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Forever Homes
*Honorable Mention Winner of the Royal Dragonfly Award for Young Adult Fiction*Her dreams died with her mother.
With the death of their mother and absence of their father, Meagan and her two brothers are placed in foster care, beneath the watchful eye of the Agency and its new Forever Homes Initiative.
The promise was that they would find a new home. A new family. A new start. Daniel has been in his for months without a word, and now the Agency says they have a Forever Home for Meagan, but not her little brother, Benjamin.
She has already lost her mother and her older brother. She will not lose Benjamin, too.
Determined to reunite her family, Meagan embarks on a journey that reveals dangers, secrets, and a plot to expose. The Agency is not what it seems and Forever Homes are truly forever.
Will Meagan be able to reunite her family or will the system and injustices of the Agency consume her like it has so many other children?
In this captivating story from the bestselling author of Parenting Children of Trauma, Marcy Pusey exposes a world in which profit wins over people, examining complex moral issues that will keep readers turning the pages until the very end.
With the death of their mother and absence of their father, Meagan and her two brothers are placed in foster care, beneath the watchful eye of the Agency and its new Forever Homes Initiative.
The promise was that they would find a new home. A new family. A new start. Daniel has been in his for months without a word, and now the Agency says they have a Forever Home for Meagan, but not her little brother, Benjamin.
She has already lost her mother and her older brother. She will not lose Benjamin, too.
Determined to reunite her family, Meagan embarks on a journey that reveals dangers, secrets, and a plot to expose. The Agency is not what it seems and Forever Homes are truly forever.
Will Meagan be able to reunite her family or will the system and injustices of the Agency consume her like it has so many other children?
In this captivating story from the bestselling author of Parenting Children of Trauma, Marcy Pusey exposes a world in which profit wins over people, examining complex moral issues that will keep readers turning the pages until the very end.
254 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 2, 2020
4 people are currently reading
5 people want to read
About the author
Marcy Pusey
44 books35 followersMarcy Pusey is an award-winning author of many bestselling books for adults and children, an international two-time TEDx speaker, and the Founder of Miramare Ponte Press. With her passion for storytelling and commitment to uplifting others, Marcy loves inspiring her readers with powerful tales that touch the heart and stir the soul. She also enjoys helping fellow authors pursue their writing dreams by providing them with coaching, consultation, and publishing services.
Marcy has spent her whole life helping others. Through her work as a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor and Certified Trauma and Resilience Practitioner, she helps people discover the emotional tools and support they need to grow beyond trauma and embrace their lives to the fullest. Her two TEDx talks, “How Story Empowers Kids to Shape our World” & “You Are More Than Your Traumatic Experiences”, have garnered international attention.
Marcy is proud to lead a life of adventure. She’s tossed pizzas for a pizzeria, sang in a musical, advocated for families with special needs, made appearances in a few movies, and mimed with balloon animals at the Halifax Busker Festival. She’s also the mother of four humans and two pups. For more information about Marcy and her work, visit her website at www.marcypusey.com or www.miramarepontepress.com
Marcy has spent her whole life helping others. Through her work as a Certified Rehabilitation Counselor and Certified Trauma and Resilience Practitioner, she helps people discover the emotional tools and support they need to grow beyond trauma and embrace their lives to the fullest. Her two TEDx talks, “How Story Empowers Kids to Shape our World” & “You Are More Than Your Traumatic Experiences”, have garnered international attention.
Marcy is proud to lead a life of adventure. She’s tossed pizzas for a pizzeria, sang in a musical, advocated for families with special needs, made appearances in a few movies, and mimed with balloon animals at the Halifax Busker Festival. She’s also the mother of four humans and two pups. For more information about Marcy and her work, visit her website at www.marcypusey.com or www.miramarepontepress.com
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 29, 2021
This started out very strong. I connected with the main character immediately and was compelled to continue reading. Unfortunately, there were some problems with it that diminished my enjoyment of it.
The story is about a big governmental agency that deals with orphaned kids and puts them in a "Forever Home" when they reach a certain age. The main character decides to run away with her little brother just before this happens and it was a joy to read about her and her efforts. But there was a twist about why the government was doing this "Forever Home" project which was just illogical.
However, the main character was so compelling and the direct writing helped me look past that and continue on with the story. Then I started to notice structural problems. The chapters are all short, a few pages long, and they kind of follow the same structure of having a small reveal/cliffhanger at the end. Every chapter is like this. I found it very monotonous and couldn't read this book for very long before I had to put it down.
Also, about halfway through, the main character's motivations became unclear to me. I felt like she became a passive character around this point and I hated it. She had been delightfully active in the first half of the book.
