Review: Enjoyable!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 11 10, 2013
“A release was what I craved, an escape into the world unknown.”Small town girl looking to escape the suffocation of life and run away to LA only to find herself selling her body in one way or another to survive. Sounds pretty cliché right? Well, I am happy to report that while yes Carmen did go from small town girl to cocktail waitress then stripper then porn star and finally drug addict this book wasn’t as cliché as you might think.Yes, I wanted to slap Carmen and knock some sense into her throughout most of the book and yes, I prayed for an intervention STAT and yes, I thought she was out of her mind crazy for leaving behind a best friend like Walker. But, when she does finally hit rock bottom and sees the light then works to redeem herself you see a whole other side of Carmen. This was the Carmen that I rooted for, the one I had sympathy for and the one that I wanted so badly to finally end up with Walker, because we all know that he is the bomb and the best thing for her.Told in dual POV, I was instantly sucked into the story and loved reading about both Carmen and Walker. I loved that you see them together as best friends in high school and get of sense of the friendship and underlying love that they have for each other. While I hated that Carmen ran and left Walker behind I was glad that the author also gave us insight into Walkers life without Carmen and how he struggled as well. I think this was ultimately what enabled me to connect with the characters and want to see that happily ever after for them. Wether or not that HEA would be with each other was another story and one that I was concerned about. I mean lets be honest, how does a good man like Walker get over  the fact that the women he has loved for almost his whole life used and sold her body to survive. I guess you will just have to read the book to see how it all works out :)Running Home was an interesting and engaging take on the whole escaping small town life theme. I enjoyed the story  and although I would have liked a little more grit when it came to Carmen’s life in LA I still appreciated the author didn’t make it out to seem as if it was easy for Carmen to go from down and out to recovered and happy. There was struggle and realism. The twist in the plot at the end also added that little something to keep the book from becoming predictable. And of course there was Walker; sweet, sexy, lovable, Walker <3  ~Reviewed by Natalie