Review: Year of Mistaken Discoveries by Eileen Cook

Year of Mistaken Discoveries by Eileen Cook

Expected Publication: February 25, 2014

Format: via Edelweiss

Publisher: Simon Pulse

Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

As first graders, Avery and Nora bonded over a special trait they shared—they were both adopted.

Years later, Avery is smart, popular, and on the cheerleading squad, while Nora spends her time on the fringes of school society, wearing black, reading esoteric poetry, and listening to obscure music. They never interact...until the night Nora approaches Avery at a party, saying it’s urgent. She tells Avery that she thought she found her birth mom—but it turned out to be a cruel lie. Avery feels for Nora, but returns to her friends at the party.

Then Avery learns that Nora overdosed on pills. Left to cope with Nora’s loss and questioning her own actions, Avery decides to honor her friend by launching a search for her own birth mother. Aided by Brody, a friend of Nora’s who is also looking for a way to respect Nora’s legacy, Avery embarks on an emotional quest. But what she’s really seeking might go far deeper than just genetics.

My Thoughts

This is the tale of Nora and Avery, two friends who were once close but like many teens outgrow each other once they reach high school. They fell into different social circles but shared one thing in common, they were both adopted. Nora always was on a quest to find out the missing part of who she is, never really finding peace within herself and never quite fitting in anywhere. Avery was the opposite she was the all American girl, she was a cheerleader, miss popular and in the “in crowd.” After learning Nora overdosed Avery felt a bit of guilt, the guilty that she put Nora on the back burner and focused on her new friends.

During that time period she was going through things in life, like the breakup between her and her boyfriend. She becomes closer to one of Nora’s friends Brody; he is unlike any guy Avery has ever known. He helps her in a search of finding her own birth mother. She finds out she could turn to him and tell him things that she never tell her friends. In a series of things that happen she does indeed find her mother. What happens next could break a person but instead it makes Avery stronger. She learns who she really is and the discoveries that brought her to this point let her come into her own. It leads her into that next phase of her life not looking back only forward knowing she has no regrets. It’s a beautiful coming of age story one that lets us know it’s never too late to find what moves us and that the people in our lives, no matter how long are brought into it for a reason.

THE BOTTOM...IT'S...