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| Finding Home (Romances (Bold Strokes Books)) | 
 enlarge | Author: Georgia Beers
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
Buy New: $9.54
You Save: $6.41 (40%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 19366
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 240
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6
ISBN: 1602820198
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9781602820197
ASIN: 1602820198
Publication Date: June 10, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Brand new book! Delivered direct from our US warehouse by Expedited (4-7 days) or Standard (usually 10-14 days but can be longer). Expedited shipping recommended for speedier delivery. Over 1 million satisfied customers
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Product Description
"You're getting rigid and predictable."
Sarah Buchanan would never have used those words to describe herself in a million years. Never. But it's been almost a year since her long-time girlfriend left her for a man and she's suddenly realized that those words now describe her with frightening accuracy, along with one more: boring. Deciding it's time to escape her disaster of a life, at least long enough to turn it around, she takes a temporary position with her company overseas. The hardest part is leaving her blue-eyed dog, Bentley, but at least he's in the capable hands of her family. She thinks.
Natalie Fox is the exact opposite of Sarah. She's flighty, spontaneous, and lives in The Now. It's the way her parents raised her and for better or worse, Natalie loves her carefree life. When she finds a stray, skinny, terrified dog with blue eyes outside the bakery and decides to adopt him as her own, things seem just about perfect to her.
Take two stubborn, polar opposites with an attraction for one another they're trying desperately to ignore; throw in a couple of wise Italians, a handful of quirky friends, some homemade cannoli, and a far-too-observant dog; stir vigorously, then sit back, relax, and enjoy...
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 More like Stepping on Home Base June 11, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Georgia Beers has hit a home run with this one. I've read all her books, and loved them, and noticed a steady growth of skill and confidence.
But with this one, it got me with the dog. You'll never meet a more adorable supporting character than Bentley.
I loved this book. I love that Beers' characters are just ordinary people doing ordinary things, like screwing up their lives, trying to untangle them, trying to be smart and do the right thing.
Rushing to work every day, getting caught up in a career and a failed relationship, Sarah is on track. She has a plan. She likes things neat and under control and organized, so she can rush into work everyday and rush home after staying late at her office.
Natalie had a career, before she gave it up to push coffee and pastries at an Italian bakery. Because her "career" job just wasn't fulfilling. She has a pink streak in her hair. Natalie never thought of it as revealing a lack of character or maturity, though some people might assume that. Sarah certainly does, and underestimating Natalie goes a long way toward making this an interesting book to read.
And then there's Bentley, the dog. I could write about how vital and well-drawn the minor characters are, but I'd rather just tell you that you'll love Bentley.
And I'll add that this book will make you laugh. It will make you sniffle. And it will cause you to to reflect a bit on your own life and whether you're focusing enough on the important things, because, like Natalie says, you don't want to be haunted by too many "what ifs" in your life.
You say you don't like romance novels, that they're all the same? Read this one, and you'll see that a well-written romance can be simply delightful.
 A charming story July 6, 2008
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
If you don't look very carefully at the cover of Finding Home, you'll miss the picture on the cover of the most important character. He's at the bottom of the page, in the middle, right behind the author's name, walking down the path. That's him, Bentley, or Chino, depending on who you ask, and that is the fact the story rotates around.
Sarah Buchanan's life is a mess. Her long time partner left her over a year ago for a man, but not without leveling a parting shot that Sarah was a control freak who spent too much time at work. Sarah has come to realize there might be some truth to that and her answer is to sink herself into a liquor stupor every night when she gets home because she just can't move on. The one bright point in her life is Bentley, her beloved dog, who adores her and represents her only contact with the world outside of her office besides her family. When her company offers her an opportunity to go overseas for three months, it seems like exactly what she needs to force a change in her situation. Sarah hesitates only because of Bentley, but finally decides to go when her family promises to take good care of him.
Natalie Fox is warm, outgoing, disorganized and loved by all, except that she can't put herself out there to get a girlfriend. Something just keeps holding her back despite the prodding of her best friend Andrea and the Italian couple who own the coffee shop where she works and who treat her like a daughter. Natalie thinks she has adjusted to living her life alone until the day she finds a starved, frightened dog by the dumpster and takes him in. Chino becomes the focal point of her life and she can't imagine how she existed without him, which is why she's not quick to turn him over when Sarah returns home, discovers Bentley has run away while she was gone and is now living with someone else.
