NO PLACE LIKE HERE
by Christina June
Blink
Young Adult Contemporary
272 pages
From Christina June, author of It Started with Goodbye and Everywhere You Want to Be, comes No Place Like Here, a modern twist on Hansel and Gretel. Ashlyn Zanotti has big plans for the summer. She’s just spent a year at boarding school and can’t wait to get home. But when Ashlyn’s father is arrested for tax evasion and her mother enters a rehab facility for “exhaustion,” her life is turned upside down.
The cherry on top? Ashlyn’s father sends her to work with a cousin she doesn’t even know at a rustic team-building retreat center in the middle of nowhere. A self-proclaimed “indoor girl,” not even Ash’s habit of leaving breadcrumb quotes—inspirational sayings she scribbles everywhere—can help her cope.
With a dangerously careless camp manager doling out grunt work, an overbearing father trying to control her even from prison, and more than a little boy drama to struggle with, the summer is full of challenges. And Ashlyn must make the toughest decision of her life: keep quiet and follow her dad’s marching orders, or find the courage to finally stand up to her father to have any hope of finding her way back home.
Fans looking for clean teen fiction, with elements of drama, romance, friendship, and an unflinching look into navigating and improving even the most difficult parent-teen relationships need look no further.
MY TIDBITS
This is the Summer read for teen girls, who love a bit of romance, drama, friendship, learning to know oneself and mending family difficulties...and all of that with tons of warmth.
Ashlyn is looking forward to spending her Senior year back at school with her best friend and family, but when she stumbles across news in the internet that her father is going to prison for tax fraud, her life flips upside down. Her father, always controlling, and her mother, under care for depression, send her to spend the summer with a cousin she doesn't even know in a nature camp. Ashlyn is not an outdoorsy type of girl. Mix that with a camp leader who is impossible, tons of outside work and a guy she might like, and it's quite the summer.
I've read Christina June's book before and have enjoyed every single one. This one was as good as the others. Ashlyn discovers herself, friendship and the true love behind family, while trying to overcome camp drama. It's a book made for teen girls in every way. The stories rolls along at a nice pace, making it hard to put the book down, but allows the needed depth to love each and every character. It's the type of book girls will cuddle up with under the blankets and get lost in.
While there is romance, it stays more on the sidelines. The story rotates around Ashlyn and her search to find herself and her life. The wonders of friendship and family are the main focus in these pages. And that makes for a satisfying read.
And here she is...
Christina June writes young adult contemporary fiction when she’s not writing college recommendation letters during her day job as a school counselor. She loves the little moments in life that help someone discover who they’re meant to become—whether it’s her students or her characters. Christina is a voracious reader, loves to travel, eats too many cupcakes, and hopes to one day be bicoastal—the east coast of the US and the east coast of Scotland. She lives just outside Washington, D.C., with her husband and daughter.
1 comment:
Oh my daughter would love this... right after I read it! I'm telling you, Blink YA is absolutely FULL of amazing books lately, so it's no surprise this one is amazing as well. Thank you for being on this tour! Sara @ TLC Book Tours
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