Truly Home follows Ruth and Olivia as they keep finding their ways to each other, but not without obstacles. They both carry baggage; Ruth's anxiety and Olivia's father. For a slow burn romance, the novel is very short and that made the pacing of the novel feel odd to me.

This was a great book! I absolutely loved the visits from prior characters! The story and characters were so interesting and relatable. I highly enjoyed this book and definitely recommend it to everyone!

Reading the synopsis does not help much when choosing this book, because I am still waiting to find out how the inhabitants of the small town "took it upon themselves to guide Ruth Miller" to anything. Ruth suffered a traumatic loss when she was 6 years old, which has had a significant impact on her throughout her life. She has consequences that limit her professional life in some way, so she chooses to return to the town where she grew up with her aunt.

Just at that same moment in which she decided to leave the city, she had started an online relationship with a woman, who had her quite excited, after her recent breakup that ended quite badly.

The woman Ruth has just met is Olivia, who is a real urbanite, but who must help her sister take care of a father for whom she does not feel any affection, due to his abandonment when she was little.

The coincidences of life, the town where Ruth grew up is the same one where Olivia's father moved, but that was not the only coincidence. They seemed predestined to meet constantly.. The romantic story between them is sweet and overwhelming at times, because they both have their past that haunts them at the most inopportune moments. But they have so much in common, also positive, that one helped the other until they achieved a connection and trust that they did not initially believe in.

You ever start reading something and just know… you know it’s going to be amazing!!

To start with I read this through twice. The first time it was when I figured out who these two were to each other and I just had to get through things to see what happened. The second time was to savor it all!

This is such a beautiful and heartwarming story of love and friendship and kindness. It also address loss and healing. I instantly fell in love with Ruth and Olivia. I would love to read more of them!!

Now I need a book on Greta!!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!!

This was my first book by Hale, but it won't be my last. I enjoyed the setting as I'm a sucker for anything set in Ireland.

Ruth Miller's life is forever changed after her parents died and she moves to a small town with her aunt. The whole village is there for her to help her, but now that she's an adult, she wants to forge her own path and find out more about the parent's she can't remember.

Olivia's Bell's childhood wasn't all rainbows and sunshine and it left a mark on her that continued into adulthood. She is always the caretaker, never the one to be cared for and left home as soon as she was able. When she moves to a remote village to help her sister care for their dying father, she meets Ruth who just might be the connection she's always sought.

This was a great book that touched on a few sensitive topics, but was handled beautifully, from Ruth's anxiety, to Olivia's alcoholic father. The chemistry and connection was well written and jumped off the pages as I adored the close knit community and the journey for Ruth and Olivia in their relationship.

Wonderful job. I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A sweet book with a few twists a long the way. Ruth has moved back to the village she has lived in for most of her live with her aunt. She has a few aniexty issues because of past trauma she meets Ollie who is taking care of her sick father. They both realise quickly that they have been communicating for a while and were planning to meet up.
There are a few twists and turns im story and who knew what a small world it is. Thankyou for advanced copy.

This is a story about Ruth Miller who suffers from anxiety and panic attacks from a house fire that killed parents when she was six years old. During her hospitalization after the fire she meets Olivia Bell who is there because her sister is also a patient. Ruth and Olivia become friends. Twenty years later they meet by accident on a dating app, never knowing that they were childhood friends.

This was a okay read for me. There was some angst with Ruth’s anxiety and with Olivia’s father. These problems bled over into their relationship. This was a very short book almost a novella, I would have liked more plot. Both characters were likable, communication suffered because of each others old feelings. In the epilogue we see a glimpse of old characters from Hales previous books.

ARC received from Net Galley for an honest and voluntary review.

After the last couple books that I’d read with new (to me) authors were dnf’s, this book was a welcome change. I love discovering new authors and after reading Truly Home I’ll definitely be looking up JJ Hale’s other work!

This book started off in a very unique way with Ruth’s childhood flashback and hooked me from the start. One trope I love is online dating because of the banter and getting to know each other and Ruth and Ollie’s adorable and flirty texting did not disappoint. A real highlight of this story is the chemistry that Hale develops between her two MCs as well as the passion and eventual love between them.

My only real complaint with this book and why I didn’t rate it higher was the length. At just over 160 pgs it veers into novella territory. While that isn’t necessarily a deal breaker (hello Curious Wine) the issue I have with novellas sometimes is that there isn’t enough time to flesh out the characters backstories and develop chemistry. Fortunately that isn’t a problem with this book due mostly to the stellar text flirting I mentioned earlier. Yes, I would have liked it to have been longer, but only because I’m greedy and wanted more of this sweetly satisfying story.

I received an ARC of this ebook from Netgalley and all opinions are my own.

Thank you netgalley and bold stroke books for the e-arc. My opinions are my own. I enjoyed the slow burn bu lt i should have read the prior books in the series to get thr back story. This is for people that enjoy small town slow burn ff books.

3.5/5☆ rounded up

would like to thank netgalley and the publishers for letting me read this book

little roo's life changed one day and she didnt understand why...where were her mom and dad ..... life just didnt make any sense

livvie's life was one endless day of school and then waiting at the hospital until visiting times were over, her mom was always there to visit livvies sister but it also meant livvie was left on her own to cope with her feeling and boredom...

but one day she met roo and their lives became an adventure with playing and hanging out... so what if roo didnt speak they still enjoyed playing together

until roo was gone

ollie and ruth had yet to meet but were enjoying texting each other to get to know one another but life has many a curve ball and what a curve life was about to throw these two in more ways than one

really enjoyed this storyline, there was a lot of ground to cover with ollies and ruths lives and it answered everyone cant wait to see whats coming next from this author