This is the first book I have read by Penny Parkes, I can usually tell within the first three to four pages if I am going to like the writing style of the author, It only took those pages for me to be hooked!. I love this book, I was swept away with the main character Anna, her story is beautiful, yet sad at the same time, observing her torment and uncertainty as she tries to make sense of her life so far, feeling unsure and untrusting of others.. I found my self in tears on more than one occasion, smiling and laughing at others. Anna and Kate have a deep bond, I can identify with this kind of friendship.

This is a fantastic book and will be recommending it to all of my friends

5 stars from me!!

Goodness me I loved this book. It was so heartfelt and thoughtful. I loved the idea for the main storyline from the outset and loved getting to know the main character and why she chose to live the way she did. I loved her friendship with her best friend and I loved the messages the book had about family and who deserves that title. So brilliantly done and the best Penny Parkes to date (they are all brilliant though)

This was written well and I really enjoyed the read. Loved all the characters within the story too. It’s lovely to read how a house / home is just more than bricks.

With thanks to netgalley for an early copy in return for an honest opinion. First time reading this author and a very poignant take unfolds, a feeling of belonging is quite overwhelming in this beautifully write book its full of wanting and what ifs I thoroughly enjoyed this and can recommend.

Reading the blurb this isn't what I was expecting- in a good way. This doesn't follow the clichés and it makes it better that it doesn't. A really interesting theme of identity really hits home (excuse the pun) to the reader. The challenging family relationships, the physical place of a home and what its like to unexpectedly lose that. Also to anyone who has ever tried to write a novel will relate to Anna and her delaying tactics to actually reaching the point of having something to share.
Enjoyed the two main different time frames and the way they alternated.

Having read and enjoyed The Larkford Series of books, I was excited to hear that Penny Parkes had a new novel out. This is very much a standalone novel, and it is much more serious than the Larkford books, which were lighthearted and funny in places.
Home is about Anna, and her life in foster care. The novel dips back and towards in time to recall significant events in Anna's past. It is easy to follow the place and time of the events
As the book progresses it becomes apparent as to why Anna lives the Nomads lifestyle that she does, living in other people's homes in the search for a home of her own.
This book highlights the difficulties that an older child in foster care can face. It also shows that there are different reasons that a child might end up in care, from different backgrounds.
I enjoyed reading this book. There was only a small cast of significant characters, but they were well developed. It is very well written and I found myself being compelled to carry on reading. It can be uncomfortable reading at times, and very emotional. There is however hope, that Anna will find what she is looking for, a place to call home.
Thank you to Netgalley and the Publisher for my ARC.

A very enjoyable, easy to read story. Thanks for the opportunity to read & review it. Recommended by me.

What a journey this was and I was very happy to go along with Anna as she dipped into other peoples homes as a professional house sitter. Her slow realisation that she is stuck in a pattern that was self preservation and that she needs to make changes is a lovely road that we wander down. From growing up in foster care she had been moved from family to family several times and so is rootless and self sufficient. The reason for Anna's defences to begin to tumble happen after her friends wedding and I have to say I didn't see it coming until it did! She is thrown off kilter and slowly but surely as people come into her life with words of wisdom she changes. The book travels back in time to some of Anna's foster homes and her trying to get answers from her father and a betrayal at university. This is a cracker of a book and i will be recommending to friends and my book club. Thank you for letting me read this.

This was a moving, emotional read. It’s a wonderful story, at times I found it desperately sad but ultimately full of hope.

This was a really lovely and comforting read, with a beautifully paced story-line and gorgeous characters within.

What a journey Anna is on, and I absolutely loved being there every step of the way.

From the first time we get a glimpse into her childhood, I was gripped by the book, both the present day and the past, as we get to see just why Anna is the way she is.

Anna is a professional house sitter and has been for 10 years, she is clearly looking for something, but not quite sure what, so has in the meantime spent years travelling around the world looking after some fabulous properties and also a lot of pet sitting. She also in each place attempts to fit in like a local, and makes fleeting connections to people.

