Finding Felicity

by Stacey Kade

Felicity meets Fangirl in this contemporary novel about a young woman who must leave behind her fantasy life-inspired by her favorite WB show from the 1990s-and create a real one at college.

Caroline Sands has never been particularly good at making friends. And her parents' divorce and the move to Arizona three years ago didn't help. Being the new girl is hard enough without being socially awkward too. So out of desperation and a desire to please her worried mother, Caroline invented a whole life for herself-using characters from Felicity, an old show she discovered online and fell in love with.

But now it's time for Caroline to go off to college and she wants nothing more than to leave her old "life" behind and build something real. However, when her mother discovers the truth about her manufactured friends, she gives Caroline an ultimatum: Prove in this first semester that she can make friends of the nonfictional variety and thrive in a new environment. Otherwise, it's back to living at home-and a lot of therapy.

Armed with nothing more than her resolve and a Felicity-inspired plan, Caroline accepts the challenge. But she soon realizes that the real world is rarely as simple as television makes it out to be. And to find a place where she truly belongs, Caroline may have to abandon her script and take the risk of being herself.

• ISBN10: 1481464256
• ISBN13: 9781481464253
• Publish Date: 20 March 2018
• Publish Status: Active
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[Sam@WLABB]

Confession: Felicity was, and still remains, one of my favorite TV shows of all time. When I saw this cover, I knew before reading the synopsis that fictional Felicity was going to play some role in the story, and with that being the case, I had to read it. And you know what? Finding Felicity was a fun, heartwarming, and totally relatable YA-goes-to-college book.

For the first time in my life, I want the real thing and not the imagined version in my head.

I related to Caroline on so many levels. My family moved from Brooklyn to a very small town (seriously, 1 square mile) in NJ, where kids in my school had actually shared space in the hospital nursery after they were born (true story). Therefore, I totally sympathized with how difficult it was for Caroline, when she had to move from NY to Arizona. To a place where all the friend groups were already established, and they really weren't looking for any new members. I shared her loneliness, and also, her need to alleviate her mother's fears about the move.

I want someone who loves me because of who I am, not in spite of it. Is that so much to ask?

Just like Caroline, I saw college as a "clean slate", a place where I could be a "new version" of me. This was a part of the story I really liked, because this was where Caroline started her journey of self-discovery. She made many rookie mistakes, but after some missteps, she began to trust her own instincts, and started to find her tribe, and things began to look up.

Here there's only one empty spot, and it's for me. It makes me want to pinch myself to see if this is reality.

I have to commend Kade on the fine cast of characters she assembled. I really enjoyed getting to know them all, but I especially loved Lexi and Del. I wasn't sure about Lexi at first. I actually thought Caroline had lost the roommate lottery there, but the more I got to know Lexi, the more I understood her, and eventually, I sort of loved her. Del won me over from his first scene on page. I wasn't sure if he would pop up again in the story, but I was really happy he did, because he was all sorts of adorable and wonderful.

It's the start of the life I was searching for, even though it's nothing like what I expected.

You DO NOT need to be a fan of the the show to enjoy this book, but as a Felicity fan, I liked looking for the parallels to and mentions of the show. I got all giddy when I saw the show's characters names mentioned here and there, and found it quite amusing when Caroline would ask herself, "What would Felicity do?" Like Felicity, Caroline made an impulsive decision to follow a boy, who she wanted to know better to college. Crazy? Yes. But it also ended up being the place where Caroline finally found herself. She grew, learned from her mistakes, and began to find her place in the world.

Overall: A enjoyable and heartfelt journey of self-discovery, which spoke to this introverted-Felicity-lover.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

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