Already Home by Susan Mallery

Jenna Stevens, a recently divorced sous-chef, moves back to her hometown of Georgetown, Texas to start over. Her adoptive parents greet her with open arms, and Jenna decides on a whim to open her own store. While Jenna always had a knack for cooking, her ex-husband worked diligently to place seeds in her mind that she was no good at her profession, so Jenna decides to open a retail store with cooking supplies, instead of doing any actual cooking. Quickly realizing she is in over her head, she hires Violet, a street smart woman that works well with the customers. The duo form an unlikely friendship, and Jenna thinks everything is finally falling into place in her life. But everything changes at rapid pace when her birth parents suddenly show up at her store, claiming they want a relationship with their daughter. Jenna is thrown by these free spirits- Serenity and Tom- who want so badly to reconnect with Jenna after so many years. But Jenna is weary- she loves her adoptive parents, and the timing doesn’t seem right. Why now, why after so many years did her parents decide to come find her? Can Jenna learn to love her birth parents? Or does fate have a different plan?

I adored Already Home by Susan Mallery. This was a book that from page one got my attention and drew me in. Jenna’s character seemed a little fragile after her nasty divorce, but I could tell she wanted to stay strong and make her parents proud. The love between Jenna and her adoptive mother was very touching to read, especially the loyalty Jenna felt to her once Serenity showed up. There wasn’t a whole lot of romance in this story, and I thought that was fine. It was deeper, made me ask myself a lot of questions and really put myself in Jenna’s shoes. Of course, there is a love interest for both Jenna and Violet, and Violet’s storyline really had me invested and shocked. The ending of the story brought tears to my eyes, but I felt satisfied after I flipped the last page. I think this is definitely one to put on your to-read lists!