Gwen, I Am Your Father

 An Otherwise Perfect Plan by Ken Schafer

Gwen Pendergrass has never met her father.  Her mother will not tell her much.  But when events in her life convince her to search for him, Gwen is determined.  With only a photo booth photo strip she sets out on an adventure to find her father.  

A coming-of-age story about a child looking for the father they never knew may not sound like the most original idea.  But there are enough unexpected incidents, so it does not feel like it has all been done before.  Some of those incidents are improbable, but not so outrageous that you can't believe them if you try.  It was not uninteresting to see all of Gwen's well-intentioned plans come to ruin and sometimes she was witty, but I had trouble connecting to this story.  My main problem is that I found Gwen annoying.  With all of her stream of consciousness and constant babbling and going off on long tangents that had nothing to do with the story I had trouble paying attention to her.  By the end, I will admit, I was interested and wanted to know how it would all work out.  But that didn't happen until I was three quarters of the way though the book.  I'm sure some people can relate to Gwen, some people will find her endearing.  Unfortunately, I am not one of those people.  

I got a free copy of this book from Librarything.com, Early Reviewers.

Fixing the roof is not the same as keeping the lid on

Mercury by Amy Jo Burns

In 1990 Seventeen-year-old Marley West pulls into town with her mother.  It has always just been the two of them, but then Marley meets the Joseph brothers, the local roofers, and their lives become intertwined in ways Marley could not foresee.  Soon it seems like the whole Joseph family revolves around Marley.  But the past doesn't die and secrets will out.  Can the family survive the turmoil of old wounds, the chaos of new ones, and the uncertainty of eerie discoveries?

The book starts out with a bang.  There is mystery and murder and the promise of old secrets coming to light.  But then it slows down, a lot.  It took me a while to get interested in the characters here.  But once I did, I was caught.  From the way the book began it was not what I expected.  I thought it was going to be more of a mystery, but it a character driven story about family.  All the parts of being a family, the good, the bad and the ugly.  It is heartbreaking at times and sometimes you want to smack some of the characters, but that's what good writing is all about.  You care enough about the characters to be mad at them, or happy for them, or worry for them.  The story follows the Joseph family through many changes as they try to deal with each other in a whirlwind of love, hate and hurt.  I like the way Burns uses Marley's appearance to show the family from the outside, both to the reader and to the family, so you can see the big picture.  I like how at the end you got to see a little from each person's perspective.  In the end I enjoyed the story a great deal, but after the lighting quick beginning the story took a little while to pick back up for me.  

I got a free copy of this book from Bookish First.