Review: In Search of Lucy by Lia Fairchild

Title: In Search of Lucy
Author: Lia Fairchild
Publisher: Indie
Publish Date: May 28, 2011
Source: Received a Kindle version from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Why You're Reading This Book:

• You like stories of self-discovery.
• You like stories about journeys.
• You're looking for a story about family.

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Thirty-year-old Lucy Lang is lost. She spent most of her young life sacrificing her own needs to care for her half-sister and deal with their alcoholic mother. Now abandoned by both of them, Lucy struggles to find her own purpose in life; a struggle that is laden with wretched memories and regret.

With no family, no relationships, and an unfulfilling job, Lucy becomes depressed, cynical and self-destructive. At times she’d even contemplated suicide as the only way out. When she is just about to hit rock bottom, Lucy finds out that her sister is ill and needs a kidney transplant. Lucy is found to be the only match and has no choice but to live; trapped in a lonely existence to save her sister’s life. And, she must battle with her emotions; her bitter resentment for her sister’s heartless departure and her longing to be needed again by the person she once loved most in the world.

With the help of new found friends, Benny and Anne, and a struggling romance, Lucy sets out on a journey to reunite with her sister and search for the answers she needs to find her own identity. With simply genuine and endearing characters, In Search of Lucy pulls you right into the story and into the characters’ lives. You’ll find yourself truly inspired and rooting for the happy ending that these characters are working so hard to obtain. This dramatic, romantic novel about the power of relationships and how they affect our identity will appeal to anyone that has ever experienced love, loss, and friendship."

My Two Cents:

Lucy feels like she's going nowhere. She's working a dead-end job and alienates herself from everyone around her that tries to get too close. She's broken and wanting something more, some sort of meaning to her existence but is doubtful that she'll find it. She's only known heartbreak and sadness. It was very easy to see where Lucy was coming from. Although Lucy's feelings are extreme, I think most everyone has felt some sort of infinite sadness at some point in their life. It does seem to take Lucy an awful long time to rise above all of the bad feelings that she has about her life.

I thought that the author did a really good job with making the characters accessible. You feel like they could be people that you could meet or have met. I definitely think that the book would have benefitted from a little more showing and not so much telling. A lot of the pleasure in reading for me is being able to put together the pieces in the story. It's already done for you with so much telling. It sort of took away from that initial aspect of being able to "meet" the characters under your own terms.

This is definitely a good book about finding your way back and finding redemption. It's also a good book about allowing yourself to love and being loved in return. For Lucy, those lessons are definitely hard won. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a light read covering some pretty big life lessons.

My Review:
3 out of 5 stars