Here, Home, Hope
Kaira Rouda’s Here, Home, Hope was a fun summer read. Its humor and honest take on mid-life make it a thoughtful, fun read. Main character. Kelly Mills Johnson, is a stay at home mom of two school-aged boys who are off at summer camp. Like many women, Kelly starts to wonder who she really is and what she wants from life. As she begins to make changes in her life, she starts jotting down things to change on Post-Its and begins to make her dreams become reality. She rekindles friendships with people important to her and launches her own business.
Kelly’s character is 39 with older children, so being 28 with a young toddler, I could only relate so far as imagining wearing her shoes in about 8 years. However, Rouda’s portrait of a woman rebuilding herself amidst a tornado of divorces and damaging relationships, is something nearly anyone can relate to. Kelly lost touch with herself in a way that many mothers willingly do. Most of us, in that era, don’t give to much thought to what we will do when our kids no longer need us every moment of every day.
I enjoyed Here, Home, Hope. It would be a good book to toss in a beach bag or read on a flight. It made me reflect on my choices as a wife and mother and wonder what my future holds. I did find it odd that Rouda chose to create such a sharp contrast between Kelly’s marriage and her friends’ marriages. While Kelly’s friends were on soul-searching expeditions or simply shacking up with someone outside their marriage, there is nary a bump or scuffle between Kelly and her husband. It seemed as though, in an effort to make the book progress in a certain way, Kelly’s husband isn’t very fleshed out and their marriage is too perfect. None of that is particularly important, except that Kelly constantly points out how wonderful her husband is and how great their marriage is. That still didn’t affect my opinion of the book, but is worth mentioning.
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I recieved a copy of Here, Home, Hope by Kaira Rouda from one2one network for review.
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As a stay-at-home mother of two boys as a wife and a homemaker in an affluent community Kelly Johnson had been so busy taking care of everyone else that she has lost a sense of who she was what she wanted with her life and what to do with herself.As her two boys goes off to summer camp Kelly finally has some time to think about what she wants and who she is and she realizes that she needs someone to talk to. Kelly starts seeing a counselor and she discover that she has been depressed.Although Kellys sons are off to camp it does not leave her with much time to take care of herself. Before she knows it she is entangled in a drama between her friends and soon she finds herself taking care of her friends their children working and starting her own business all at the same time.As a stay-at-home mother of three boys I can definitely relate to Kelly in Here Home Hope and I think that Rouda has done a phenomenal job at describing the emotions that mothers – whether they are working out of the home working from home or are full-time homemakers – go through as their children grow up.Rouda has touched upon the subject of mothers-in-crisis or womens midlife crisis a subject not often discussed in great length but a topic that is often on a womans mind.
Great review. I have not read the book but am going to get it soonest possible.