Review: The Runaways by Sonya Terjanian

Title: The Runaways
Author: Sonya Terjanian
Format: Ebook
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Publish Date: April 3, 2018 (Yesterday!)
Source: Publisher

What's the Story?:

From Goodreads.com: "Ivy is on the run. She is finally ready to trade in a dead-end future of college debt and family obligations for the thrill of a fresh start. But when she finds herself in an isolated cabin in the Poconos, she realizes that starting over is more difficult than she thought.

Especially when a stranger stumbles into her hiding place.

Mary Ellen is attempting to reinvent herself. Dissatisfied with her career and family life, Mary Ellen is finally pursuing art, something she has put aside for years. So, when she arrives at a cabin in the woods for an artist's retreat and finds a teenage girl instead, she realizes this is her chance to start new."

My Two Cents:

"The Runaways" is the story of Ivy, a teenaged girl who is running away from her problems, which include a sick mother and wanting something more from her small life. Mary Ellen who is also running away from her life. She has a husband who is drifting through life with little purpose and twin daughters who will soon leave them empty nesters. Mary Ellen is trying to figure out what life looks like after that happens. These two characters will be thrown together with surprising results. 

It took awhile for me to get into this book. It has a very slow start with a lot of set up for who both of our main characters are, especially Mary Ellen. The book goes a lot into Mary Ellen and her newfound love for actually practicing art. I wished that the introduction would have been streamlined a little more and I wish that we had gotten to see both of the characters together more quickly. The main characters don't meet until almost a half of the book is over!

That being said, once we finally get to the characters meeting and interacting with each other, the book really picks up. It becomes a reflection of what happens when you have the opportunity to meet kind people and how life has a certain way of giving us people in our time of need. Once you can finally see where the story is going, I came to like and understand the characters a little bit better!