A review by salreads
Homecoming by Luan Goldie

3.0

With thanks to Netgalley and HQ stories at Harper Collin for a digital copy of this book. I greatly enjoyed this novel, settling into the read right from the start. The narrative switches between the present and the past building up a story of the friendship between Emma and Yvonne which started at university. Emma and Yvonne both fall in love with the same man, Lewis. After Lewis breaks up with her, Emma finds out that she is carrying his baby and goes on to have a son, Kiama. Unbeknown to Emma, Yvonne and Lewis are in a relationship which neither feels able to tell her about. As the events in the past are interchanged with events in the present, a grown up Kiama asks Yvonne to accompany him on a trip to Kenya in order to process the events of his childhood. There is a lot to like in this book – the characters are well-drawn, the chemistry between Lewis and Yvonne is strongly evoked, and the trip to Kenya is powerfully observed. The tension builds between Kiama and Yvonne as the trip awakens memories and secrets from the past. Emma and Yvonne’s friendship is at the heart of the book and in particular an exploration of how their relationships with the same man impact on life choices and the integrity of their friendship. How you view the life choices and the reaction of other characters to these choices will affect the reader’s enjoyment of the novel. The central dilemma is very thought provoking.