My Way Home (St. Gabriel Series) Paperback – May 25, 2012

I absolutely loved this book. Once I started reading it I just couldn't put it down. The characters have well developed personalities, and are all so interesting. The descriptions of places on the island are so vivid that I could close my eyes and almost imagine that I was there. In fact the island seemed so real that I E-mailed Ms. Cartier to ask if it was a fictional island or a real place. Her reply was that although St. Gabriel Island is fictional, the inspiration came from Michigan's Mackinac Island, a place that she visits frequently. I can't wait to go there myself.The description of the story on Amazon gave me the feeling that it was just another romance novel, but it is so much more. At the beginning Cammy is devastated because her husband has left her for another women. When her friends convince her to take a trip with them to St. Gabriel Island, a place where she has always wanted to go, her life changes forever. She gains the strength to start over and make a new life for herself, and most of the book deals with how she makes that happen.The ending was something I never expected, and it really put the "icing on the cake" to make this an outstanding book.I recommended this book to my book club, and those that I've talked to love it as much as I do. It is a story of love, courage, determination, and adventure. I hope Ms. Cartier will write at least one sequel, because I want to be able to connect with the characters again.

First, I want to be clear that I really enjoyed My Way Home. Secondly, though, this book reminds me why I rarely read books that have a parenthetical phrase after the title (St. Gabriel Series).Let's go with the positives first. This a thoroughly engaging story of a NOT TWENTY SOMETHING woman's journey to reinvent her life after her marriage falls apart. The main character, Cammie, is very likeable and believable. The author knows how to make the reader root for our heroine every step of the way. The best thing about Cammie is her determination to totally change her life while still remaining true to her character and personality. Although the author could have done a better job of developing the secondary players in My Way Home, she does a fabulous job of describing Cammie's relationship with her husband. I mean, realistically no one can be married twenty-five years and simply toss that relationship aside. I totally bought into Cammie's feelings about her marriage and the decisions she makes regarding it.Another positive is Cammie's quest to follow her dream. I don't want to give the plot away, but she finds the first place to really feel like home and is willing to give up everything familiar for something she has dreamed of most of her life. (I also found my first real home long after my children were grown and after many years of marriage to the same man.) St. Gabriel's Island is completely charming, but not the easiest place to live. The fact that the author doesn't paint this magical place as stepping into a fairytale makes Cammie's story believable and interesting.I became so engrossed in My Way Home that I forgot the parenthetical phrase (St. Gabriel Series Book 1) while I was reading. So I was very disappointed and kind of disillusioned when, very near the end of the book, several new facts and issues entered the story only to be left unresolved. I thought, "What the..." Next thought was , "Oh yeah, the title had parentheses in it." I expect a book to resolve all the story-lines, even if the resolutions are not what I would have wanted or expected. I expect to have a feeling of having completed a journey with my heroine instead of a feeling of "What the..."Okay, so I admit the fault was all mine for not remembering that My Way Home was part of a series. However, I have read a few other books that were part of a series, and these books did not make me feel like I had been conned into having to read the next book in order to experience a feeling of accomplishment in having read a good book. I am now deciding if I will buy the next book in the series. I don't like thinking I was duped. I like to think of myself as a reasonably intelligent reader.So here's the bottom line. Even though I feel like I was conned, I only felt that at the very end of the book. I loved the author's writing style. I loved Cammie, the main character. I actually liked that everything wasn't wrapped up with a neat little bow.I'm buying Book 2 of the series today.

I just finished this book and found it warm, touching, humorous, sad, and loving. This is a clean cut story, so none of you have to fear cuss words, or descriptive love scenes. For Cammy and Race, the author just says they made love.The story is well written, flows smoothly, is easy to follow and understand. This is a story of fate, or another word would be kismet. I can't go further in the kismet thing or I would blow the whole ending for you and it will mess up your enjoyment of reading this story.You are going to love the way Cammy is written. She grows in this story to be a strong woman who becomes well equipped to live life. After you get a bit into the story, you will come to love Race too.When Cammy's husband of 25 years comes to her and says he is in love with another woman, Cammy is devastated.as any of us would be. She spends the requisite time wallowing in self pity and not accepting phone calls or answering her door. Her husband Race comes to see her to 'talk' to her and get the divorce going. Cammy asks who the woman is. He finally tells her. Cammy finds herself going to face her, like some of us would do. I have to compliment the author here. I know this is a story and I found myself wanting to slap this 'mistress' silly.Cammy's friends decide to take her on a trip to St. Gabriel. She grudgingly agrees. Once there Cammy falls in love with the place.And the story continues if you read the book. Can't say more or it will wreck the story for you.I recommend this book highly for about age 16 on up. It is a wonderful read.

