Author: Lauren K. McKellar
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Escape Publishing
Genre: YA Contemporary
Format: Ebook
Release Date: October 1, 2013
Source: Received eARC from publisher through NetGalley
Rating: 3.5 Stars
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***I received a free copy of this book through the publisher. This has in no way changed my opinion of the book. The review below is my open and honest opinion.***
Synopsis
from Goodreads:
Moody, atmospheric, and just a little
bit punk, Finding Home takes contemporary YA to a new level of grit...
When Amy’s mum dies, the last thing she expects is to be kicked off her dad’s music tour all the way to her Aunt Lou in a depressing hole of a seaside town. But it’s okay — Amy learned how to cope with the best, and soon finds a hard-drinking, party-loving crowd to help ease the pain.
The only solace is her music class, but even there she can’t seem to keep it together, sabotaging her grade and her one chance at a meaningful relationship. It takes a hard truth from her only friend before Amy realises that she has to come to terms with her past, before she destroys her future.
When Amy’s mum dies, the last thing she expects is to be kicked off her dad’s music tour all the way to her Aunt Lou in a depressing hole of a seaside town. But it’s okay — Amy learned how to cope with the best, and soon finds a hard-drinking, party-loving crowd to help ease the pain.
The only solace is her music class, but even there she can’t seem to keep it together, sabotaging her grade and her one chance at a meaningful relationship. It takes a hard truth from her only friend before Amy realises that she has to come to terms with her past, before she destroys her future.
My
Review:
This is the first contemporary I’ve read in a long
time. Like months. I generally shy away from contemporary, but there’s been a
lot of buzz in the blogosphere on the genre so I thought I would give it a
whirl. This one sounded like it wouldn’t have too much fluff and when I got
approved for it on NetGalley, I decided to give it a go.
Surprisingly, I really enjoyed it. There wasn’t a
lot of fluff and the experiences were real and gritty. The main character, Amy’s,
mom recently passed away. Her dad is a pop star and travels a lot. Amy was
going on the road with him, but he felt her drinking was getting out of control
so sent her to live with her Aunt Lou in a tiny seaside town. Amy harbors a lot
of anger. She is angry at her father for sending her away and feels like she’s
all alone in the world. She drinks a lot to take away the pain of losing her
mother. Amy wallows in self-pity throughout this whole book. Normally, this
would make me hate a character, but in this case, I could really relate to her.
“No one tells you that you’ll dream about her every
night. And that every morning, for a few moments, you’ll think life is normal.
It’s only then that your world comes crashing down and the pain starts all over
again.” -Amy
She starts high school in this small town where everybody knows everything about everyone. I also went to a small town high school and know just how cruel the rumor mill can be. Amy falls for this guy Luke right away. Of course, he has a girlfriend. But does Amy care? Nope. I’ve been there. When you’re in that juvenile state where you don’t think about how your actions will affect others. We all have, right? The one thing that annoyed me about this book was how quickly Amy “fell in love” with Luke. I mean, to me, it was obvious that she wasn’t in love. But she talks about how Luke is the one and how they have something special together. I was rolling my eyes hardcore. During these moments, Amy felt very naïve to me. Too naïve even for a seventeen year old. This is really why my rating went down from 4 stars to 3.5.
There’s this other guy, Nick who is super swoony. He’s
in a band and has tattoos. Also, this book is set in England so he has a
British accent. What??? Hot factor increases by like a million. Also, even
though Nick kind of gives off a bad guy vibe from his appearance, he is a
genuinely sweet person. And I love him.
This one was kind of predictable, but it didn’t
bother me that much. I enjoyed watching Amy go from hating the world to
accepting responsibility for her own actions and repairing her relationship
with her father. Something that kind of bugged me about this one was how the
author handled the topic of alcoholism. I personally feel that Amy was an
alcoholic and so was her mother before she died. But at the end of the book,
Amy just promises to ease up on her drinking. Alcoholism is a serious disease
and I felt like it was brushed off as no big deal. But other than these couple
things that annoyed me, it was pretty good for my first contemporary in a long
time. Happy reading all!
Have you heard of this book? Read it yet? Can you relate to this main character like I can?
I haven't heard of this one, but I'm glad you enjoyed it. I've been reading more contemporary YA lately, but I usually do pick the light and fluffy ones. After reading about the end of the world, vampires (and not the sparkly good ones), etc. I sometimes need something that I know will make me smile. Great review! ~Pam
ReplyDeleteLol I'm the opposite. I like dark books. So reading a light, fluffy one is boring for me. I like them to at least examine real driving issues.
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