Finding Audrey - Sophie Kinsella

Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Meet Audrey: an ordinary teenage girl with not so ordinary problems.

Aside from her completely crazy and chaotic family, she suffers from an anxiety disorder which makes talking to her brother's hot new best friend a bit of a challenge.

But Audrey has a plan to help her face her fears and take on the world again. First stop: Starbucks.




When I heard that Sophie Kinsella was releasing a YA book I knew I had to read it and the fact I was lucky enough to get my hands on an ARC I needed to read it right away. Personally I feel this was a bit of a risk from Kinsella, we have all grown to love the Shopaholic series and although I thought the last book in particular was not up to usual standards I wouldn't change her writing style for anything.

Finding Audrey, is written in a different style and to be honest if I had covered the authors name when I picked up the book I would not have known it was written by her. I think this really shows how talented as an author Kinsella is. For her to be able to step inside the mind of a 14 year old and tell the story so brilliantly and make you as the reader believe everything Audrey is going through makes this a success.

The plot centres around Audrey and her family, Audrey is suffering from social anxiety order, which the more you read you begin to see into her past. Her mum seems to be obsessed with Frank (Audrey's brother) for always being online playing a game and listens to everything that the Daily Mail print! The story is mainly told through Audrey's perspective and through this you can see an insight into how she sees the relationship of others in her family. Audrey also films as part of her progression and some of the book is laid out in script format.

I enjoyed reading about all the characters in the story and I really loved reading about Linus and Audrey when they are exchanging notes through the door, I found this really heartwarming and I could see this playing out in my mind. I felt that Kinsella really allowed me, the reader to get inside the characters head and feel what they were feeling. Before reading this book I knew nothing about social anxiety order but from reading this I could begin to understand how people with this condition feel.

Throughout the book there were moments of humor, however it was more of a heartwarming tale about a family going through something traumatic and how they deal with it as a family, and I think family is the key in this book, they do all work together and look out for one another. This was something I really enjoyed reading about.

I feel that although this was a risk for Kinsella she has done the book justice, it is clear she has researched this topic well and got as much information as possible on the theme before sitting down to write. I this it was a bold move but one that has been a success, Kinsella's old and new fans are going to enjoy this novel and I hope to see more YA from Kinsella in the future.

I would like to thank the publisher for sending this in exchange for an honest review.