Alex Jane sent me a copy of Home is Where You Are for review.

Description from Goodreads:
By the winter of 1870, Caleb Fletcher has carved out a sheltered existence for himself in a simple cabin, outside a small town in the backwaters of Nebraska, resigned to living out his days as a solitary wolf. But his quiet life is interrupted when another werewolf lands on his doorstep on the eve of a snowstorm, brutalized almost beyond repair, with nowhere else to turn.

When Caleb reluctantly welcomes Jacob into his cabin, and eventually his bed, it forces him to face up to the traumas he’s been running from; the shame that made him leave his pack behind, and the horrors of war he endured.

As the weeks pass, it seems that Jacob’s arrival might not be the coincidence it first appeared. Jacob has an agenda. One that involves Caleb. And if Caleb agrees to it – if he can let go of his past and his prejudices – it will change Caleb’s whole world. Maybe even for the better.

Without a mate – a family, a pack – a wolf has no home. 
But what if home finds you?

Review:
I thought this was really quite cute. I quickly came to appreciate both Caleb and Jacob. I thought the narrative voice was pleasing, the story satisfying, and the writing crisp. Basically, I enjoyed it.

However, I am not without complaints. I thought the first half took a long time to finally setting into a romance. Then, past the halfway mark, the story simultaneously dragged (in the sense that every time I thought the story had come to and end something new cropped up and the book felt overly long) and rushed (in the sense that all those bullet points, happily ever after events were relayed in a hurried and perfunctory way that didn’t at all match the style of the first half of the book). I also would have liked a deeper understanding of the world.

In the end, I’d call it a success, though. I enjoyed it, and that’s what I look for in a book.

Edit: The author later sent me a copy of the follow-up story for this book. It’s not quite a sequel, more like an add-on. You can see my review here.

Description from Goodreads:
Three years after Jacob Carpenter landed on Caleb Fletcher’s doorstep, the Alpha mates return to the city they grew up in to be married.

Aside from the sheer exhaustion of traveling across the country with three children in tow, both men step foot back in New York filled with apprehension about what kind of reception they will receive from their families after abandoning their respective packs.

At first it seems they are welcomed home with open arms and much excitement about their wedding but it soon becomes clear that not everyone is so happy to see the prodigal sons return.

Indeed, Caleb finds himself wondering if Jacob will go through with the ceremony at all, or whether it would be better to pack up his mate and their children, and head back to Nebraska before the situation does irreparable damage to them both.

Sometimes you have to leave a place to realize it’s exactly where you ought to be.

Review:
This is a sweet little add-on to Home is Where You Are. However, I wouldn’t recommend reading it if you haven’t read book one. It would be a spoiler. But if you have read the first book, this has all the feels you finished wanting, but some seriously cute kid-speak.

Having said that, it’s a little too schmaltzy for me; the obstacle felt both artificially created and solved, and the dialogue felt a little stiff at times.

It’s still a cute read, though.