After fifteen grueling years behind the forty foot walls and iron bars of Leavenworth prison, Luke Stone boards a Greyhound bus bound for Texas…Bound for freedom and the woman who holds his heart…Bound for home.
With empty pockets and a heart full of dreams, Luke Stone leaves behind the nightmare of fifteen long years in Leavenworth prison, not giving it a backward glance.
Eyes firmly on the future, he boards a Greyhound bus bound for Texas, for freedom and for the one who holds his heart. The unjust conviction no longer matters and revenge haunts him nore more.
Darlina Flowers, the woman who takes his breath away waits ahead and with her by his side, nothing can stop him.
He is headed home at last.
This is a true story.
Professional Reviews
Jan's passion for detail and raw style make this autobiography series of a West Texas family a must read!
"Home At Last" is third in the series of the true life and love story of Jan and Rick Sikes. Jan shares her life and love for Rick and her daughters with a style that recreates west Texas living from the 60's thru early 2000. The books tell their story thru Darlina Flowers (Jan) and Luke Stone (Rick) in a series of books that begins with "Flowers & Stone" continues with "The Convict and the Rose" and life after prison with "Home at Last."
Love Abides and Triumphs
One of the elements that makes Jan Sikes’ novels so compelling is that they’re autobiographical. I was so moved by her second book, The Convict and the Rose, that I knew the third book in the trilogy would prove to be equally poignant.
Luke Stone is finally released after spending 15 grueling years behind bars for something he didn’t do. Darlina Flowers meets him at the bus station, filled with anticipation and hope for the life together that was denied them when Luke was imprisoned. With little money and no home of their own, their deep and resolute love determines to imbue their lives -- and the lives of Darlina’s 2 young daughters -- with joy and meaning.
Austerity greets them head-on, but Luke and Darlina never fail to ride the waves with conviction. They remain focused on carving out a better future and seldom look back on past obstacles or tragedies. Damaged and awkward family relationships in need of renewal are handled with warmth, hope, determination, and a sprinkling of raw veracity. When problems threaten to sabotage their happiness or undermine their stability, their solid love for one another always helps them prevail. The adversity they’re forced to deal with would crush a less immutable nature. But Luke and Darlina’s firm resolve, tenacity, and enduring love see them through the hard times as well as embellish the joyful times.
This review might read like that of a fairy tale, but the characters depicted are real people, and this is their story. It’s both tragic and triumphant. It exhibits the depth the human spirit can reach in order to not only survive, but also thrive. And it exemplifies the long-held truth that believing makes it so. Energy follows thought. And Luke and Darlina show us how to manifest our heart’s desire.
Beautifully-written, complex, and utterly captivating
Darlina Flowers drives into Coleman, a small, dirty, Texan town, with Mama’s parting words echoing in her head: “Luke Stone broke your heart once, he’ll do it again”. Darlina has given up her home and her job, and uprooted her daughters, Lily and Nicole, from the only life they’ve ever known. Ahead of her is marriage to the man she has loved since she was a teenager.
After 15 years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit, Luke Stone is freed on parole. Carrying only the bare necessities in a cardboard case, and a few dollars, he travels by Greyhound bus back to Mom, and the town where he must live and report to the parole officer. His one hope is Darlina, and her promise of marriage. With her beside him, nothing is impossible.
Homeless, until Mom makes it possible for them to buy a dilapidated trailer, Darlina and Luke struggle with extreme poverty. Jobs are few: Darlina strives to find work and has to accept the few hours on offer. Luke is an unemployable ex-convict, forced into doing anything he can to raise money. Unknown to Darlina, he sells his guitar. She loved life on the road, travelling from one honky-tonk bar to the next, where the charismatic rocker first won her heart.
Passionate abiding love is all Darlina and Luke have: one couple against an unforgiving world, with two youngsters to clothe, when buying food is almost beyond them. Luke has children from his first marriage Darlina hopes to welcome, if they would agree to see him…
Can they find the way to acceptance in the close-knit community? Will their innovative money-making ideas succeed? How much must they ask of Lily and Nicole? What is the cause of Luke’s breathless exhaustion? Can Luke’s first family, now young adults, forgive him in the face of their mother’s hatred for the man who deserted her? Most of all, will talented Luke ever sing and play in public again when he blames the lifestyle for drinking and drug abuse?
This is the third of Jan Sikes’ powerful “autobiographical fiction” novels featuring Darlina and Luke and, like the others, is a moving mixture of erotic love, successes and heartbreak.
This book has been eight years in the making. It is mostly a jumble of thoughts written down in old spiral notebooks and hidden in the bottom drawer underneath various manuals for software packages and hardware long since turned obsolete.
