"The Art of Losing Yourself" by Katie Ganshert

Carmen Hart survived her troubled childhood by learning to put on the perfect front in every area of her life. She's the beautiful meteorologist, the devoted wife, the smiling woman in church on Sundays. But her life is not as perfect as she wants everyone to think, and her long infertility journey has worn her inner resolve to a frazzle. She's one step away from an ugly breakdown.

When seventeen-year-old Gracie Fisher gets a suspension from school on the first day of her senior year, she's done. She's watched her alcoholic mother's inability to cope with life, and feels like she's nothing but a screw-up herself. Deciding to seek solace at one of the only places she's ever been happy, Gracie runs away and eventually finds herself being taken in by her half-sister, Carmen.

With her own life held together by only a tenuous thread, Carmen isn't sure she can be of any help to sullen and distant Gracie. On her side, Gracie doesn't know if she can trust the sister who left her with their severely dysfunctional mother and never looked back. Somehow they must forge a relationship, while both struggle with making good decisions and working through their separate issues.

I found I could relate quite a bit to Carmen. The hurts in my life have tended to make me feel like I must be perfect to cover or overcome them, though I've found through safe community that you don't always have to hide behind a mask. I've also come face to face with the fact that even though you try to be perfect, life certainly doesn't play out the way you hope. Broken dreams will still clutter your path. I ached for the way Carmen let her pain close her off from even the ones who loved her and wanted to walk through the woundings with her.

I felt for Gracie in a different way. It was so hard to see her make what she knew were bad decisions, as she felt powerless to do anything less than live up to all the disappointment she's known, but at the same time you couldn't help cheering for her to realize everything she had waiting for her if she would only open her heart.

This isn't a story that is tidy or wraps up in a perfect bow by the end. That's not the way life is, either. I would have been disappointed had the author given us the ending we expected. Instead she gave us one that reflected real life and the hope that can be found in the midst of our own ragged journeys. Due to content I wouldn't recommend this for young readers, but those who are able to take a look at beautiful, raw fiction and find ourselves within the pages, you would find this book a treat for your soul.

I received my copy from the publisher in exchange for this honest review. All opinions are my own.