Cory Brand should have it all.  He’s a major league baseball player, one of the stars, but off the field his life is out of control … and recently he’s not doing all that well on the field either.  A couple of mistakes soon get him sent back to his small hometown, where to save his career he must coach a little league baseball team and complete an eight week recover program.  Cory wants to get out of town as fast as possible but stuck there for two months he quickly realizes he can’t escape his past.  Forced to confront it, will Cory learn from his past and find the path to redemption?

Home Run is an emotional rollercoaster, full of moving characters and heartrending difficulties.  Some might see a book blatantly manipulating reader emotions but that’s ok, I enjoyed it.  I felt so bad for Cory.  Yes, it could be just a case of “poor little rich boy, he has so much” but his formative years were so traumatic it isn’t a surprise that he has problems now.  Although I would have expected that his family would have sought professional advice on how to reach him before this point, maybe they realized that it wouldn’t do much good until he was ready to hear it.  This kind of second chance is definitely something that you have to want.

Cory screws up through most of the book but readers are slowly given the details about what made Cory into the man he is and the things that could turn him into the man he wants to be.  His is a faith based recovery but the book is not overly preachy if that isn’t your thing.  I did tear up a couple of times – it may be a little too heavy handed or cheesy for some, but occasionally you just need an uplifting tear-jerker and this is definitely one of those.