Discover Well-Read Black Girl Books and the projects reshaping publishing →

Book Summary and Reviews of The Way Back Home by Barbara Freethy

The Way Back Home by Barbara Freethy

The Way Back Home

by Barbara Freethy

  • Published:
  • Jun 2012, 384 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

Ex-Marine Gabe Ryder has lost a lot in his life. His mother died when he was a toddler. His father succumbed to alcoholism. And a week before their last day of service, a horrific firefight takes the life of his best friend and brother-in-arms, Rob Hayden. Now Gabe must fulfill his friend's dying wish by helping Rob's twin sister, Alicia.

Alicia has been reeling since her brother's death. She's lost a part of herself that she isn't sure she can get back. On top of that, her eight-year-old son is longing for a father, who she thinks she's found in her boyfriend Keith. Then Gabe shows up, moving into Rob's house, helping with the family rafting business, and looking into her love life, and Alicia is resentful.

But when Alicia's son and his best friend run away, Alicia and Gabe realize they must face their deepest fears and work together to bring them back, before the river rises.

The Way Back Home is a spin-off from the Angel's Bay series featuring Gabe Ryder, a character who appeared in Garden of Secrets. The book, however, stands alone and can be read separate from the Angel's Bay series.

Paperback original

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Reviews

Media Reviews

"Starred Review. Freethy's skillful plotting and gift for creating sympathetic characters will ensure that few dry eyes will be left at the end of the story." - Publishers Weekly (Pick of the Week)

This information about The Way Back Home was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

Reader Reviews

Click here and be the first to review this book!

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

More Information

A native California, Barbara Freethy has lived at both ends of the state. While she misses the hot summer nights of Southern California, she enjoys the beautiful bays and hillsides of Northern California, as well as the exciting and intriguing city of San Francisco. Learn more at www.barbarafreethy.com.

More Author Information

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

Read-Alikes Full readalike results are for members only

If you liked The Way Back Home, try these:

  • Palaver jacket

    Palaver

    by Bryan Washington

    Published 2026

    About this book

    A life-affirming novel of family, mending, and how we learn to love, from the award-winning Bryan Washington.

  • The House on Buzzards Bay jacket

    The House on Buzzards Bay

    by Dwyer Murphy

    Published 2026

    About this book

    When a group of old college friends reunites for a summer vacation at a beach house in coastal Massachusetts, a sudden disappearance and the arrival of a seductive stranger threaten to unearth the darkest secrets of their relationships.

  • Sky Daddy jacket

    Sky Daddy

    by Kate Folk

    Published 2026

    About this book

    Cross the jet bridge with Linda, a frequent flyer with an unusual obsession, in this "razor-sharp and tender-hearted" (Lily Brooks-Dalton) debut novel by the acclaimed author of Out There.

We have 10 read-alikes for The Way Back Home, but non-members are limited to three results. Join free to see the complete list of recommendations.
Search read-alikes
How we choose read-alikes

More Literary Fiction

Browse all Literary Fiction books

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $60 for 12 months or $20 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!
Win This Book
Win Theo of Golden

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…

Enter

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
A Pair of Aces
by Marie Benedict, Victoria Christopher Murray
Two women on opposite sides of the law team up to bring down gangster Lucky Luciano in this gripping novel.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket
    Feast
    by Catherine Kurtz
    In 19th-century France, a girl with a magical taste becomes a duc’s poison taster amid nobility and danger.
  • Book Jacket
    The Reimagining of Thornwood House
    by Jaleigh Johnson
    A witch and her ward discover a magical walking house and find the true meaning of home.
  • Book Jacket
    Summer's Never Over
    by Darby Bozeman
    A woman revisits a Southern summer camp where a counselor's death may not have been an accident.
  • Book Jacket
    Somebody Worth Killing
    by Jessica Payne
    Meet Nadia Davis, loving mom, devoted wife, secret assassin… and she needs a babysitter.
Book
Trivia
  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

The C is A R

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.