It got so bad that I had no idea why the main character did some of the things she did near the end. Or maybe I didn't believe that she would do those things. It felt like I was reading a different character. And then I found what I assume to be an author's note at the end of Chapter 43:
> (* on pg.30 & when Cayson tells his story, and this is the perfect set up/pay off reveal!)
In fact, the whole second half felt like the author had intruded upon these characters and made them do what she wanted instead. And when the perspective shift happens near the end, when everything before had been from the perspective of the main character, it felt very forced and ungraceful.
I was really let down by the second half of the book, which was made worse by a terrific first half.
**Spoiler about the twist and why I found it illogical**
The twist is that the government was killing the kids instead of placing them in a foster home. The reason stated was economic, which was just insane. These kids are just about to enter the workforce and contribute to the economy over their entire lifetime. I found it impossible that any economist would actually go for something like this.
Consider the economic costs of conscription, which is more than just the wages that are paid to the conscripts but also the opportunity costs of the conscripts doing conscript things instead of what they would have done otherwise in the normal job economy. And this is just talking about the removal of the conscripts for a short period of time from the workforce. The book is talking about removing these kids from the workforce for the rest of their lives.
The story is about a big governmental agency that deals with orphaned kids and puts them in a "Forever Home" when they reach a certain age. The main character decides to run away with her little brother just before this happens and it was a joy to read about her and her efforts. But there was a twist about why the government was doing this "Forever Home" project which was just illogical.
However, the main character was so compelling and the direct writing helped me look past that and continue on with the story. Then I started to notice structural problems. The chapters are all short, a few pages long, and they kind of follow the same structure of having a small reveal/cliffhanger at the end. Every chapter is like this. I found it very monotonous and couldn't read this book for very long before I had to put it down.
Also, about halfway through, the main character's motivations became unclear to me. I felt like she became a passive character around this point and I hated it. She had been delightfully active in the first half of the book.
It got so bad that I had no idea why the main character did some of the things she did near the end. Or maybe I didn't believe that she would do those things. It felt like I was reading a different character. And then I found what I assume to be an author's note at the end of Chapter 43:
> (* on pg.30 & when Cayson tells his story, and this is the perfect set up/pay off reveal!)
In fact, the whole second half felt like the author had intruded upon these characters and made them do what she wanted instead. And when the perspective shift happens near the end, when everything before had been from the perspective of the main character, it felt very forced and ungraceful.
I was really let down by the second half of the book, which was made worse by a terrific first half.
**Spoiler about the twist and why I found it illogical**
The twist is that the government was killing the kids instead of placing them in a foster home. The reason stated was economic, which was just insane. These kids are just about to enter the workforce and contribute to the economy over their entire lifetime. I found it impossible that any economist would actually go for something like this.
Consider the economic costs of conscription, which is more than just the wages that are paid to the conscripts but also the opportunity costs of the conscripts doing conscript things instead of what they would have done otherwise in the normal job economy. And this is just talking about the removal of the conscripts for a short period of time from the workforce. The book is talking about removing these kids from the workforce for the rest of their lives.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 13, 2020
Forever Homes
From her other works, we already know Pusey to be a master storyteller along with an advocate for foster care and adoption and the often harsh truths that accompany them. This book is a combination of her extensive knowledge and her storytelling abilities. Forever Home is chock-full of surprises and so fast paced that I couldn’t put it down! Pusey does a masterful job of connecting the characters to our hearts. What a fantastic first YA novel from this author!
From her other works, we already know Pusey to be a master storyteller along with an advocate for foster care and adoption and the often harsh truths that accompany them. This book is a combination of her extensive knowledge and her storytelling abilities. Forever Home is chock-full of surprises and so fast paced that I couldn’t put it down! Pusey does a masterful job of connecting the characters to our hearts. What a fantastic first YA novel from this author!
December 12, 2020
Good to the last word
The author tells this story beautifully. I love how the author was able to combine her knowledge of the foster care and adoption system with nail biting fiction. This story was engaging, exciting, and heartwarming. I couldn’t put it down until I soaked up the last word. I would suggest this to anyone who enjoys books that are exciting and uplifting.
The author tells this story beautifully. I love how the author was able to combine her knowledge of the foster care and adoption system with nail biting fiction. This story was engaging, exciting, and heartwarming. I couldn’t put it down until I soaked up the last word. I would suggest this to anyone who enjoys books that are exciting and uplifting.
December 14, 2020
I love reading YA books especially ones that have a lot of action and suspense like the Divergent and Hunger Games series and this book had both. The creativity in the story had me at “Forever Homes”staying up all night reading to the end. I hope their is a sequel to follow.
December 13, 2020
Great story and an exciting adventure that starts on page one. A must read.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews