Here, Home, Hope

The new plight (or maybe the old one) of the middle classes seems to be the mid life crisis. At a certain age we have the leisure to examine our lives and wonder if we shouldn't have made different choices. Here, Home, Hope looks at one woman's struggle with a vague sense of dissatisfaction and depression. As Kelly struggles to find a sense of purpose in her perfect life she goes through all the standard options - a therapist, medication, reconnecting with friends, and gradually she begins to craft a bigger and brighter future for herself.

I enjoyed coming along for the ride with Kelly and her friends as they drag themselves through their mid-life crises. Kelly maintains a great sense of humor throughout that really helps to lighten the show more story and the feeling that she is such a good, kind person had me rooting for her. I loved that the author chose to give her a solid marriage to an all around good guy. The idea that not all unhappiness springs from a bad marriage is often looked at in fiction. The insightful Things to Change list and Kelly's ability to clearly see what was truly important in her life added some nice depth to the story. Not a real page turner, but a nice, quieter, more contemplative novel. show less

Here, Home, Hope has everything I love in a book - real and relatable characters, humor and heart, and a story that grabbed me from the beginning. I found myself engrossed in Kelly's story, in the lives of all the characters, completely relating to her life as she approaches the big 4-0 - thinking her friends and neighbors have it all, living in the suburbs, wanting to revive her passions and energies that have gone to being a wife and mother for so long. I laughed often at how Kelly tackled her mid-life crises and reinvention, cried when issues got real and emotional (and close to home!), and routed for the characters all along - including the teenage anorexic that Kelly takes under her wing. Perfect for summer reading and for fans of show more women's fiction and even includes a Things to Change List to help readers plan their own reinvention - an inspiring and absorbing debut novel you must read! I'll be adding Kaira Rouda to my favorite women authors to read and look forward to the next book! show less

This review first appeared on my blog: http://www.knittingandsundries.com/2011/06/here-home-hope-by-kaira-rouda-book.ht...

FIRST SENTENCE: Here's how I knew something about my life had to change.

Kelly is 39 years old, and for those of us who have been there (or may still be there), her "restless" feeling may be familiar. She's not UNhappy .. she just wants something "more". She left a successful career in PR when she decided to be a stay-at-home mother, and she's been happy with that decision. Her two boys, however, are 12 and 14, and they don't need her constant attention any longer. Her husband Patrick, is warm, loving, and understanding. They live in an upscale neighborhood, have a wonderful home, and life is good. A breast cancer show more scare before Christmas caused her to stop and take stock of her life, but NOW is the time for her to put something in motion.

She starts with a Things 2 Change list (T2C for short). She adds things to the list as she thinks of them (#10 - keep self-deprecation to self, at night, while wearing both mouthguards). When her beautiful friend Charlotte, a real estate agent, asks her to help her out by "staging" a sale property (making it look more appealing for potential buyers), she agrees, and she does so well at it and feels so good about it that she decides to start her own business.

As she's doing so, she's reconnecting with friends, including Kathryn, another beauty, and a friend from college who shows up crying in her driveway. Kathryn's daughter Melanie is anorexic, and her marriage is in trouble. Together they agree to concentrate first on Melanie, and Kelly agrees to spend time with the teenager.

As Kelly works on her T2C list, starts seeing a counselor to help define her restless feelings, and gets her new business up and running, friends' and neighbors' marriages all around her are floundering and falling apart, and Kelly is unwittingly brought into the drama when she and Patrick find one wife in bed with someone else's husband.

Yay! A women's fiction book where the main character isn't neurotic, unfaithful, or a bad mother! :) Seriously, those are the reasons I don't really read "chick lit". Kelly is a wonderful person, not perfect, but well aware that she has been fortunate in her life. As the novel takes you through her transition into something "more", we see a woman grow into realizing that not everything in other people's lives are as wonderful as they appear (T2C #4 - Don't compare yourself to others). She's a wonderful friend, and tries her best not to judge the actions of those around her (but again, she's not a saint, and she can't help but do so here and there as well as having some times where she should say more but doesn't).

I was totally caught up in seeing where Kelly would go, and in how all of the drama surrounding her would play out. A witty, great warm-weather, feel-good-at-the-end, read, Here, Home, Hope is definitely a story that most of us will be able to relate to.

QUOTES

It was like having an exchange student from the country of Thin. Perhaps I could learn from her and show her some of the customs of the country of Fat.

Did I just take a job? Jeez. All I did was decide my life had to change and now it was, faster than I could've imagined. I'm a believer in tossing thoughts out into the universe; I just didn't know the answer would be tossed back so quickly, via cell phone. I needed a new dress.

"Look, Rachel, it's all very sad, yes, and I don't even know how you found out about it all. But instead of talking about them to me, why don't you do something productive with your - uh - grief. Plant a tree. Pray. Just don't meddle and gossip," I said. I was mad, but I wasn't crying (Wow! #19). "Really, you need a life. Your own."

Writing: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Plot: 4 out of 5 stars
Characters: 4.25 out of 5 stars
Reading Immersion: 4.5 out 5 stars

BOOK RATING: 4.3 out of 5 stars show less

I enjoyed the book about Kelly's transformation from a depressed, stay-at-home mother to a mompreneur with a thriving home staging business.

My only concerns were the unrealistic pace of Kelly's business success and the overpowering subplots which, at times, made Kelly seem more like an observant narrator rather than the star of the show.

I found this book through the author's phenomenal marketing savvy. I expected a break-out bestseller but found a quiet tale instead.

Kelly Johnson is at the dentist's office when she realizes that she is vaguely dissatisfied with her role in life and that she wants to make a change. The problem is that this thirty-nine year old stay at home mom to two teenaged boys, wife to a successful lawyer, and former PR wiz doesn't know what she wants to do when she grows up. She looks at her closest friends, envying the way these two beautiful and professionally successful women seem to have it all. So when her one friend asks her to stage a home, tapping into Kelly's love of decorating and innate flair for design, it seems a career tailor-made for her. As she launches this new business, supported and cheered on by her husband, Kelly discovers that Charlotte and Kathryn's lives show more are not as golden as she had thought. She agrees to host Kathryn's anorexic teenaged daughter while Kathryn goes off and finds herself. She also discovers that Charlotte's marriage is over and Charlotte has been having an affair. As she tries to be a supportive and caring friend to these two women she loves, she also reconnects with an old friend, Beth, whom she had abandoned long ago, building a tentative bridge between them and enlisting Beth's help with Kathryn's daughter.

There are quite a few plot lines here all dealing with major issues in women's lives: divorce, life change, job loss, anorexia, personal fulfillment, death, friendship, infidelity. And yet most of these issues were skimmed over because they were happening to secondary characters rather than to Kelly. Because of this remove from the spotlight, they didn't feel as well developed as perhaps they deserved. Problems, even these enormous, life altering problems, were too easily resolved. It sounds odd to be advocating for road blocks but their presence would have made the storyline more believable for me. The message here, Kelly's empowerment, is very positive and the tone of the book is upbeat and successful but it falls just a bit shy of realistic. The character Kelly is generally likable although some of her reactions to the situations swirling around her are odd. For instance, wanting to keep an anorexic around her at all times to remind her to eat healthily so she (Kelly) continues to lose weight is rather insensitive and minimizes a too real and very serious disease. Overall, a cheery beach read about women's empowerment, this had a few weaknesses but nothing that a drink with an umbrella couldn't erase. show less

Kelly Johnson is going through her own mid-life crisis in her own way--while everyone around her seems to be as well. Unfortunately, those around her choose the typical path of infidelity as they "find themselves"--disregarding those they supposedly love. Luckily, Kelly chooses a more constructive outlet--a new career...all while managing to help/provide therapy for those acquaintances struggling around her. This was a refreshing read in that Kelly thinks of others in her quest to find herself. Kelly quickly becomes a friend I would be happy to have in my life and I ended the book wishing her well in her endeavors and curious if her other friends ever find happiness.

I really liked the messages in this book - finding your passion, making relationships matter - there's even a handy checklist at the end of the book. The story of Kelly Johnson's midlife crisis is funny and also inspiring, as she makes little changes, looks for help, and gives it too. I was glad that in the midst of all the infidelity, Kelly's marriage continued to be healthy and happy. I could relate to the depression Kelly suffered as well - that feeling that she shouldn't be depressed because her life is so blessed. The only fault I find is that the novel skimmed along the surface, following the plot twists and turns, but not delving deeply into the characters. It read as more of a "tell" book instead of a "show" book.