Want a story that holds your interest? then this is the book to read! I'll not go into too much detail so not to spoil the story for readers.I have never read a book where the open chapter has so much emotion in it! As the story unfolds you get to know Cammy, she is open, honest and loves her husband Race very much.The holiday she takes to a place she has always wanted to go gives a hint of holiday romance, but the a classic head ruling the heart takes over. When Race decides he wants Cammy back you can feel her indecision of whether love can build the trust again.the lodge she sees falls in love with, the ghosts stories, the work, the love that blossoms into a business is explained in detail. This story can make you laugh and cry, Cammy always wanting everything to be right not just for her but her family and friends.Tales of the island are explained and tangled webs unravelled a very surprising ending, I was always waiting for the unfaithfulness to show it did but not from whom you expected it from!I would recommend this book to anyone who believes in love!

Review with some 'spoilers' -Events shared with the reader through the eyes and thoughts of a wife and mother whose husband thought he wanted to 'go in another direction' that would not include her.The opening chapter packed quite an emotional punch. A story about a man's mid-life confusion albeit a brief one. Even the best of men could be thoughtlessly cruel - as Race the husband was. For him to tell her that he was leaving her just before their daughter was due home from from university meant that she would have to live through several days of holding back on the needed discussion with him. If this was a real life situation, we could easily believe that Race arranged it this way to avoid an all-out emotional fall-out from his wife. He was able to laugh and spend time with their daughter,all the while knowing that Cammy had to hold back on HER anguish. I thought that was cruel of him - although his reasoning for the timing of his news was so that his wife would not make holiday plans for them that would include him.It was an emotional beginning to the story and drew the reader in. I was rooting for Cammy from the moment I read about Race wanting to'go in another direction'. Didn't like him much at that point, but the break-up was a brief one and this did help to redeem him in Cammy's eyes as well as in mine. I loved the emergence of Cammy from vulnerable to strong. I felt as though I was there with her in those first days after Race left her for another woman. The descriptions of a Cammy who neglected her personal self, the uncombed hair, the unbrushed teeth, the vacuum in which her days and nights merged, were so poignantly described that It was heart-wrenching to read. AND THEN - the author described the slowly 'reawakening' of a woman who started to 'return' to herself. I love Cammy's decision to cut her hair. This was a defining moment for her recovery. Race loved her long hair - her deciding to cut it off was the new beginning that would no longer have him in it. I loved the the scene at the hairdresser. Her best friend and even the hairdresser wanted her to rethink her decision. She wanted it off, off, off , she told them. From thereon the reader knew there was no need to worry for Cammy. She was going to be fine. And indeed she wasThen there was her discovery of life on an island to which she was strangely 'drawn'. And Race came back into her life just when she was ready to begin anew without him. I lovde that she was not going to give up on her new dream for him. He wanted to come back, he would have to fit in with her plans - and he did. He gave up his teaching post to go with her - and that did make up for his brief abandonment of her, although it would have been even better if she had made him wait a little longer while SHE went 'in another direction'.Loved the email that Race wrote to 'the other woman' who tried to entice him back to her. Loved that he showed it to Cammy before sending it. It was an affirming message about his wife and their marriage - and it also finally made 'the other woman' slink away.The rest of the story was about husband and wife finding a different way of living - on an island. The supporting characters who entered their lives all had their own stories to tell and the threads pulled together to give a feel of a community that warmed the heart despite the ferocious winter weather on the island.There was a twist towards the end that also left the reader feeling good. Some poignant moments in the retelling of a past that involved some of the characters on the island.The detailed and extended prologue in the second book of this story called 'Sweet Gabriel' was essential reading.This was a feel-good story despite of - or maybe because of how it started. It got even better after I read the prologue of the second book in which the reader was given Race's perspective. Good to know that he came to his senses pretty quickly and that it happened at the very moment when Cammy had given up on him. THAT detail gave an added poignancy to their journey back to one another. Race's 'Oh no,what have I done!' moment was just what was needed to redeem him to the reader. Everything came full circle from their initial separation to their reunion in that prologue. It would lead the reader to the next chapter of their lives on their island.I am taking my time to read the second book because I don't want it to end too soon.I recommend this one and its sequel. Hoping for more to come. Would like to continue as a long-term 'guest' in their island hotel. So all right, it is just a journey of the mind; but no less enjoyable.

Sensitive writing with excellent characterisation. What a good read and free at that! I look forward to reading more of Ms Cartier's work.

wonderful story, enjoying every word of it.. Highly recommended

When her husband leaves her Cammy is heartbroken - to take her mind off her situation her friends take her to St Gabriel, an island she has long dreamed of visiting. Captivated by the island, a "haunted" lodge and some new friends (and a possible new love interest) Cammy decides to move to the island. What ensues is an enjoyable and heartwarming story of new love, friends, starting your own business and eventually a mystery solved (all with some ghostly hints).This is a well written and enjoyable novel which doesn't go the way that you expect from its opening couple of chapters. I felt that it had a particularly strong opening and waited for some more of the same later on but this didn't happen. After a while I did get a bit tired of the book lacking a climax and although a mystery is resolved at the end I felt that it was all a bit convenient. In short, the end wasn't as well written as the beginning and consequently I felt a bit let down, but not hugely and I felt that the overall reading experience merited the four stars.Not a particularly challenging book but enjoyable enough.