TUESDAY POTPOURRI: EXCERPTING “SOMEWHERE OUT THERE”

Welcome to another Tuesday celebrating bookish events, from Tuesday/First Chapter/Intros, hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea; and Teaser Tuesdays hosted by Jenn, at Books and a Beat.

Today’s spotlight is shining on one of my newer downloads:  Somewhere Out There, by Amy Hatvany.

 

 

 

 

Intro:   (Jennifer)

I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t been desperate.

I knew what the stakes were.  I knew I might get caught.  But it was well past midnight and both my babies were hungry and crying—Brooke, who had just turned four, and Natalie, only six months.  A siren sound emanated from Natalie’s tiny lungs, and Brooke’s choppy, hiccuping sobs felt like sandpaper being rubbed against the tips of my nerves.

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Teaser:  (Jennifer)

Five days after getting out of jail, after seeing my mother, I was almost out of money.  She had given me just over two hundred dollars, but the cost of the motel room alone took more than half of that, and I spent most of the rest on food and a few pairs of much-needed clean underwear and socks. (33%).

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Synopsis:  Natalie Clark knew never to ask her sensitive adoptive mother questions about her past. She doesn’t even know her birth mother’s name—only that the young woman signed parental rights over to the state when Natalie was a baby. Now Natalie’s own daughter must complete a family tree project for school, and Natalie is determined to unearth the truth about her roots.

Brooke Walker doesn’t have a family. At least, that’s what she tells herself after being separated from her mother and her little sister at age four. Having grown up in a state facility and countless foster homes, Brooke survives the only way she knows how, by relying on herself. So when she discovers she’s pregnant, Brooke faces a heart-wrenching decision: give up her baby or raise the child completely on her own. Scared and confused, she feels lost until a surprise encounter gives her hope for the future.

How do our early experiences—the subtle and the traumatic—define us as adults? How do we build relationships when we’ve been deprived of real connection? Critically acclaimed author Amy Hatvany considers controversial and complicated questions about childhood through the lens of her finely crafted characters in this astute novel about mending wounds by diving into the truth of what first tore us apart.

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What do you think?  Does this one pull you in, compelling you to keep reading?

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