REVIEW: Awakening Foster Kelly by Cara Rosalie Olsen

If only a pile of wayward curls and the inability to stay on her feet were seventeen year-old Foster Kelly’s most pressing concerns. Unfortunately, stubborn hair and clumsiness are just the tip of it. At the age of five when Foster is told, “You don’t belong here,” it was only a mistake, but the result is one broken heart. These four carelessly spoken words have shaped and shadowed Foster, and now—a senior at Shorecliffs High-school—she seeks the wallflower’s existence, denying herself the most casual of friendships, much too afraid that someone will see what she believes is certain: she does not belong anywhere—or with anyone. 

This reality would continue to suit her just fine; however . . . Love has a long-standing history of undoing broken hearts.

Like a comet, an unexpected arrival knocks Foster out of the crowded, starry sky, sending her directly into the limelight. Exposed and afraid, she will attempt to regain anonymity; but it isn’t so easy now that someone is watching. He pursues this shy enigma, confronting Foster’s deepest fears head-on, and in the process falls wholly and completely in love with her. But there is something he is not saying . . . a secret capable of certain ruin. Either he will break her heart once and for all, or he will heal it.

In the end, though, it is Foster who must decide if she is worth mending.

My Thoughts:

“To be nobody but 

yourself in a world 

which is doing its best day and night to make you like 

everybody else means to fight the hardest battle 

which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.”

― E.E. Cummings

When I opened to the first page of Awakening Foster Kelly, I was daunted. Daunted by it's length. At over 700 pages, it is more than twice the length of most young adult reads. I wondered what the author could have to say to fill so many pages. And when I started reading, I admit to being overwhelmed by how wordy the story was. The author delved deeply into even the most basic things, and then there were times when the choice of a certain word pulled me up and I had to stop and actually check it's meaning. This wasn't just once every now and then, but at least once every few pages. It was for these reasons that I struggled to connect with the story to begin with. I actually nearly gave up on it. To be honest, I can't even say what kept me reading. Maybe it was that I wanted to find out what made Dominic treat Foster the way that he did when they first met. Maybe it was that I wanted to see Foster Kelly's awakening. Or maybe it was a mix of both of those reasons. But continue to read I did. And nestled in amongst all of those words is a story that was so utterly fantastic!!!

Foster Kelly is extremely intelligent, but timid, incredibly shy and socially awkward. After moving to a new town, she can't boast to having many friends. But the ones she does have are loyal, loving and just the sort of people that any one of us would want to be surrounded with. Then Foster meets Dominic and the impact this boy will have on her life is amazing. He challenges her. He supports her. He guides her. And he loves her. A lot of the time Foster appeared so much older than her years, but when it comes to friendships and love she is a teenage girl so full of fears. Fears that Dominic will make her face and attempt to deal with. 

Dominic had me believing that those flaws, the things I loathed about myself, were what made me special and unique. He made me feel special and unique.

I have to say that Dominic is one of the sweetest book boys ever!! I didn't like him at first. I didn't understand him at all. But boy didn't he change that. He had me so taken in with him, that I devoured the scenes he was in.

Dominic was the magic; I was simply the hat he pulled things from.

There is no denying the beauty of the authors writing. She puts words to paper that blend together to form these incredibly vivid sentences. But I stick by my original thought, that at times, there were just too many words. I think the story could have been trimmed down and made for a much more smoothly flowing story. I have to admit to there being times that I skimmed a few paragraphs here and there.

Then there is that ending!!! If while I was reading this someone had asked me how I thought the ending was going to go, you could have given me 100 guesses, and I would have used each and every one of them and still have not guessed correctly. The ending completely sold the book for me. It was fantastic, original and brilliant.

Awakening Foster Kelly is in no way a fast paced read. You walk with these characters at quite a leisurely pace and you get to know them fairly deeply. So if you prefer action every page, then maybe this book isn't for you. So, I'm really torn as to how to rate this book. It's a definite five stars for the writing and the storyline, but then there is the amount of times I had to stop reading and go in search of a words meaning or I was just overwhelmed with a mass of words and descriptions. One thing I am sure of is that I will definitely read more from Cara Rosalie Olsen.

So after much deliberation... 4/5 Fantastic Ending Stars