Book Review: Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella

Title: Finding Audrey

Author: Sophie Kinsella

Publisher: Penguin Random House UK Children’s

Date: June 9th, 2015

Pages: 288

Format: eARC

Source: from Publisher, for a review

 

Synopsis (from Goodreads): An anxiety disorder disrupts fourteen-year-old Audrey’s daily life. She has been making slow but steady progress with Dr. Sarah, but when Audrey meets Linus, her brother’s gaming teammate, she is energized. She connects with him. Audrey can talk through her fears with Linus in a way she’s never been able to do with anyone before. As their friendship deepens and her recovery gains momentum, a sweet romantic connection develops, one that helps not just Audrey but also her entire family.

Review:

Once again, Sophie Kinsella reminded me why am I still so in love with reading books.
If you didn’t know, Kinsella is the one who got me into reading in the first place. With her Shopaholic series she showed me reading can be fun and now, years after reading her first book, I still enjoy spending my free time with a good book in my hands (or on my Kindle).

When I first heard she was about to publish a novel in my favorite genre, I just knew I had to read it immediately.
I had a great feeling about Finding Audrey and I was not wrong.

In her recognizable style that consists humor, Kinsella writes about serious topics such as anxiety and abusement.
I imagine it must have been hard work to touch those serious topics and stay true to her writing style without overdoing the fun parts and diverge from the direction the story was going to. She managed it very well.

Audrey, our main character, was a great narrator. She talked about her problems not quite openly but opened herself one step at the time trough the story. I liked that a lot. Even though she had some serious things on her way, it didn’t suppress her sense of humor.
I think the reason she was hiding behind the dark glasses was justified and I liked that part about her.

What I liked the most in this story were Audrey’s parents. They were like a fresh scent in the air in the YA genre which is full of dysfunctional families.

Frank was my favorite. I liked his obsession with video games and his adaptability when it comes to playing them.

Linus was an okay character. Very patient and likeable but I wish there were just something more about him that would make him more distinguish from all of love interests I was reading about in other books. I feel like I’m still missing that final touch that would make him get under my skin.

I also wish there were more situations with Felix.

Spoiler Alert!!!

The reason I didn’t give this book a full five star rating is:

We never found out what really happened that triggered Audrey’s anxiety.
I also didn’t like the fact that Audrey got herself off the medications by herself. It is something not anyone should ever do, and in the real life the consequences could be really bad (trust me, I know). I just hope that someone who’s on medications while reading this book won’t find the courage to do the same thing because Audrey did it. 

If you like Sophie Kinsella’s previous work, and if you like YA genre, you will (probably) definitely like this book.

It was a quick, easy read, perfect to read in one sitting for those who actually can read the book in one sitting.

I wish you all A-GREAT-TIME reading it!! 🙂