She has one constant in her life, best friend Kate who is straight talking and absolutely wonderful.

The past sections show us the various placements Anna had as a child, growing up in foster care with no hope of adoption as both her parents were still alive, they just weren't able to care for her at all. I suspect there was great research gone into what children at all the various ages would feel like care , as it made for realistic and compelling reading.

We are also treated to some of Anna's most recent house sitting jobs in the present, and it's fascinating to see how different people treat her, and just what she has to deal with. At times I started thinking that it would be a wonderful job to do for myself, especially if I was able to get any of the plum positions abroad that Anna loves.

At the heart of it all Anna wants is a home to call her home but she is terrified of making any decisions, but will some of the people she meets at her latest placements start to get her thinking differently.

It's a heartwarming story about finding your place in the world. I really loved it.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Anna's nomadic lifestyle as a professional house sitter means she has nowhere to call home; something that mirrors her childhood of being sent from pillar to post and one foster placement to another. It's hardly surprising that the thought of putting down roots is a scary one; far better to keep moving and hope that the past doesn't catch up with you. But, inevitably, it does in the end, and Anna learns that home is about far more than about bricks and mortar. A beautiful, captivating and hopeful novel.

I really liked the concept for this.

Anna has spent the last ten years working as a house-sitter all over the world, moving from place to place, experiencing all kinds of things, but never allowing herself to put down roots. She grew up a 'looked after child' from the age of eight, moving from foster parent to foster parent, diluting herself to find acceptance. Fiercely bright, she aces her A Levels and makes it to Oxford. The things she learns, though, don't help fill the void where parental love should be. Her friendship with Kate is the rock upon which she builds a new life, but even that doesn't give her the security she needs. Ten years after graduation, three different house-sits in a month bring events that force her to face all kinds of truths about her life.

(Why do animals in books make me so nervous? I was constantly worried that one of the pets Anna looks after would escape or drown or get hit by a car. Spoiler alert – this does not happen, thank goodness.)

This is a great idea for a novel, and it's well-constructed and thoughtful. Kate, Anna and Callie, the teenager she befriends, are good, meaty characters and it’s clear that Parkes has done her research when it comes to the complex institutional impact of lives lived on the awkward edges.

I've only just read Lowborn, by Kerry Hudson, and having a non-fiction view of a vaguely similar kind of damaged and disturbed life is interesting. I felt like I wasn't 100% convinced of Anna's striving from a position of vulnerability, however. Her university-educated mother, who saddled herself with Anna's ineffectual petty criminal father, isn't part of her life for long enough to inspire her with a desire for something better, but means I suppose that she doesn't have a straightforward working-class background (where are Anna’s grandparents? I don't know and she never seems to wonder). The ways she’s different from firmly-middle class Kate, and the things she doesn’t know because she’s not from a world of comfort and privilege, didn’t totally land for me. I don’t know how much it really matters in a book like this, I just mention it in passing. I haven’t read Parkes’ other work, so I don’t know if this is a slightly more – serious – book than she usually writes, dealing with more complicated issues?

I felt like Henry – and really, all of the bit set in Dittisham – didn’t really add anything. I get what his role was, and he fulfils it, but he doesn’t have as much impact as Callie, or even horrible Andrew Fraser, and he felt a bit – convenient? Also he distracts slightly from the book’s central female relationships.

Despite these caveats, which might be seen as carping, I enjoyed it, and it’s firmly 4 stars.

Absolutely adored penny’s larkford series so was very excited to read Home!
Home is a concept we take for granted much of the time, however to Anna the main character,home is a many faceted thing complicated by memories, experiences,previous trauma and unresolved issues! Anna due to her childhood experiences is constantly on the move never putting roots down and shying away from stability and permanence, however that all changes once a realisation occurs re her childhood and with that the need for a base a sense of belonging begins! Never underestimate that sense of belonging and home, don’t take it for granted and just enjoy that feeling of permanence.
Thank you netgalley for this early read.