Home or Away by Kathleen West (Review by Bruna Looby)

4 / 5

Kathleen West is quickly becoming one of my autobuy authors for contemporary fiction. I loved Minor Dramas and Other Catastrophes by her!
Her books give me the feeling that I’m sneaking a peek into other people’s lives. Her writing style is easy and fun, and it’s the perfect kind of book to decompress after a long day at work. It still touches on some pretty heavy points though.

I’m actually surprised that I liked this book as much as I did, seeing that I’m not that into sports at all, and this book talks a lot about hockey. But there’s so much more to the story.

Leigh is back to her home town in Minnesota after being away for twenty years. She has some pretty hard memories from her early twenties as a hockey player, ready for her Olympic dream to come true. If only she didn’t have her dream shattered by a horrible man. Her coach Jeff is probably one of the characters I despise the most right now.

But now Leigh is back with her husband and son, and they’re ready to give their son Gus the best hockey training. And everyone seems to have a lot of expectations of him, seeing that his mother was one a hockey star.

And now we get to the subject that touched me the most in this book. The expectation and pressure that parents put in their children. Wow. It was sooo sad to see poor Gus going through all the pressure!

I was hooked from the beginning and I couldn’t wait to see how the story would end. Highly recommend it!