Novalee was such a great character and easy to love and root for. The main character Novalee Nation a 17 year old who is abandoned by her boyfriend and who gives birth to a baby girl in a Wal-Mart store. It is so well written and such a wonderful book that remains with me all these years later. I read it in 1999 when I was pregnant with my daughter. However, that is not the case with this book. Sometimes I know I've read a book years ago but can't remember a lot about it. I loved this book!!! I can't believe I forgot to update and review it here. I highly recommend this to all fiction aficionados. I was sad to say goodbye to the characters and can only dream that Novalee and Americus lead long and happy lives. Aside from that, this is a beautiful book about what is positive about rural America.

Those who know me know that this is usually the reason why I will lower ratings. The reason why I give this book 4.5 stars as opposed to 5 is because not all loose ends are tied up and I am a sucker for a perfect ending. How their relationship develops becomes a major plot line of the book.

Then there is Forney Hull, the town librarian who opens up Novalee's eyes to the world of education and who is smitten with her from day one. The women are there for each other through thick and thin. First is Lexie Coop, her new best girl friend. After all, her life until moving to Sequoyah had been about neglect and abandonment. Novalee has never gotten over Wily Jack and fears for him the entire book, almost as though she is afraid that he will come and take Americus away from her.

Interspersed with their story is that of Wily Jack and how he struggles to make it in the country music industry. The majority of the book focuses on Novalee and Americus and the roots they put down in Sequoyah. On her first day in Sequoyah, she meets three special people who stay with her for the duration of the novel: Sister Hubbard, who becomes her surrogate mother Moses Whitecotton, an elderly black gentleman and photographer who along with his wife Certain acts as her grandfather and Benny Goodluck, a boy who for all practical purposes is her younger brother. Novalee has nowhere to turn to and makes Walmart her home until the baby is born. Wily Jack had promised Novalee a house in California but on the spot decided he could not deal with impending fatherhood and left her for nothing. Novalee Nation is 17 and pregnant when she is abandoned by her boyfriend Wily Jack at a Walmart in Sequoyah, Oklahoma. I recently saw this reviewed on a friend's page (thank you, Deanna) and felt like is was time for a reread. I read Billie Letts' story of Novalee and Americus Nation back in high school when it was featured on Oprah's book club.

Where the heart is by billie letts