BOOK REVIEW: Finding Felicity by Stacey Kade

Finding Felicity by Stacey Kade
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:

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.

**ARC provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review**

I’ll admit that this author is one I have always liked. Her Ghost and the Goth series took me strongly by surprise when, before even giving it a try, I was judging it by the horrid cover (I’m sorry, but some covers just need to not exist-people DO tend to judge a book by it’s cover). I absolutely adored it, of course. It was cute, fun, quirky, and a fun play on the hierarchy of high school. This book? It was the opposite. I didn’t judge it in the least when I saw who the author was when the blog tour was offered to me. I immediately was all in. And, while it had it’s moments where I really connected with the main character and the people surrounding her (these were FAR and FEW between, mostly), there is only one way I could describe this book as a whole: Cringey. This book, with it’s out of reality narrator, was beyond cringe-worthy.

I just….it was SO hard for me to connect. The story itself seemed adorable. I’ve loved these types of stories before, where the main character latches onto a fictional thing (tv show, fanfic, books, drawings, etc.) and then they slowly learn to live in reality. But here? It went a step too far, in my opinion, where even my suspension for disbelief couldn’t handle it. I’m sorry…but this girl? She broke my heart with how pathetic she was.

And I’m not trying to be mean, here. The fact is this: She latched onto the show Felicity where the girl meets a guy who is nice to her. Where he makes her believe she can be more. Now, hold up, this doesn’t bother me in the least. In fact, I do think people, as a whole, can inspire others to make more of themselves through inspiration and kind words or what have you. But, and this is where I just couldn’t with this girl, when she takes the same step that her idol does, following someone to college….I just. WHAT?

I’m sorry, but it made me gag and-actually-made my heart stop. How could that possibly lead to anything good? I won’t spoil anything, seeing as that is the opposite of what I like to do in my reviews, but I found myself wondering if we should actually like the male in this story or brace ourselves.

I will admit that I had my bout of stupidity (in HIGH SCHOOL) where I deluded myself into thinking all the hot guys that flirted with me truly wanted to make it into a relationship. A lot of them did, for sure, but did I ever choose the right one??? Ummmm. I’ll get back to you on that. lol. I will say-before I get too judged-I did end up choosing the right guy, in the end. In High School, that is. We’re married. So…I think I did okay-after too many flirty boys, I found the right flirty boy. HA. Depending on the day, that is. 😉

My point remains, however, that though I did many stupid things…I never ONCE would have considered following a guy I didn’t know to a college halfway across the country. I’m not here to judge completely, though.

This story really was a sense of finding yourself, a journey of self-discovery-and she did grow throughout the book-absolutely. Of course, this was after one of the most awkward moments in the history of awkwardness.

I don’t think this story truly offered a full look at all the extra characters like it could have, but I still really grew to like her roommate, Lexi. She was actually my favorite character. So, I’ll wrap this up because I keep saying ‘so’ and ‘actually’ a lot lol. My point is this: This book was not a romance, it was a story of self discovery and learning who you can be if you put yourself out there. I did tear up once, because, ouch. I DO know how some of this feels-many girls do-but not near in the same dumb situation she put herself in. View Spoiler »But I do know what it is like to crush on a guy, REALLY crush on a dude, and then him use you. Actually, my situation might even have been worse, because I damn well knew better. Not SEX, don’t think that-eew-but yeah-I fell for the charms after I knew I had made him mad earlier in the year for liking another guy and choosing him instead because, HEY, he WAS the safer choice. Right. lol « Hide Spoiler TMI. I KNOW. Whatever. That is all. Read it, don’t read it, it was a cute read…albeit, cringey.

I do think this quote was really good, though:

“The mistake, I think,” she says. “Is believing that once someone else checks the ‘yes’ box on you, then you’ll have what you need. Then you’ll be happy, then you’ll be okay with yourself. I don’t think it works like that.”

YES.

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