The Heart Will Lead You Home [Paperback]

The Heart Will Lead You Home is a book which is centered around one of my favorite plots. A couple who dated and loved each other deeply in high school, broke up and then hooked back up later in life.

Lizzie's family moves to a small town from Chicago and is instantly labeled as a dork in her new school and the focus of teasing by many of the cool kids. Payton is the town's up and coming football hero and by far the most popular guy in school.
After a few years of crossing each others path in different situations Payton starts to realize that Lizzie is something special and he wants to get to know her better. Lizzie, along with every other girl in town has had a crush on Payton since the first time she laid eyes on him. Once they begin a relationship sparks fly and they are deeply devoted to one another until a distraught Payton makes a fatal error which ends their relationship. Quite a few years pass and Lizzie returns home to get married to another man. Payton, never having forgotten about Lizzie and how bad he messed up the best thing that ever happened to him tries to win her back.

This book is set in two parts, the first being their childhood years, the second they are adults. What made this a 3 star read for me was the fact that I LOVED the first half of this book and really disliked the second half. While they are in high school the author creates wonderful amazing characters which could be real teenagers going through real events. The second part while Lizzie and Payton are adults however I feel fell flat. The characters are supposed to be 30 something adults, Payton trying to win Lizzie back has a "fake" relationship with the girl who he cheated on Lizzie in high school with, which was the reason they broke up. This scenario was ridiculous to me. Payton was making out with Lou Ann directly in front of Lizzie only days after giving her a letter which confesses his undying love for her. The fake relationship Payton had with Lou Ann irritated me to the point where it pretty much ruined the book for me.

Despite my annoyance with a particular incident in the book in the end I felt Ms. Leedy's writing style was to my liking and I would read something by her again.

When I first started this book, I didn't think I would like it. There was so much information given in the beginning, that I got bored. I understand why the author took us way back to when Payton and Lizzie met. I just didn't understand why there was so much information and some of it really didn't do anything for the story. This book probably could have been 4 chapters shorter and it still would have been fine. There were other things that the author did later in the book that I didn't understand. Why make Lou Anne part of the master plan? Why would a grown man take his grown date back to the HS cafeteria for a pizza date? I know that the author tried to throw in some story about when they were teenagers and he took her to the cafeteria, but it seemed like an afterthought. That little tidbit should have been included in all the other information in the beginning of the story. I didn't find the prom thing romantic or fitting to the story at all. I think it would have been more romantic at Granny's Pond or the barn that held the first barn party he invited her to as his date. There were some things I didn't like and others that I did. As the story went on, the writing did get better. I did actually want to find out what happened. This wasn't a bad read, but I don't think I'll read it again.

The book started of good. About 25% into the book I started to skim because it was so repetative. The h gets picked on, then she gets picked on some more, afterwards she gets picked on again. Ok, h and H finally start a relationship at almost half way through the book and so I am back to paying attention. ***SPOILERS*** The H cheats on the h with her nemisis, then tells her off because he is mad at her. Fast forward years later, she comes back to town and the H wants to win her back. What does he do? He attempts to make her jealous by making out with the same girl that he cheated on her with in front of her. He then pretends to go out with her in hopes that this will drive the h back to his arms. Maybe it was just me but that has to be one of the most illogical things I have ever heard. It is a stupid idea to do it with any girl but to do it with the SAME girl that he cheated with, that is just moronic. I could have dealt with how slow the story was in the middle, I could have even gotten over the many romance cliches in the book. But, the H attempt to woo the h by making out with the OW in front of the h just ruined the book for me. If that doesn't bother you then maybe you'll like the book.