Review: 4.5 stars-provocative intense and emotional
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 19, 2014
SOMETHING LIKE NORMAL is the first instalment in Monica James’s contemporary, new adult series of the same name. The focus of the series is on nineteen year old Mia Lee (aka Paige Cassidy) and the horror that has been her life.Told from first person (Mia/Paige) POV, the storyline premise follows Paige as she runs from her past. Landing in South Boston, Virginia with only a few dollars and a backpack with a little more, Paige will discover that sometimes family has nothing to do with the blood in your veins but the people you meet along the way. Much of the back story is told through flashbacks and nightmares.Monica James pulls the reader into an emotional storyline where a young woman had to make a choice –a choice that haunts her sleep but a choice that had to be made.  Meeting Quinn and Tristan Berkeley, Hank the motel operator and Tabitha (her new BFF), Paige learns what it means to be family-a family of misfits who are there when the world begins to spiral out of control.There is a slight love triangle formula developing between Paige and the Berkeley brothers which amped up my anxiety with an already emotional and heartbreaking storyline. Tristan and Quinn’s family history is just a step up from Mia’s horrific past and Paige (Mia) will find a kindred soul mate in Quinn.The secondary characters (Tabitha, Quinn, Tristan, Hank) play a major role throughout the story and become one another’s sole source of comfort and support. The world building brings the abhorrent face of abuse, betrayal, neglect and addiction –front and center-in a storyline that will tug at your heart and your soul.Monica James writes a seductive story about one woman finding solace and support from the unlikeliest of people and places. SOMETHING LIKE NORMAL is a provocative, emotional, intense and passionate storyline; the back story is gritty, abrasive and startling; and the present is traumatic and profound. You will not walk away untouched.I was gifted a copy