I'm going to struggle with this review because having finally finished Homecoming by Luan Goldie I feel bewildered by this novel. I nearly stopped reading at several points, mostly because I found the characters and dialogue implausible, but having never abandoned an ARC from NetGalley, I was determined to finish this one.

Homecoming is described as 'a profound and moving story about love, family and friendship' and other reviewers refer to a love triangle, but I found very little love between the characters, even when the author states explicitly that they love each other. Why were Emma and Yvonne best friends? They only seemed to irritate each other. Every single night out depicted ends in one of them stropping off or ruining it for the other. Their dialogue is peppered with barbs and passive aggression. And as the tenuous love triangle (not really a love triangle given that one of the corners refers to another corner as Dickhead throughout) unfolds, it becomes apparent that Yvonne really doesn't care about Emma at all. Or at least not in the selfless way that best friends normally care for each other.

My other growing irritation with Homecoming was with the choice of tense and perspective. I assumed the flashbacks were written in present tense to add intense, heart-stopping suspense to the heavily foreshadowed dramatic climax, but actually when that came it felt oddly pedestrian and everyday. I'm not even sure it would make the papers. Past tense would, I think, have been more effective for all of these chapters. Meanwhile the present tense and close third person perspective of the present day narrative is oddly lacking in intimacy - we never get quite inside the characters' heads. Kiama's voice in particular I felt would have worked better in first person so I could inhabit the alien mind of an eighteen year old male. The dialogue somehow didn't help - I couldn't hear him in my head. I could just about hear Yvonne but she always sounded deadpan and lacklustre, which wasn't much fun.

Finally, and I'm sorry this sounds like a litany of complaints, I've been to Kenya and the scenes set there didn't carry me back on a wave of nostalgia. I'm sure the author knows Kenya as there are some revealing details in the sparse descriptions but I feel she could have been more generous with her evocation - allowing the sights, smells, sounds etc to leap from the page rather than smother them in deadpan dialogue.

On the upside! The first chapter hooked me in and I thought was well written - the third person with Yvonne's perspective and present tense works perfectly here. And actually the final chapter was also good; I finally began to believe in the central love story. It was everything in between that I struggled with, and I really am sorry because I know how much work goes in to writing a novel. But I think some tense and perspective switches, more convincing dialogue and a bit more evocation of Kenya would have made all the difference.

I know other reviewers have really enjoyed Homecoming though, and my views are of course entirely subjective.

This story spans the first 20 years of this century in which we are drawn into the lives of Emma and Yvonne who become inseparable whilst at University and who, unknown to each other, share the same man - l.ewis. As the women move on in life they lose touch for a few years and then it is Lewis who again is the catalyst to them getting back in touch. But Yvonne has a secret she cannot share. However, there is now a 4th character to be considered and this is Kiama. He wants to go back to Kenya where he was born and find his family. How he and Lewis fit into the backstory of Emma and Yvonne, explains much of the friction and heartbreak the women have faced in their lives. This is a novel that delves into why true friendship requires honesty and how, concealment can lead to tragedy and heartbreak. Luan Goldie creates characters that draw the reader in and to many of us, Yvonne's actions are therefore like holding up a mirror. How much would you tell a friend, and when?

Alternating between London and Kenya the story spans the years 2001 to 2020.
An interesting plot that starts from Yvonne and Emma meeting at university and how decisions they made then have affected so many people.
The writing somewhat static and I was increasing annoyed by the scenes set in 2020 which are now out of date and out of step with social distancing, lack of flights and all the other restrictions that Covid-19 has ushered in.

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.

Amazing book, amazing author, amazing story!!!
We absolutely love Luan Goldie and loved Nightingale Point. This coming of age story about Kiama is such a heartwarming and poignant story.

An interesting and engaging read, keeping you hanging on to the end re how everything went so wrong amongst these young lives. Student easy living, an unexpected pregnancy, best friends hooking up with the same guy though they didn't realise it at the time. Developing into the consequences of keeping secrets so as to not hurt someones feelings. Showing the importance of being honest from the start, rather than hiding facts that would have saved heartache, had they been told at the time. The book that I read can't have had it's final editing as there were quite a few grammatical errors.

Life, love and relationships covering two decades and two countries,
I enjoyed this book and related to the characters especially the teenage Kiama who was searching for answers and reliving memories. The story developed through descriptions of the present and flashbacks of the past, it was entertaining seeing how events played out and the repercussions of decisions made but the moral of the story is that honesty would definitely have been the best policy.
A book that keeps you interested to the end.

A huge thank you for giving me an advance copy of this amazing book. I read it in two sittings - I was hooked immediately. The story was gripping, the narrative so well-written, with really clearly moulded characters. Kiami was by far my favourite character, the others I felt were trying their best but each could have done a little more. I really loved the ending too. It made me laugh, cry, feel very tense, and overall a really great 5 star read!

I'm afraid I stopped reading half-way through. I found the writing rather commonplace, some aspects are a bit irritating (like Emma saying 'dude' all the time), and while I liked the character of Kiama, I found it hard to relate to Yvonne somehow. The romance part of it didn't really convince me. I wouldn't go as far as to say it's a bad novel, but I just wasn't hooked and have so many other books to read that I felt like I was losing my time reading a book I knew I wouldn't be impressed with, no matter what the denouement would be.

I absolutely adored Nightingale Point so as soon as netgalley made this available to request I was there... and I am SO glad I was!

This story flips between past and present and i have to say I enjoyed the past chapters a lot more than the ‘today’ pages but I had serious soft spot for Kiama.

For me I’d have liked possibly a slightly quicker recap of the earlier pages as I felt we spent a lot of time wondering ‘why?’ but overall really enjoyable and I would recommend.

I’ll definitely be reading anything and everything Luan Goldie writes!

Written across two decades and spanning two countries, the UK and Kenya, Homecoming is a moving story of love, friendship, family, deceit and betrayal. How three people are tied together in the present by one person who touched all their lives at some point in the past.

This is the story of friendship between Emma and Yvonne who meet as students with the added interest of a love triangle with Lewis. Emma comes from a relatively wealthy background, her parents live in Kenya and enjoy a pleasant lifestyle. Shortly before she is to graduate, Emma discovers she is pregnant and gives birth to a boy who she names Kiama which means Light of Life. When Kiama is a little boy, Emma returns to Kenya but she sadly dies when Kiama is eight. He returns to the UK and goes to live with his father. Now ages eighteen he wants to return to Kenya with Yvonne’s help, he wants to find out more about his mother and her death with a view to overcoming the grief he still feels. The story is told in alternating perspectives by Yvonne and Kiama and the storyline goes from 2020 back to 2001 which works well.

I like the friendship between Yvonne and Emma which feels real and the dynamics of the love triangle is good too and the impact it has on the friendship. Kiama is a really good character, his teenage angst, mood swings, his confusion and grief about his mother is well depicted. Kiama's relationship with Lewis is lovely and a pleasure to read. Lewis and Emma are likeable characters but connecting with Yvonne proves more challenging and she is difficult to figure out. That’s not to say that’s not an interesting angle and her guilt is conveyed clearly. I like the element of mystery surrounding what happens to Emma and when that’s revealed it does come as a shock and I think more could have been made of this. The ending is good, it’s satisfying and wraps events up neatly.

However, unfortunately I find the pace to be frequently slow, there’s a lot of detail which doesn’t seem necessary, for example, some dialogue which gets in the way of more interesting developments. The sections set in Kenya lack some colour which would have added an extra dimension to Kiama’s search.

Overall, there are many positives. Friendship, love between the adults and love for a child comes across very strongly and is a feel good factor. However, a quicker pace would have made it a more enticing read for me.

With thanks to NetGalley and HQ Stories for the arc.

A sincere thank you to the publisher, author and Netgalley for providing me with an ebook copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is not my usual genre, I’m more into crime/thriller books and even psychological thrillers too so I am extremely pleased and grateful to them for opening up my mind to something totally different.

Loved this. Got into all the characters from the beginning and enjoyed following their individual journeys., slightly predictable towards the end but still an enjoyable read and well written. Swaps between Uk and Kenya with ease

I have to be honest I could not get into this book at all, I'm sorry Netgalley I gave it perhaps 5 chapters and gave up.

I enjoyed ‘Homecoming’ byLuan Goldie but I Did feel that we should have found out earlier in the book how Emma had died as I didn’t feel as much sympathy with the characters throughout that I perhaps should have done.

This is a tale of a complicated love triangle with Kiama - the son of two of the people - at its heart. Set in England and in Kenya the story jumps back and forward from the 1990s to the present day. Luan Goldie has done an excellent job of creating believable characters and you are swept along, curious to find out exactly what happened one tragic day in Kenya. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and will definitely look for more works by this author.

A really great story about the importance of being honest and what the impact can be of omitting or lying.

Best friends Yvonne and Emma are at university together. When Yvonne meets Emma's new boyfriend, she is shocked to discover that Emma's new man is someone she had a one-night stand with a few months earlier. She had not heard from him since and was hurt by this. Emma thinks he is the one, but he has other ideas; then Emma discovers she is pregnant...
The book moves from the present day back to their uni days. Emma has died and her son has been living with his father. Out of the blue, he contacts Yvonne, who he knew in early childhood when he lived with Emma. He wants to return to Kenya, where Emma's parents live and he lived with Emma for a short time when he was 8, and persuades Yvonne to go with him. We discover how Emma died in Kenya and what has happened to her son since.
A tale of love, race and complicated relationships. A good read.

This is an emotionally sensitive book journeying through the experiences and relationships of two families. The setting in Kenya and London works well with the different cultures affecting the young boy,Kiama,in demanding ways. His mother,Emma,meets the other main character,Yvonne, at university in England,starting a friendship with many ups and downs and crossing relationships. The story goes back and forward in time but that is well done and strengthens the telling of their life changing experiences. The young boy then young man,Kiama,is particularly well portrayed showing deep insight into his reactions to life changing events here and when he lives in Kenya with his mother. He is confused and uncertain about what to do with his life. Another book covering what happens to him next would be welcome. This book is very well written. I recommend it.