Rating: 
Summary: Superbly Written & Highly Recommended
Review: To say I was excited upon hearing Margaret Johnson Hodge would release a new novel this year would be an understatement. As I eagerly awaited my copy of A Journey To Here, the buzz was already aglow with praises like "you guys are going to love it" and "I cannot wait to discuss this book." As usual, MJH did not disappoint and I found myself adding A Journey to Here as an all-time favorite for 2003 with a cast of characters I felt like I have known for a lifetime. Sylvia "Suvie" Allen has it all, according to best friend, Lisa, and other spectators. A mother to two teen-aged daughters, Aaron and Monet, and wife of nineteen years to Emory, Sylvia's life is coveted by many, but to her it is bittersweet. While she loves Emory and would not trade her daughters for the world, Sylvia cannot help but remember the feelings of betrayal and hurt by Phillip, her first true love and best friend, Dorothy. The treachery far behind her now, Sylvia attempts to bury the hatchet until a ringing of the doorbell. With Phillip on the other side a can of worms opens that she is not ready to face. But Phillip is just the beginning of the hurdles the Allens will face within the coming year. As Sylvia struggles to keep the past in the past, curiosity and a broken heart beg for answers and the closure she was deprived of years ago. As Sylvia wrestles with what life could have been and what it has become, Judas rears his head once again. Sylvia is left questioning if the past is worth losing her family as she and Emory struggle to reclaim the rhythm they once danced to.
MJH demonstrates why she is a national best-selling author with A Journey To Here. Hodge consistently creates characters that seem non-fictitious and more like familiar friends. It is often difficult to create many characters readers can empathize with besides the protagonist, but Hodge's adeptness with storytelling is magnificent. I recommend A Journey To Here to book clubs as MJH offers a debatable subject with relationships between fathers and daughters and if an idyllic marriage is attainable after years of longing for your first true love.
Reviewed by Nicki Lancaster
APOOO BookClub
Rating:
Summary: What a journey...
Review: The past is a bridge to the future. In Margaret Johnson-Hodge's newest literary offering, A Journey to Here, we find Sylvia "Suvie" Allen neck deep in what she considers a good life. Happily married for nineteen years to Emory, two wonderful adolescent daughters, Aaron and Monet. However, the pretenses of Suvie's happiness step into the light when the past literally comes a knocking at her door. Phillip Butler, Suvie's first love from thirty years prior, is on her doorstep begging forgiveness and a second chance for the horrible act of betrayal that still haunts Suvie three decades later. The teenage Phillip and Suvie had been on the road of heartfelt young romance, sure to end up at Lovers Lane, which crosses with Forever Boulevard. Virginal Suvie felt a stirring in her heart that she was sure would eventually lead her to give Phillip her greatest possessions, her everlasting love and her body. But when teenage Phillip, in an act of raging hormone weakness, engages Suvie's best friend, Dorothy, the walls of Phillip and Suvie's budding romance come crashing down. Now, all these years later, Phillip wants out of his unhappy marriage to Dorothy and wants to start anew with Suvie. This causes Suvie to examine her deepest desires and reevaluate her own life. It's the catalyst for a series of events in her seemingly happy family that will have you on the edge of your seat. Suvie's husband, Emory, and her daughters, Aaron and Monet, will all face life-altering issues through the course of the novel, their triumphs and failings becoming the reader's joys and burdens, because the characters are so carefully drawn, so real you can practically feel their fingers on your skin. The journey to understanding for Suvie and Emory, Phillip and Dorothy is handled with an artist's stroke in Johnson-Hodges' expert hands. MJH's storytelling skills and poetic word phrasing is a glass of lemon and sugar on a sweltering summer day. MJH manages to take even the minor characters and bring them to life. Her portrayal of Suvie's hairdresser, Betty, with her admonishment to Suvie, "breakage is your middle name", had me smiling ear to ear. Few authors take the time to bring forth fully realized characters, few authors value the reader as much as Margaret Johnson-Hodge. Every page, every word, is a blessed offering to those fortunate enough to pick up her novels. In this climate of underwhelming fiction, MJH is the salve, a novelist with gusto, stories that titillate your senses and stretch your emotions. Those looking for stories with high drama and no substance are best to look elsewhere. Those looking for stories that etch themselves in your soul long after the last page has been turned...your journey ends here, with Margaret Johnson-Hodge.
Rating: 
Summary: Too Much Pain!!!!!!!!!
Review: I am sorry but I don't agree with the other reviewers. This book is so sad. It was filled with so much pain. I have read books that have made me cry but there was also laughter and family coming together as well. This family to me never really seemed to pull it together. Which means that for twenty years they were living on twigs. I don't know This read just didn't vibe with me. I will still read MJHodge because the sister can still write. But I was not happy with this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Must Read......
Review: MJH had done it again. I purchased the book when it was first released but still had a couple of books to finish first. Bad mistake on my part. I should have put them all down and got with the book. It is a page turner and keeps you wanting more. Sylvia "Suvie", Emory, Philip and Dororthy. And oooh please don't let me forget that Aaron (the daughter you love to hate). This story is real, keeps you guessing and most importantly you can relate to it. It shows you how your past can come back to hurt you when you least expect it. And that you should be as honest as possible. We are all human and can't control the unexpected. It also teaches you when life throws you a lemon, you definitely have to make lemonade!! Run out and get this book. Buy it as a gift!! Spread the Word. Margaret Johnson-Hodge has done it again!!
