Going Over Home
by Katie Andrews Potter
Lori's Review: 4 Stars
Maddox Fox had a quiet childhood. A very quiet one. She has no clue about her parents past. Doesn't remember her grandparents and knows nothing about them. In grade school she gets a bit of information but not enough and her parents clam up. As she gets older her past becomes more and more of a mystery until one day she stumbles upon the truth. She was born more than 170 years ago and was brought into the future for various reasons. Some good and some bad. Now she must make a life changing descion. To stay or go back?
The Good:
There are absolutely ZERO zombies in this book. And I still gave it 4 stars!! I KNOW AMAZING right?!? Well let me enlighten you to a little known fact about myself (expect if you happen to stalk my books on goodreads! And, good god, why would you do that?) I've read every single one of the "Little House on the Prairie" books. I was obsessed with pioneer life as a child and would pretend for hours that I was a pioneer girl!!!
This book took me back to some of those childhood memories. I relished every minute I spent reading about Maddie's travels back and forth. I loved her Grandma. I LOVED Henry. We all know how much I love to swoon...well let me tell you Henry is swoon worthy.
Maddie is a tough but sweet girl. She's not mouthy or disrespectful. She's not acting tough and trying to rebel. She is just trying to be happy and do the right thing. Does that get her down? Well wouldn't you be a little down if you found out your whole life was a lie?
I loved the genealogy. Katie Andrews Potter has spent a great deal of time researching genealogy and I would happen to guess that it is a hobby of hers from the care and love that she gives to it in this book.
The writing. I felt like I was there. I loved it. What a fantastic ride she takes the reader on. The back and forth between the two time periods never gets manic. It's very fluid. It's beautiful take-me-away writing. This was one of those books that I didn't have to think about where the author was taking me. I just said "Ok, you got me at hello. Let's get on with this joy ride".
The mystery element was woven in just right. Sometimes in books the thriller aspect can feel forced and tacked on. That was definately not the case here. Honestly my poor writing skills cannot and are not even doing justice to how great this book is!!!
This book can be read by all ages. I am 28 and it made me feel like I was a little girl again. (In a good way). My 59 year old mother will enjoy reading this when it comes out. So will my 12 year old niece...well maybe if I can convince her that "those vampires" are not the be all and end all of literature. The love story between Maddie and Henry is sweet. It definately is one of the more tame YA books I have read in awhile. Guess what? I still got those same OMG he is soo hunky/OMG please just get together butterflies without all the bare skin and innuendo.
The not so good: ( I don't want to. You can't make me!)
To be fair and balanced in my review I will mention that there were maybe 2 typos (Ms. Andrews Potter please don't ask me to remember them. I don't). I rarely dock review points for grammer/spelling/punctuation errors. I refuse to here. It's not necessary. If I can't remember them now then they really are very minor. However, I know there are some people that cannot stand errors in books so I need to mention that I noticed some.
The characters needed flushed out more. This book is fairly short. We are given a ton of information (about characters, time periods, family backgrounds etc) within these pages. I loved each and every one of these details but I finished the book wanting more!!! MORE! I feel like I was just getting to the good stuff and all of sudden I was at 100%. I would have loved to see more of Henry and Maddie's love story. However, that is not what this book is about. It is about the journey to bring them together. Is this a fault in the writing of the book? Not at all. It's just what I, the reader, wanted to see more of.
*Katie Andrews Potter is writing a whole series of books about the sisters in this story. I will be reading each and everyone one of them. AND I AM BEGGING HER PLEASE REVISIT MADDIE AND HENRY!!! There is so much more to tell.
*Also if I was a fan-fic writer I think I could do amazing things with this story + zombies. LOL. Just kidding.
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