A Christmas Journey Home is a very special nativity story that shows the presence of our Lord in the most difficult of circumstances. Isabella and Francisco Alcantara flee from their home near Ensenada, Mexico, when Isabella's parents and siblings are murdered in gang- and drug-related violence. Isabella is pregnant with their first child. However, the circumstances that greet them across the border turn out to be worse than what they left behind and make them question their decision. Miriam Nelson, whose border patrol agent husband was killed by drug smugglers, is filled with bitterness and anger. Through a miracle only God can perform these two women meet on Christmas Eve and discover the true meaning of Christ's birth. This book is thought-provoking, and Kathi Macias has provided an excellent read.

I have read almost everyone of Kathi's book and I have to say I think this is the best one. This is really two stories in one combined. I love Christmas stories and this one is about Isabella Alcantara and her young husband Francisco. After her parents and siblings were gunned down for no reason by the "Coyote" in Mexico, her grandfather gave up his life's savings to get her and her husband and their unborn child out of the country. They had paid all the money they had to a "coyote" to see them safety across the border into the USA and to a safe house, but he robbed them of all they had and left them to die in the desert.

The safe house that they finally found was nothing but a slave and prostitute house for the helpless. They stole away and found themselves in the desert again where Francisco was gunned down by some drug smugglers. Now alone and ready to have her baby she wondered in the desert until she found a farm of another young woman and her son. She hid in the barn until the little boy found her and that is where she had her baby. Just as Jesus was born so long ago in a stable with the animals around.

I want to thank the author Kathi Macias for sending me this copy to read and review. I love the book and I am sure you will too.

I've got strong opinions about illegals sneaking over American borders, and I bet some of you do, too. Well, thanks to Kathi Macias's A Christmas Journey Home, I have a whole new perspective on the issue! Isabella, an illegal immigrant hoping for a better life, and Miriam, mourning the death of her border-patrol husband, seem to be separated by more than a boundary line. One woman's journey has brought her closer to God, while the other woman's journey has brought her further from God. But, miracles happen on Christmas Eve.

Written with sensitivity and insight, A Christmas Journey Home drew my sympathies on both sides of the border. Instead of the fluffy, easy holiday read I expected (I should have known better with Kathi's book!), I received a thought-provoking fictionalization of the real-life drama that happens every day here in our country as well as in Mexico.

I highly recommend A Christmas Journey Home, and it would make a perfect gift for the readers on your list.

I have read K. Macias' mystery fiction series and wanted more. This story sounded like it might have a mystery to it. Wow! Did it ever.

It's heartbreaking to see how we human beings can so mistreat one another. What a sacrifice on the husband's part. What a grand conclusion; not just in the USA but Grandfather in Mexico. What wonderful faith, trust, and peace!

This book is staying, not getting loaned, but selfishly hogged for re-read, re-read.....

I encourage you to get it, read it, digest what it really says. Oh yes, any preconceived notions about certain topics and themes WILL fly out the window. At least they did for me. In other words the book is also a thought-provoking eye-opener.

Connecting with the characters and their difficulties was reflexive for me in Kathi Macias' A Christmas Journey Home. I found myself wrapped up in their lives and rooting for them from the get-go. What an amazing story of the difficulties on both sides of the illegal immigration issue—yet all surrounded by the grace of God and His amazing power to heal and rebuild lives. A super read! What a great Christmas gift for a friend. Or a gift for yourself!