What do you do when two women love the same animal? Can people of such different personalities try to bend their lives to accommodate his needs? Is it possible that two lonely women can find the answers to what they both have been looking for all for the love of a dog?
Georgia Beers has written a romance that can only be called charming. It tells a pretty standard story of women meeting and developing a relationship. The real gem in the book is Bentley. He is what moves the story forward. His interactions with the two women are used to reveal their personalities and how they relate to him causes the plot points to unfold. Without the presence of the dog, this would just be a routine story. He makes it sparkle. Georgia Beers' fans will like this book for all of the usual reasons, but dog lovers will have an extra treat to reward them.
 Disappointing June 27, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I like Georgia Beers' books so much I actually considered writing to the woman at one point to thank her for the three-dimensional way she brings ordinary people to life. I'm honestly a fan. But this book was a total letdown.
It felt not so much rushed as that Beers just wasn't interested in her work. The characters are the same types who appear in her other books but there is only the outline of a story here, no meat on the bones: the characters never really come to life, they just wander around from scene to scene wondering what's wrong with them.
The richly diverse cast of family & friends who usually flush out the author's other books are almost out of the picture. The driven career-woman isn't particularly interesting or special in any way, & her borderline problem with alcohol is never addressed. The slightly-assertive younger woman isn't any more fully drawn. And the idea that characters who have taken this long getting acquainted are so compatible in bed that their specific tastes around power issues are psychically just 'known' to the other, rather than negotiated or at least discussed in some way, also got me nowhere: I just didn't buy it. I totally bought what is essentially the same story in Too Close to Touch.
The most fully-drawn character by far is the dog--which, okay, cute... if you're into dogs. I didn't think I was buying a doggie romance, myself, & found the frequent scoldings about Proper & Responsible Dog Care more than a bit wearing after the fifth or sixth doggie-related scene: enough already. Train the animal, keep it on a leash: got it. Really.
This whole project felt unfinished, quite a surprise as Beers' books are usually fully-imagined & very committed to their landscapes--of family, friends, decent moral values, career, and the quiet things in life that matter. No big dramas. It makes them very likable & realistic. In this case, however, the terrain was simply dull. Even the much-vaunted upstate New York landscapes whose virtues the author almost always sings are missing. The whole affect is flat & lifeless. Either the author was rushed, in a hurry for another paycheck, or her heart just was not in this one.
Either way, I still hope for better in the future & would buy more books by Beers: she's been a really consistent writer up to this point, clearly always working on her craft. Again: try Too Close to Touch for a much better, more lively & fully-imagined version of the romance between older control-freak/younger woman.
 Expected more from this one July 18, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
When I sit down to read a novel I expect to find angst, good characters, a story that moves forward with every page, and sex. For those of you who also look for these things, this book doesn't meet the requirements. It's a nice story and the characters are well developed, but, for me, the other things were lacking. (Ok, there was one sex scene, but it came at the very end of the book). From reading her other novels (Turning the Page and Thy Neighbor's Wife), I expected more than I got from this one.
Sweet, funny and wise July 14, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I've been a fan of Georgia Beers' writing ever since I read "Turning the Page" (1st ed.) many years ago. In these (happy)days when new lesbian novels keep raining and pouring over us, it's good to have writers who remain true to their style of story telling.
"Finding Home" is a love story, yes, but I think the main character is this adorable Mini Aussie Shepherd Bentley who sees and feels everything, and leads his two "mistresses" in the right direction.
The main characters are very real, very human and very lovable, with all their stubborness and insecurities. I want Mrs Valenti for my mother and was very irritated with Andrea most of the time!
Georgia Beers writing is, as usual, fluent, funny, and often very deep. I appreciate the fact that she doesn't feel obliged to introduce terribly big dramatic happenings in her story. It evolves naturally, almost softly, and with Bentley's help into the happy ending we know will be there.
It's like eating wonderful chocolate, with quite a few hard nuts in it!
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