Rating: 
Summary: Does life have a rewind button?
Review: The overall premise of Margaret Johnson Hodge's latest novel
A JOURNEY TO HERE, centers on love: a lost love, a found love,
a wrong love and a right love. Love discreetly becomes the
seducer which charms the characters and makes them yearn to
turn back the years and recapture the gift that time stole. At 15, Sylvia Allen falls in love, she happy because she is
cocooned by the innocent trust only a young woman/child can
have. But a betrayal by her boyfriend and her best friend rapes
her heart, leaving her bitter and withdrawn; no longer innocent
no longer trusting. But life goes on... after 19 years of
marriage, she has a solid life, a husband who can still make her
laugh and two daughters who have not succumbed to typical
teenage woes. Now 30 years after the betrayal, Sylvia comes face
to face withher past and she knows for the last 30 years she has
been suspended in time. Her wayward thoughts of settling her past
are ill-timed, and as she questions her life, her family starts
to fall apart. Her daughters do indeed have woes; she has just
been too preoccupied to notice. And her laughter comes less
frequently now as do her husband's attempts to invoke it. Key
reasons for Sylvia's turmoil is that after 30 years, she has not
healed, she has not been completely honest with her husband and
she has never entrusted her heart again. Ms. Johnson-Hodge dares to bring conflict to her characters and
as usual she challenges them to divulge heartfelt truths. This is
a turbulent read, filled with blatant truisms and a multitude of
'what-ifs'. One of the strengths of this book is the fact that
the characters are realisticly weak and strong. One point the
author brings home is that a journey of any magnitude cannot be
accomplished without compromises. This book reaches your core in
the most basic way.
Rating:
Summary: A Journey To Here
Review: If you've already had your "What If", phase in life you'll truly identify with this book. If you haven't been through the phase let the story serve as a glimpse into the reality of the sayings, "You can't go home again" or "Let sleeping dogs lie". Margaret keeps it real in this story. It's not the fairy tale I had imagined it to be. Margaret definitely took me back down memory lane. It's a must read for anyone who has wondered, what if.......
Rating:
Summary: A journey worth reading about
Review: The book was so wonderfully written. Margaret Johnson Hodge is an excellent story teller. I got to met Suvie, Emory, Phillip and Dorothy and they each touched my life. We are all on a journey and sometimes the past dictates the future if we don't make peace with it. Please read this book and travel to A Journey to Here with these characters. Anfra
Author of You Are My Sister
Rating:
Summary: Some Journey
Review: In my opinion, MJH is a very talented writer. I have throughly enjoyed all her books. Perhaps the reason I so enjoy the books is because she's writing about characters I identify with. In one of her previous works, I felt like she'd been reading my diary. Here she goes again, writing about things that are very real.
"It's been thirty years since Philip Butler laid eyes on his only true love - the woman he wronged so terribly years before". Realistically, many have thought about doing it so many times. How many would have the courage? What would be the consequences? A Journey to Here conjures so many questions. Makes one think.
Finally, the book uses very real diaglogue... a very refreshing change from most popular fiction. Very easy to read.
Rating:
Summary: Nuances of Relationships
Review: Margaret Johnson-Hodge returns with another book dealing with "real" problems in her latest novel, A Journey to Here. Sylvia "Suvie" Allen is happily married with two teen-aged children. Regardless of her love for her husband Emory, she is thrown when her first true love returns, opening the door to a past she has tried to leave behind. Despite his involvement with and then marriage to her best friend, Phillip is back in town, bringing his betrayal to the front of Suvie's mind, and trying to reclaim what they once had. As she battles to keep her feelings at bay and maintain her marriage vows, she is caught in a whirlwind of emotions, what-ifs, and confusion.
If these issues weren't enough, she is also faced with problems involving her daughters; one has an eating disorder and the other is a bit too ready to claim the title of woman. While being caught up in her own matters of the heart, she almost loses sight when it comes to being a mother and protecting and guiding her children through life. Not only will her decisions affect her, but her entire family and those around her.
Showing the nuances of relationships between both family and friends, Ms. Johnson-Hodge does a wonderful job of addressing the consequences that can arise when the past is not quite the past, yet, one has moved on with their lives. Additionally, she broaches topics such as infidelity, eating disorders, and familial strife which are prevalent in our society today and affect our relationships with family and friends. Though the ending seemed a bit too neat and I couldn't totally relate to how disrespectful Suvie's children were, I enjoyed the even-paced storytelling in A Journey to Here and look forward to the author's next release.
Reviewed by Mz. Melody of Loose Leaves Book Review
Rating:
Summary: A Journey to Here
Review: I attended a reading recently at Barnes & Noble book store and Margaret Johnson-Hodge was there along with a lot of other gifted authors. Of all of the authors present, Mrs. Johnson-Hodge was the only one I'd met before. I've finally finished reading all the books I bought that day and I must say that they were all good. I had read one other book by Margaret before and although it was good, I liked this one better. The characters are so real and the message is a strong one. I agree with all the other reviewers who say that she is a gifted writer.
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