The daughter of a minister and a music teacher, Stacey Kade grew up reading Harlequin romances on the sly in the basement. Kade is the author of two young adult series (The Ghost and Goth trilogy and the Project Paper Doll series) as well as two contemporary romances for adults (738 Days and Starlight Nights). Finding Felicity was inspired by Stacey’s love of the television show and the longing she felt as an anxiety-filled high school senior for a book about what to expect from the college experience.
Prior to writing full time, Kade worked as an award-winning copywriter for several Fortune 500 companies. She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, a retired racing greyhound, and one naughty French Pointer puppy.
Title: Finding Felicity
Genre: YA Contemporary/Mental Health
Author: Stacey Kade
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Publication: March 20th 2018
Cover Rating: 3/5
Finding Felicity by Stacey Kade is a very interesting book about mental health, the way others alter your life and trying to fit in when you are unsure about yourself. Oh, and lying, most of all lying. But lying beause you don't feel like you have any other way out except to lie.
Caroline Sands was moved from her home in NYC to Arizona when her parents got divorced. Caroline already wasn't a very social person but moving to a small town where everyone has known each other since Kindergarten doesn't help her situation when she tries to make friends. She starts to turn in on herself and starts binging a TV series called Felicity that was very popular in the 90's. In this show Caroline finds she can relate to the main character, Felicity, so when her mother starts worried about Caroline not making friends, she decides to tell a little lie. Naming people in TV show as her close school friends. This wasn't meant to be such a big lie but three years later, on graduation day, Carolines mother decides to throw a graduation party. When none of Carolines "friends" show up that is the end of this massive lie for Caroline and the beginning of her mother no longer trusting her.
Carolines mother no longer trusting her means her plans of going to college in Iowa have been brought into question and Caroline is on a probationary period for the first few weeks. If she doesn't make REAL friends then she will be pulled from the school and made to go to school closer to home so her mother can keep an eye on her. So Caroline has to work hard to make REAL friends and prove to her mother that she isn't mentally ill. There were so many problems with this that I found myself very angry at her mother throughout the entire book.
Once Caroline got to college she did try to make friends but I think she went about everything the wrong way. She was trying to change herself to make herself more appealing to others with no disregard to how that would make her feel. She was determined to fit in and that was so sad to watch. She should have been focusing on school and living life, not trying to make other people happy. Going in to college with the ultimatum to make friends OR ELSE is definitely not the way to start something.
I am glad everything ended up good for Caroline and I am so glad she opened her eyes and realized she was going about this entirely wrong. I am glad she turned HIM down at the end and I am glad that Caroline seems to be living a normal life now.
In the end, I really loved the book but I had so many issues with Caroline's mother. She was the problem. There are some issues that are caused but others and Caroline's issues were greatly caused by her mother. Her mother needs to get her mental health under control and I hope she does so Caroline can have a normal life without a mother who blames herself and makes her daughter feel guilty about everything. I am not saying Caroline didn't have some of her own issues. The entire Liam thing was her doing. But her mother made things so much worse withthe guilt-tripping.
Overall, I gave the book 4/5 stars.
I've always loved stories. I didn't realize that one could BE an author until I was in my teens or twenties. (Don't ask me where I thought books came from prior to that--I have no idea! :D) Prior to that, I wanted to be a librarian so I would get first dibs on all the new books.
2) Coffee or Tea? Chocolate or vanilla?
Coffee AND tea in mass quantities, but only Maxwell House French Vanilla and Earl Grey. And chocolate. ALWAYS.
3) Out of all of the books you've written, which one is your favorite?
Oh, gosh. That is an impossible question. :D It's like picking a favorite child! I love different things about each of them, but The Ghost and the Goth will always have a special place in my heart. It was such a joy to write.
4) Where did the inspiration for Finding Felicity come from?
I was a bookish kid (and continue to be a bookish adult). I've always turned to books to learn more about the world and what to expect. When I was a nervous high school senior, I was desperate for stories about going to college. High school was...not an awesome experience, and I feared that college would be four more years of the same. Only with more beer and roommates. I wanted a book that would reassure me that geeky, awkward people like me could find a place to belong. But that didn't exist then. And even today, college-set YA is fairly rare. So, I wrote the book I needed at 17. :)
5) Are you currently working on any new books?
Yes! I have a couple of new YA ideas in development that I'm really excited about, and I just finished a draft of an adult sci-fi thriller--something very different for me.
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