Come Home by Patricia Gussin published by Oceanview Publishing is a very compelling read. I was given a copy by the publisher through Negalley, while this is not a five star read for me it is a solid four.
Ahmed Masud and his wife, Nicole Nelson are successful plastic surgeons. They have a five year old son, Alex (Wati) who they love and Nicole has a big family they spend time with in the States. Ahmed has a big family in Egypt they see when they can. The question I pose for this review is simple how far do we go for the ones we love? The story is fast paced and gets you hooked from page one. It begins in my opinion after Ahmed gets off a call with his family in Egypt, from then on everything changes He is focused on trying to teach his culture to his son to a point where it actually feels forced, while cultural pressures are an important aspect of this book I felt like the scene where Ahmed hits Nicole there for spiraling the whole story out of control was very tastefully written so thank you for that. The story centers around Alex being taken to Egypt without Nicole’s consent then , the reader seeing how much a mother is willing to do to get her son back. Mean while not long after their arrival Ahmed has realized he has made a terrible mistake but not before Alex is taken from Ahmed in order to make him pliable to do the families dirty work. The second half of the book deals with the strong will of family ties and how far they are willing to go to bring a mother and son together. The only reason this book is not getting a full five star review from me is because I feel as though the author could have done a better job giving us an understanding of Egyptian history and traditions, and tensions that occur. Come Home is written for anyone who loves a book that brings it all together in the end.

Although well written, as a Muslim, I felt the story relied heavily on stereotypical images of Muslims and Arabs. The author often confused Egyptian tradition with Islamic tradition and vice versa. The Masud family reportedly had issues with Ahmed and Nicole calling their son Alexander, but Ahmed's youngest brother was named Seth and he had a nephew named Tadeo, neither of which are traditional Arabic names.

Natalie Nelson, Nicole's twin sister, walks away from her high-powered pharmaceutical industry job during a major drug crisis, her retired mother steps into the breach, and now all is fine since the drug at issue is back on the market. That seems unlikely.

To say that I had issues with this story is a major understatement. ( )

I won this in a GOODREADS giveaway. My thanks to David Abolafia with Oceanview Publishing for the giveaway! ( )