Closer to Home by Jill Hannah Anderson ~ a Review

by Susan Roberts

Joleigh Moore lives an almost-reclusive life on her small farm in Missouri. But when she witnesses the murder of her boyfriend, Mack, she worries the assailants will come after her next.

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February 2024; Red Adept; 978-1958231432
ebook, print (334 pages); romantic suspense

I have enjoyed all of Jill Hannah Anderson's books but her newest book Closer to Home is definitely my favorite.  It takes place in Minnesota in the late 70s when life was much simpler and there seemed to be no quick answers because everyone wasn't connected by phones and computers.  The main character lives a fairly simple life at the beginning.  Over her young life, she has lost her parents, been in foster care, and then adopted by Unity, an older woman who has recently died.  Unity taught her to live off the land and she is now living at her small home and taking care of the animals that she loves.  When she sees the murder of her kinda boyfriend, she knows that she needs to get out of town.  So she gives up her quiet rural home to start over somewhere different.  She may have lived a fairly simple life in Missouri but Joleigh was a smart young woman when it came to survival skills.  She snuck out of town hidden in a neighbor's station wagon and got out of the car in a small town in Minnesota.  She gets a job and starts to make friends but has to remain vigilant in case the killers are still looking for her.  She finds an old cabin in the woods and moves into it and begins to get more involved in the town.  Can she find happiness here  -- and maybe love? -- or will she move back to the town and the farm where she lived with her adopted mother?  Can she have a future without solving the problems in her past?

This is a fantastic small-town story where people look out for each other.  Joleigh is a fantastic main character.  She has all of the basic survival skills yet remains a person who wants to take care of others.  This is a great story with a lot of suspense -- why did the men kill her boyfriend and are they looking for her, a bit of romance and the great feeling of small-town life where everyone knows everyone's business but also looks out for each other.

Once I started this book, I couldn't put it down.  If you like small-town stories with strong women, you don't want to miss this book -- or any of this author's previous books.

Buy Closer to Home at Amazon

Susan Roberts grew up in Michigan but loves the laid-back life at her home in the Piedmont area of North Carolina where she is two hours from the beach to the east and the mountains in the west.  She reads almost anything but her favorite genres are Southern Fiction and Historical Fiction.   

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