The Family Journal

By Carolyn Brown

ISBN# 9781542015370

Author’s Website: https://www.carolynbrownbooks.com/

Brought to you by OBS reviewer Heidi

Lily is beside herself with the direction her children’s behavior has taken.  She caught her daughter, Holly, smoking pot and found out her son, Braden, has been sneaking out smoking and drinking with his friends.  She’s decided that drastic measures must be taken to turn the two around.  She has taken all electronic devices from the kids.  And, she is moving them out of the city of Austin to the small town life of Comfort, Texas, where she grew up.

Lily still owns her childhood home, but has been renting it out to Mack Cooper.  Now she and the kids will be staying there with Mack and his 40+ goats!

At first, the kids fight Lily every step of the way and are constantly begging to go back home.  However, the longer the family is in Comfort, the more they find themselves enjoying the simpler life.  Can they really leave their new found peace to go back to the hustle and bustle of the city?

While looking at her mother’s things at the house, Lily finds an old family journal that has been passed down from mother to daughter over the years.  It dates back to the Civil War and sharing it with Holly brings mother and daughter closer as they bond over the strength of their ancestors.

This was an okay read, but nothing all that earth-shattering.  It’s a book that tells you to stop and take time to smell the roses!  It shows us just how unconnected we’ve become as a society and within our own families with all the technology at our fingertips.

I liked Mack although I felt he was a bit too good to be true.  He’s a teacher, runs the 4-H program, and he’s a Sunday school teacher too?  Not to mention he has all the time to take care of his massive herd of goats and is such a great father figure as well!  The relationship between Lily and Mack was a slow build and it was a bit too wholesome for my tastes!

I was surprised there wasn’t more journal entries or that they weren’t longer considering they are the premise of the entire book.  They really seemed like a side note, not the focal point of the story.

Overall, I found this book to be a bit on the dull side and it was too easy to put down.