Breaking Her Fall

Here's this week's book review. Like I've said before, if you don't like book reviews, then 'bye bye', see ya tomorrow!Breaking Her Fall is by Stephen Goodwin. This is one of those books that parents with a pre-teen should probably read. Some of it was difficult to read and you'll read it saying to yourself "please don't let this ever happen to my son/daughter" while realizing how easily it could. The story is written from a father's perspective about an incident that happened at a party involving his 14-year-old daughter. It's not graphic or vulgar, which I appreciated very much, but it's written so that you certainly understand that the incident was very serious and potentially life-changing for this young girl. The remaining 300+ pages is the story of how this father reaches out to his daughter (and his son) to keep her from spiraling into depression and self-incrimination (and a legal battle he's fighting). Many times he fails in his attempts to reach her, but ultimately in the end he succeeds. It's a nice story about father/daughter relationships, a father/son and brother/sister relationship in the aftermath of something traumatic. It's about the struggle children have when divorced parents are pulling them and influencing them in different directions. It's also about finding love in your own life.

This book is written very honestly, not all flowery with lots of intellectual, multi-paragraph dialogue that really doesn't get anywhere (doesn't that bug you when an author writes a bunch of garbled nonsense that 3/4 pages later you realize has done nothing for the story--you won't find that here). It's written just like you are sitting in a coffee shop with this father and he's telling you his story. There were many times I wondered if maybe this didn't really happen to this author and this really WAS his story.

This book had the good guys, the bad guys, was a little predictable in one of it's sub-plots, but that was okay. It had love and it had resolution. I really enjoyed this book. Actually, I kind of hope that maybe there might be a sequel--I just kind of wonder what ends up happening with some of the characters.

On my scale of 0-5 stars, I give this 4 1/2 stars (the only reason I didn't give it a 5 was because of a small blip of infidelity--I just kind of get tired of hearing about affairs, otherwise it would've been a 5). I will say this book isn't for everyone...if you're looking to expand your mind and challenge yourself--you won't find that here. But if you want a look into teenagers lives these days and what parents need to be prepared to deal with, this is a nice book.

Next Up: The Host by Stephenie Meyer (but I have a long ways to go, so it'll be awhile on it--it's a 600+ pager).