Mel's Shelves: Blog Tour/Review: Steal Away Home by Billy Coffey

Friday, February 9, 2018

Blog Tour/Review: Steal Away Home by Billy Coffey

About Steal Away Home

Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (January 2, 2018)

“This is a powerful story of grief, love, forgiveness, and holy mystery, and I loved it. Billy Coffey is a master storyteller.” —Lauren Denton, USA Today bestselling author of The Hideaway

Owen Cross grew up with two loves: one a game, the other a girl. One of his loves ruined him. Now he’s counting on the other to save him.

Owen Cross’s father is a hard man, proud in his brokenness, who wants nothing more than for Owen to succeed where he failed. With his innate talents and his father’s firm hand guiding him, Owen goes to college with dreams of the major leagues—and an emptiness full of a girl named Micky Dullahan.

Owen loved Micky from the first time they met on the hill between their two worlds: his middle-class home and her troubled Shantytown. Years later he leaves her for the dugouts and the autographs, but their days together follow him. When he finally returns home, he discovers that even peace comes at a cost. And that the hardest things to say are to the ones we love the most.

From bestselling author Billy Coffey comes a haunting story of small-town love, blinding ambition, and the risk of giving it all for one last chance.

“In one evening, a single baseball game, Coffey invites us into a lifetime. With lyrical prose and aching description we join Owen Cross on a journey of love, loss, faith, the unexpected—and America’s favorite pastime.” —Katherine Reay, author of Dear Mr. Knightley and The Austen Escape

I'm actually trying to figure out how I feel about this book. The setting is a Major League baseball game. Owen Cross is a catcher who has been called up to play one game for the Orioles against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium. The story takes place during the course of that game. He reflects on his childhood, his first love, his parents, and, of course, baseball. Some of the story is told in the present but the majority is about his past.

This is the first book I've read by Billy Coffey and I loved his writing! I also liked the message in this book. I don't mind that it's a baseball themed book. The characters were well developed and I felt like I got to know them fairly well. What I didn't like is that I didn't feel closure at the end and so that is what will stick with me the most. It also took me a while to really get into the story, so it certainly helped that I loved the author's writing style.

This is Christian fiction and faith plays a major role in the lives of the characters. The town is divided between the poor and everyone else. The events of one night has a huge impact on one of the characters and she feels a strong desire to change things, which is something not everyone is ready for. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a story of love, forgiveness and redemption.

My Rating=4 Stars
Source: I received an ARC via TLC Book Tours, which did not affect my review in any way

Purchase Links

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About Billy Coffey

Billy Coffey’s critically acclaimed books combine rural Southern charm with a vision far beyond the ordinary. He is a regular contributor to several publications, where he writes about faith and life. Billy lives with his wife and two children in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains.
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