Author William Leverne Smith has Integrated his deep passion for genealogy study and family history into the Homeplace Saga series of books. He has created this fictional community and brings the characters to life in this four-book series.
Back to the Homeplace
The book begins in February of 1987, just after Mildred Bevins passed away. The funeral and the unusual terms of the will of Frank and Mildred Bevins bring all four children and their families back to the family farm, The Homeplace.
The farm is located in Oak Springs Missouri in the Ozark Mountains and has been in the family for over 150 years. Bart Bevins is especially concerned about the terms of the will, as he is the only one who stayed in Oak Springs to run the family farm.
You will meet and come to know each member of the Bevins family. Learn about their different backgrounds, and their family secrets, and see how each of them struggles to hold onto their share of the family legacy. All while dealing with their own family secrets and problems.
This is a short story that begins one week after the end of “Back to the Homeplace” A body is found on the Bevins' property. This brings some of the secondary characters from the first novel to the main characters in this short story. Introducing Penny Nixon a part-time reporter for the local newspaper. Penny springs into action and begins a series of interviews hoping for a story when the body is found. Penny is warned by her father who is also the editor of the newspaper to keep it to a human-interest story and do not get too involved. You will see how dangerously close that she comes to interviewing the real killer.
The family saga continues, now in 1996 nine years later. The family has survived so much conflict, but there is more to come.
Learn how the grandchildren of Frank and Mildred Bevins carry on, side by side with their parents to run the family business now known as the“The Bevins Trust”.
How they continue the family legacy and continue to build Oak Springs into a thriving small community of family and friends.
Christmas at the Homeplace
Continued in 1996 Karen (Bevins) Winslow the oldest daughter of Frank and Mildred is expecting all of her children to return home to Oak Springs for Christmas. Will they all make it? Find out, along with some other surprises that may change the inner workings of the family business “The Bevins Trust”. This one was special to me, as I finished reading it on Christmas Eve.
For me, these four books were a wonderful read, as I have a big family myself. Oak Springs and the characters in these books were so real to me; it was like I lived there and knew every one of them.
This series of books takes you on a journey with the Bevins family, starting in February of 1987 and ending in December of 1996.
The author places news blurbs at the beginning of every chapter. I enjoyed reading what was in the news on that day. So the reader has a little history lesson.
A quote from the author William Leverne Smith: “May everyone have a homeplace, if only in your mind.”
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