Blurb:
Moody, atmospheric, and just a little bit punk, Finding Home takes
contemporary YA to a new level of grit…
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
realizes that she has to come to terms with her past, before she destroys
her future.
Author’s Bio
Lauren McKellar is a writer and editor of fact and fiction. She has worked
in publishing for more than eight years, editing a national magazine named
PETS, which is cute, fluffy and fun, as well as editing manuscripts that
range from sweet romance to raunchy thrillers. Lauren loves to write for
the Young and New Adult markets, and her debut novel, Finding Home, is a YA
Contemporary. She is a member of the YA Rebels (vlog) and the Aussie Owned
and Read blogging team. In her free time, Lauren enjoys long walks on the
beach with her two super-cute dogs and her partner-in-crime/fiancé.
Finding Home
Star Rating 5 stars
This isn’t the type of book I would normally read, but I was given it for an honest opinion as part of a book tour. I surprisingly found so much meaning and depth in this story. Amy a damaged young lady, her mother is dead and her father is a rock star and to top it all off Amy has a drink and attitude problem, her father sees no other way out but to ship her off to her aunt Lou’s.
Amy has been home schooled the last three years so starting a new school and in the middle of the term is tough add all the other problems she carries with her and you’ve got a walking time bomb. I found Amy was like so many other people bottling up problems, blaming everyone for their problems and creating new ones along the way. She did everything that was bad or wrong just to ease the pain of losing her mother, but the road she goes down is so destructive and sad.
The author very bravely tackles so many topics with taste, nothing in the novel is too graphic yet we are faced with drink and drug problems, the loss of a parent and abuse of a sexual nature. I found seeing all this through Amy’s eyes was hard as she was at the receiving end of all of this. Yet while we follow Amy on her sad journey there was one lesson to be learnt you can look at it from her perspective or her fathers, but in my eyes there is three sides to every story, his side, her side and then the truth but the truth hurts and regardless if you’re an adult or a child it’s a tough one to face up too no matter what.
I really enjoyed this story it gives you pause about your own turmoil’s in life and how you really deal or look at them, sometimes we need to take a deep breath and stand back from the circle to see the whole picture.
This is a story about finding yourself and one that was well written with great meaning, I truly enjoyed it.
Author Aoife Marie Sheridan 