Mini Review: This Ordinary Life by Jennifer Walkup

This Ordinary Life by Jennifer Walkup

Published: October 26, 2015

Publisher: Luminis Books

Format: via publisher

Rating: 4/5

Synopsis

Sometimes Hope is the Most Extraordinary Gift of All.

High-school radio host Jasmine Torres's life is full of family dysfunction, but if she can score the internship of her dreams with a New York City radio station, she knows she can turn things around.

That is, until her brother Danny’s latest seizure forces her to miss the interview, and she’s back to the endless loop of missing school for his doctor appointments, picking up the pieces of her mother’s booze-soaked life, and stressing about Danny’s future.

Then she meets Wes. He’s the perfect combination of smart, cute, and funny. He also happens to have epilepsy like her brother. Wes is living a normal life despite his medical issues, which gives Jasmine hope for Danny. But memories of her cheating ex-boyfriend keep her from going on a real date with Wes, no matter how many times he asks her.

Jasmine can’t control everything. Not who wins the internship, not her mother’s addiction, not her brother’s health--not even where her heart will lead her. She wishes she could just have an ordinary life, but maybe what she already has is pretty extraordinary after all.

My Thoughts

This Ordinary Life is the story of Jasmine who is has had to grow up fast and take care of her ill brother Danny. Their mother never has recovered after their father left them and has let Jasmine take over the household duties all the while she has drank to cover the pain.

While Jasmine loves Danny more than anything she has dreams of her own that go beyond her town. She wants to be a DJ and getting an internship at a wildly popular radio station in NYC is the first step in making that happen, but just as she is about to go a field trip to the station her brother falls ill and she has to miss it. Jasmine has the responsibilities of an adult but she also has the woes like another teen to top off all her stress she finds out that her brother is cheating on her. At the hospital with her brother she meets Wes who also has the same condition as her brother and instantly there is a connection. Wes is kind, funny, dorky and really seems to get Jasmine and while she doesn’t want a relationship right now she can’t help but to feel something for Wes, he gives her hope that her brother can live a normal life just like he has plus he restores her faith that all guys aren’t so bad.

I loved the story of Jasmine and Wes and there chemistry is undeniable but what I loved most was Jasmine and her brothers Danny relationship. They have the most loving connection that I’ve come across in a long time. She will do anything when it comes to him and while with him she becomes this adult figure he always reminds her to laugh and that life is too short too be so serious all the time.

This read definitely makes you realize the struggles that some people go through in life but it also shows you that no matter what life hands you must never let anything or anyone crush your dreams. I’m a believer that we are never given more than we can handle even if it doesn’t feel like it but we are given these things to show us just how strong we really are and that's what makes those so successful in following their dreams.