Sometimes a book creeps into your soul and lives there for a time - this is one of those books for me.

For me, No Place Like Home started a bit sluggish, but given that Barbara O'Neal has written some of my all-time favorite books, it was nothing to hang in there with her; I am so glad I did.

Coming home is never easy, coming home after being cut off from your family for twenty years is unimaginable, and that's exactly how Jewel felt when she packed up her life in New York, along with her 17-year-old son and her best friend Michael, whom she was caring for through the end of AIDS battle. Now living in her great-aunt's house in Pueblo, Jewel is starting again; widowed, broke, and the pariah of her family, according to her father. But all bets are off once Michael's 6-6 brother Malachi shows up on his motorcycle. Be still my heart.

The storyline is good, but the book's meat is Jewel's love story. Anyone who has ever felt less than what they used to (bigger hips, thicker thighs, wrinkles, saggy boobs, flabby belly) will relate to how Jewel overcomes her own perceptions and allows herself to once again fall in love with herself, her life, her family, and a man.

Originally published in 2002, the simmering heat is unlike O'Neal's later novels and it took me by surprise, but in such a good way [she says with a wink]. And like any good love story, No Place Like Home left me in tears, twice.

I will relish this book's hangover. ( )

I love her writing. There is no place like home, but sometimes getting there is half the battle. ( )

The story of Jewel Sabatino who returns to Pueblo, Colorado, after being gone for 20-some years when she had left under a black cloud. The writing was good, but I could see exactly where the story was going at page 40, no surprises. ( )

A woman returns home with her son and a friend who is dying of AIDS. ( )