrecked when she finds out her father has put a clause in his will that she must stay in his house in Jordan, New York for six months before she can claim the money. How will she stand living in the house of a murderer – and just a short drive from the Jordanites who seem to have held her dad in some kind of unrealistic awe. And now the townspeople are making her welfare their business to the point of meddling. Did he put them up to that too?
Home Another Way, a debut novel by Christa Parrish, is the story of Sarah’s six-month forced sojourn in Jordan. But is six months long enough to soften her shell of bitterness, anger, self-pity, and self-destruction? Will she ever have a reputation for anything but rudeness? Is there a chance that Maggie, Beth, Jack, and Memory have answers to the questions – about her dad, and life in general – that have plagued her for as long as she can remember?
The plot of Home Another Way is stretched taut by the six-month time frame of Sarah’s stay in Jordan. However, during that time Parrish brings a lot to pass. Under the direction of Doc, the enigmatic local doctor, Sarah makes some forays out of her miserable little I-shaped world by doing errands for isolated patients. Then burn-scarred Beth becomes her friend, Beth’s brother Jack presents a challenge to her feminine wiles, and she gains a surrogate mother of sorts in the blunt but loving Memory Jones. However, for each step she takes forward, circumstances seem to push her two back, so that we are dangerously close to the end of the book before we have any assurance that Sarah’s experiences will have changed her in any lasting way.
The characters in this book shine – although to be honest, I spent about half of the story disliking the main one. Sarah did grow on me, though, so that I came to appreciate her sarcastic and witty comebacks and see through her acting-out to the pain beneath. By the end, I felt that not only had she gained insight into herself, but so had I learned about myself through my often judgmental and graceless reactions to her.
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