Review: Where I Belong - Gwendolyn Heasley

Where I Belong by Gwendolyn Heasley. I am reading this for my February entry in the 2011 Debut Author Challenge.

Meet Corrinne. She's living every girl's dream in New York City—shopping sprees at Barneys, open access to the best clubs and parties, and her own horse at the country club. Her perfect life is perfectly on track. At least it was. . . .

When Corrinne's father is laid off, her world suddenly falls apart. Instead of heading to boarding school, she's stripped of her credit cards and shipped off to the boonies of Texas to live with her grandparents. On her own in a big public school and forced to take a job shoveling manure, Corrinne is determined to get back to the life she's supposed to be living. She doesn't care who she stomps on in the process. But when Corrinne makes an unlikely friend and discovers a total hottie at work, she begins to wonder if her life B.R.—before the recession—was as perfect as it seemed.

Well the main character, Corrinne, was absolutely right in her opening letter I really disliked her a first, but I can't say she didn't warn me. Seriously what a complete and utter brat I really felt like banging her head against a brick wall for the first few chapters. But then I think back to myself at 16 and how I would have reacted if my parents had told me they were taking me away from the only home I had ever known and I realise that I can't really blame her. Although for me it would have been the opposite - I live in the country on a farm and I would have hated to move to a big city.

However as Corrinne started to adjust to life in Broken Spoke, I realised that I was adjusting to Corrinne herself. The change was very subtle but the more Corrinne liked living in Texas the more I found I liked her. It made the book a lot easier to read when the main character stopped annoying me quite so much.

Going from the cover of the book I thought the main theme here was going to be a love story, but it ended up as more of a personal journey for Corrinne, a coming of age story. Although there was a cute little love story in there it wasn't the main focus. Again going from the front cover I thought the love interest was going to be the strong silent cowboy type but I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out to be Bubby, (what kind of name is that anyway?) I found him quite interesting and his and Corrinne's banter was pretty fun to read. I loved Corrinne's new friend Kitsy she had a complex back story, it would be great if she had her own book.

I was a little bit disappointed at the way the book ended, it felt to easy to me but I suppose practically speaking it made the most sense. Overall I did enjoy this book and I am looking forward to reading the authors next book.

That's all for now.