A Love that Leads to Home by Ronica Black
- Publisher: Bold Strokes Books, August 11th 2020
- Genre: Romance, LGBTQ+
- Format: Paperback (eARC)
- Page Count: 290 pages
- My Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5)
Is it a good thing that I tend to love toaster-oven romance more than most other tropes? A story where at least one party is figuring out their sexuality almost always focuses more on the development of the relationship, and I love an extremely slow-burn book where both characters try to understand what they are feeling for each other. Reading toaster-oven romances is often like experiencing falling in love all over again, and Black’s A Love that Leads to Home is one of those beautiful works.
Carla Sims is back home for her dying grandmother. When her aunt Maurine, who is more of a sister than an aunt, takes her in on her living room sofa, Carla finds it hard to relax during the stressful times. Then Maurine’s best friend Janice Carpenter offers Carla her guest bedroom. Janice, who is struggling with her attraction toward Carla, has no idea that housing Carla is going to change her life forever. Neither does Carla.
While Carla and Janice weren’t best friends, they have known each other through Maurine and spent a great deal of time together when they were younger. And since another trope I love is best-friend romance, especially those with years of friendship before anything romantic, this friends-to-lovers aspect is an added bonus.
There are so many things I love about this book, and almost everything has to do with the language. I especially love the almost excessive internal dialogues. As readers, we get to clearly see Carla’s and Janice’s struggles with themselves and discomforts as they try to justify their own behaviors and thoughts. Sometimes, these dialogues are discontinuous, incoherent, and erratic, and I love this honest presentation because that’s what feelings are. I also love how the writing is laced with powerful emotions. I love how they talk, how they are both so careful in picking and choosing words, how their interactions are always almost poetical. And I love the first part of the first sex scene that lasted six percent of the book. It was beautiful it left me speechless.
She wanted her. Oh, yes, she did. Mind, body, and soul.
The side story Janice’s great aunt Mamie introduced is the best thing apart from the main romance. And the eighty-six-year-old is truly a great lady. The close relationship she and Janice have also mirrors the ties Carla has with her grandmother.
I connect with both Carla and Janice a lot, thinking at multiple occasions that they are doing what I would have done in similar situations. Though Janice is struggling with her own sexuality and is always avoiding discussing it with Carla, all other parts of their dialogues are deeply honest, and I really love that.
Apart from some ambiguity during a few of the conversations where I had to reread to determine who was talking, I had no real complaints of the book.
While I love almost everything about this book, I understand that it might not be for everyone. If you love a slow-burn romance where the characters are carefully dancing around each other while being incredibly adorable, this story is for you. If you like rom-coms where most of the book focuses on fighting through obstacles instead of figuring out their own feelings while being entertaining, this book might be a bit of a drag. It was an emotional read for me, and if you want a good heart-wrenching story, read it.
“I know that nothing I fear is worth losing you over. Nothing.”
Janice
Sometime in the future, I’d like to revisit A Love that Leads to Home for the intricacies of Carla’s and Janice’s thoughts, and one of the most beautiful sex scenes I’ve read to date. [17 Jul 2020]
I received an e-ARC from Bold Strokes Books via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
