E-ARC Review: Finding Home by Lauren K. McKellar

Posted by Nina L. on 12:00 PM in 3-star, contemporary, E-ARC, Lauren K. McKellar, music, review, YA,

Author: Lauren K. McKellar

Release date: October 1st 2013

Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises Australia: Escape Publishing

Series: N/A

Age Group: Young Adult

Genre: Contemporary Romance 

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes and Noble 

Add to your library: 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. (via Goodreads)

I received an e-copy of this from Harlequin Enterprises Australia: Escape Publishing through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This however did not influence my opinion of the book or of the author in any way.

Music plus drunkard female character? Sounds fun. I said before in my review for The Spectacular Now that I couldn't get Sutter's drinking habits. But it's different with Amy. I kinda get it because she was problematic. More of a negative thinker actually. She seemed to weigh down the problems around her when clearly, it weren't her burdens to carry. I think for the most part that she was a victim of the circumstances. Though that wouldn't justify her actions and yes, there were times when I want to literally shake her up.

Amy was in that situation wherein you don't really know what to do. Her Mom died which left her to be with her Dad who was on a music tour. Yes, her Dad's a famous singer. If I were her, I'd probably be jumping up and down everyday because I'd get to join a tour. And hello. NO SCHOOL. I mean, she was home-schooled but still. Yet it was the opposite for her. Since her Mom died, all she wanted was to be but in that tour. I guess Amy was just being blinded by a lot of things. On top of that was the fact that her Mom was such a not-careful-one. I hate to speak ill of a character but I'm just stating facts here. Amy's Mom let her drink most of the time during the tour. As much as that makes me happy that her Mom was such a cool one, she didn't know how to stop to the point that she didn't teach Amy her limitations for alcohol. So even when her Mom died, Amy just wanted to drink and drink and drink. She became too dependent on it. Because her Dad was usually having a gig, Amy used to think that her Dad was such a bad one to just leave the two of them. This annoyed me because Amy's Mom used to work but all of a sudden, she quit and her Dad had to pursue that career so they'd have tons of money. AND STILL IT'S NOT ENOUGH. I just don't get it. I don't even understand why her Mom quit. I did have a good guess but it wasn't directly stated. Or was it? As I've said earlier, she was a victim because she didn't know things. That's why she was mad at her Dad. I loved her Dad for that because he was willing to take up the blame.

When Amy was shipped off to her Aunt, I was doubtful that she'd be a goody-goody immediately. Of course, there were moments of failures first before realizations kick in. Her transformation started funny. I kept on laughing because she kept on having these weird attraction toward each guy she encountered. I guess it was a normal one because she didn't have lots of interactions with the male species of her age. She also became this infatuated with a guy and it annoyed the hell out of me because she was becoming delirious about him. Even if he had a girlfriend. And when she met a guy who was totally this cute and good one, she doesn't want him because he's into music too. Amy was so good in assuming things. But what's good with her was that, she acknowledged all of her even the not-so-good-ones. She acknowledged herself when she was bitchy and all. It was a good change because I kept on reading about female main characters who think so highly of themselves and forget that they have flaws too. 

I was having a great time from the start because I enjoyed the characterization and the story itself. There were right amounts of friendship, love, sadness and just combined altogether. It was fun to see how a character was very different the moment you know them to the end of the story. It was all right until the moment Amy decided to change and she just really decided to change in an instant. She was on 7th heaven of drinking when a friend of hers told her some things and viola. She was different. I just felt like it happened in just a snap. I would have liked it better if her character changed in a nice transition. The pacing was just fine from the start until she changed and it was fast forward all at once. Yet I enjoyed it and Nick too.

Finding Home is a nice novel about learning how to cope with death in the best ways there are. You'd be sad, irritated, happy and annoyed but you have to feel those in order to feel whole and home again. 

About the Author

Lauren K. McKellar is an author and editor. Her debut novel, Finding Home, will be released through Escape Publishing on October 1, 2013.

As well as being a magazine editor for a national audited publication on pet care, Lauren works as a freelance editor for independent authors. She is also a Senior Editor for digital romance house, Entranced Publishing.

Lauren is a member of the Romance Writers of Australia and is obsessed with words--she really likes the way they work.

She lives on the Central Coast of New South Wales with her fiance and their two fur-children

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