What do readers think of Home Sweet Home by April Smith? Write your own review.

Based on a true event, this book is the story of an attorney, his wife and family who are caught up in Cold War fanaticism. I am old enough to remember those days and to fear that I am seeing a resurgence of the rhetoric, now about Islam, that fueled the heartbreak and evilness that befell them. The story is beautifully told; both the bad and the good. Read it if you can...

The novel begins with a description of Rapid City, SD that did not match my memories and experiences of that city but moves on to describe the prairie perfectly. A complex plot that moves back and forth in time with several well drawn characters could be confusing but Smith navigates these changes adroitly. Her vibrant descriptions of emotions, landscapes, and events capture the lives and conflicts of a rural community engulfed in change ring true. Homesteading, politics, family life, and violent murders make for a heady mix that kept me interested to the last word.

I enjoyed this book. I thought the descriptions of places, people and circumstances were well done and the story held my interest as it moved from beginning to end. Decisions have consequences - good or bad / right or wrong, but once out of control, it can be difficult to return to normal. I thought the author did a good job of bringing that element to life in this story.

Leaving NYC, the Kuseks settle in North Dakota where attorney Cal has a service buddy. Adapting to the small town setting, the Kuseks slowly make friends and build their home. Cal has political aspirations which uncover something about his past his neighbors are leery of. This changes everything about how the Kuseks are viewed and treated by the community. While most of the book takes place during the 1950s, there is a lot of parallel with what is happening today when it comes to those who don't believe as we do. A fast read.

To start, I loved finding out that this story was based on true events- it made the characters so much more engaging for me, and their ends were then more painful bc this actually happened. Still, I had a difficult time reading this novel due to the political nature and opinions; having just come out of a pretty vicious election cycle, it would have been nice to maybe save this read for a later date! I did find the writing to be very engaging, very entertaining- the characters were well written, if a bit too polarizing. (I mean, one example- Cal is literally described as a wise founding father, facing off with a pudgy, somewhat evil bumpkin. The characters can come off as too posed and static in their depiction, but not always.). I overall enjoyed this novel, the description of the town, the ranch life, and even the politics of the time. I still find it hard to believe anyone would leave a city for such an unknown and rural life :)

Home Sweet Home starts out with a face paced beginning with a gruesome murder. Then it takes the reader back in time to fill in the missing pieces.I thought the strong points of the book were in the historical research with the time period during McCarthyism. We learn about a time in history ringing true again today with our political polarization and the villainization of people.
The character development was excellent for this time period especially with lead characters Cal and Betsy. They are a couple that while wanting more in life that just acquiring more things decide to leave NYC for the prairie of South Dakota to make a difference. their dreams have many ups and downs.
The plot is strong for the first half of the book but gets somewhat lost in the ending. The parts about developing LaSalle seemed out of place.
Overall, I enjoyed the book and was rooting for the characters to overcome adversity.

At its core, this is an excellent story of a family's move from New York to rural South Dakota in the early 1950s. The author's skillful character development and her description of the hardships they endured made an interesting story. The political events seemed all too real today. However, I felt the 1985 portions were tacked on in an effort to add suspense, and they actually weakened the plot.

This is an interesting book in so many ways - the plot line shifts from the past (1950) to present day and back again from chapter to chapter, characters are many and varied, topics such as war, politics, history, geography (South Dakota), nature, and farming are all woven into the work along with an aura of mystery and unrest. There is so much here that makes me think this should be a great read - and yet I failed to find it that way. From the beginning, there is a sense of mystery in this novel, and usually all of the components that resolve that mystery and bring the plot to a climax are present at the beginning of a work - whether the reader recognizes them or not. In this novel, however, something seems to be missing. The characters who appear to be the focus of this work, Cal and Betsy Kusek, are missing in action far too early, and those with whom we are left, their son and daughter, seem to lack development from the book's very beginning. Finally, the author introduces a character very late in this work, one who is not connected in any way to those she has presented throughout, and this reader felt as if suddenly a new novel had begun. I was entertained by this book and I learned some interesting things from the historical and geographical fiction, but I found that I was continuing to read more to discover how the author was going to get this all put together than for the genuine pleasure or cleverness of the work. I thought this book contained many good aspects, but these are not organized in such a way as to make it a great read for me.