Finding Home

by Stephanie Albright

Abbie leaves her mother's house one night and has a decision to make, left or right. Her choice sets her on a course to find a family she didn't know she had, a sense of belonging she has always wanted and love.

238 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2020

About the author

Stephanie Albright grew up in Amanda, Ohio. In 1986 she went to Mississippi for the summer and never went back. She graduated from Mississippi University for Women with a degree in Paralegal Studies and has a Masters in Education from Western Governors University. She loves history, travel and food, not necessarily in that order. Words have always been her passion, either reading or writing. She now lives in Alabama with a small flock of chickens and a very angry cat, who enjoys being outside almost as much as she does. Other than reading and writing, she loves gardening and learning about plants, and drinking coffee on the porch.

She is the author of several published novels.
https://www.patreon.com/stephaniealbr...

Reviews

[Lori Krause · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abbie is a lot like the rest of us. We all have demons that we battle from time to time; however, some have even darker ones we deal with every day. 'Finding Home' is a deep reflection of Abbie's life and how through one decision, she became brave enough to fight her demons and overcome the darkness of her eating disorder and how it once controlled her life. Now, Abbie has found the courage to start anew.

[Connie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book via Reedsy Discovery in exchange for my honest review, with thanks to the author and Reedsy.

Reedsy link: https://reedsy.com/discovery/book/fin...

I had so wanted this to be the book for me. The synopsis sounded brilliant, and I am always for a "find yourself" type of a book, but this one fell a bit short of my expectations. The book begins with Abbie falling out with her mother and with Abbie getting into her car and driving overnight. When she pulls up outside a little bungalow she's overwhelmed by the sense of home she feels by this building and the quaint town in which it is situated. To her joy, it's up for sale and seeing as she needs to shake up her life and has a nice pot of money stashed away following her father's death, she buys it without a second thought. Coincidentally this is also the house her great grandparents built generations before her. This then triggers a set of coincidences that change her life forever and for the better in many ways. She meets long lost relatives, reconnects with her dad's brother, dumps her tag-along boyfriend and falls in love with the wonderful Greg.



Now, this all sounds fine and dandy, it's a great synopsis with a seemingly good plot of finding oneself and ones home, gaining control where life seemed previously uncontrollable and so on but this book was filled with random inconsistencies that bothered me. Firstly, the time-travelling clock. I don't necessarily see its purpose for the story. Abbie buys a mantle clock in an antique store that would go perfectly in her house, but it turns out it allows her to see into the past of one of her relatives named Nellie who was involved in spying on the Yankees in South Carolina. This point was so random and it didn't add anything to the story in my opinion. If I found a time-travelling clock, it would be my main focus of the book but instead, it was simply a sideline to the story...Yeah, time travel was overwritten by renovating a back garden and a future business and wasn't a focal point of the story.



A second point I feel was glazed over with too much ease was Abbie's eating disorder. The book introduces this in an okay way, explaining the internalised rules Abbie has for eating around others and the standards she holds herself too, triggered by years of being essentially unloved by her mother and ex-boyfriend Jack. But it's then washed over when we see Abbie seemingly recovering from these rules when she is seen eating around Greg's family, and it not really being mentioned again until towards the end of the book when Greg moves to Columbia. It felt almost dismissive and simply used as an angsty plot point and not a genuine struggle that Abbie has because while a supportive and loving environment will help, it still takes time to get over and with Abbie it seemed instantaneous.



I will say, however, the prologue to this book was enchanting and I'm sad the same beautiful style wasn't carried throughout the book, my personal favourite quote is below:



Sometimes it's a physical place, but most often it seems to be a combination of sould that fit like puzzle pieces. But souls grow and change then one day, the edges no longer line up, and home has moved on without me again. I wish it would take me along when it goes.


Like that is so poetically beautiful! It highlights this authors potential but I don't think this work as a whole is the best. If you're looking a quick hallmark movie kind of a read with a bit of random time travel, then sure, I'd recommend it.



Trigger warnings: parental death, toxic relationship with mother, disordered eating