Here, Home, Hope

by Kaira Rouda

[Leah]

I must admit to being a sucker for cheap e-books. I rather suspect a lot of people are, so when I saw Here, Home, Hope by Kaira Rouda for $2.99, I eagerly downloaded the sample to my Kindle so I could see if it was a novel I’d like. I was pretty sure it was one I’d like, if only because of the supremely gorgeous cover. Sure enough, the sample hooked me and I quite happily parted with my money to get myself the rest of the novel. It took me about 5 days to finish the novel, but it resonated with me a lot despite the fact I’m in an entirely different place to the one Kelly finds herself in.

Here, Home, Hope, starts with Kelly Mills Johnson at the dentist. This is the point in Kelly’s life where she decides something has to give (“Here’s how I knew something about my life had to change.”). Her sons are away at camp for the summer and Kelly’s worried about putting on the regular 6lbs she usually piles on when her boys are away. She’s restless and despite having a fairly easy life, she’s unconsciously grinding her teeth as she sleeps. Her life isn’t bad, far from it, but she wants more from her life, she wants more than just being Patrick’s husband and mother to her two sons. A recent cancer scare – which resonated me more than you will ever know as somebody I know is currently going through something similar – is just the push Kelly needs and she starts a Things to Change (T2C) list. I loved the idea of the T2C list. I’m not that kind of personality; I wish I was, but I’m not, but I love the idea of writing down things to change in your life and sticking the post-it notes everywhere. There’s a lot I’d like to change, but I don’t much see it happening.

Kelly’s life changes dramatically when numerous things happen at once: her best friend Kathryn dumps her anorexic daughter with Melanie, and Kelly finds out that her other best friend Charlotte also has her own secrets, and it makes her realise that she’s quite possibly been neglecting her friends for too darn long. I really really loved the way Kelly took charge of Melanie – ‘adopting’ her as her own teen in fact – and how she was so determined to help Melanie overcome her troubles. Although some of the subplots seemed as though they were straight out of an episode of Desperate Housewives (a bit far-fetched in other words), that didn’t particularly matter to me. I also loved the fact that Kelly pushed herself to try and find a job that would suit her. Whereas a lot of Chick Lit characters coming up to 40 would just think they were far too past it to work again, Kelly strives to find something to fill her abundance of spare time and I loved that.

Kelly is one of the most upbeat characters I’ve come across in a while. Her life doesn’t suck. She isn’t contemplating having an affair, her husband isn’t leaving her, she’s a brilliant parent, and she’s confident in her own abilities (although she does still struggle like most women). I thought she was a breath of fresh air. I loved that she called her car Doug, to make him more relateable to her. I found her husband Patrick to be charming and it was nice to meet the husband of a character who supported his wife 100%. I found most of the characters to be likeable. I did find Kathryn to be a bit neglectful to her daughter, Melanie, though and I had a lot of question marks over Charlotte, but bar that they were all likeable characters. Melanie was my favourite, I loved the moody anorexic teen and I loved the way she wanted to get help, she wanted to get better.

Here, Home, Hope is one of the most uplifting books I’ve read so far in 2011. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and there was enough drama and good things in the novel to keep me hooked from the outset. It’s a well-written novel, and the message inside the novel is one everyone can understand. Whether you’re 21 like me, 39 like Kelly, Here, Home, Hope is a novel for the ages. It’s such a well-written novel that even when my eyes were closing in tiredness, I just wanted one more chapter and I stayed up past midnight finishing it off. There was nothing about the book that I’d change, and it inspired me. It showed me that it doesn’t matter how old you are, if you want to change your life you can do it, you just have to go ahead and make those changes. This novel is well worth purchasing, I was inspired while reading it and a lot of other people will be too. I can’t wait for Kaira’s second novel, I’m sure it’ll be just as good.