Knotted Roots (Knotted Roots #1)

Ruthi
Kight
Genre: 
Young Adult

Roxie can't wait to spend her summer in the Hamptons; where else is a spoiled teen from New York City going to go?  Her plans go seriously awry, however, when she finds out she is being shipped to South Carolina for the summer because her parents are getting divorced. She’s determined to hate her time in South Carolina, especially when she has to stay with her grandmother who she barely knows.  Buth then she meets Chase, a gorgeous guy who works for her grandmother. Chase has a tortured past, although he’s strangely peaceful, with a way of breaking through her steely emotional barriers.  Roxie learns about relationships with others as she spends time with her grandmother, Chase and new-found friends.  What’s going to happen when summer ends?

Knotted Roots is a young adult novel about relationships with family, friends and your first true love. Roxie is initially a shallow, abrasive, sharp tongued, borderline unlikable person.   She is especially mean to her grandmother and judgmental of people she encounters in Perry Point. As the story unfolds, it becomes clear that she has a lot of baggage from a dysfunctional family dynamic, in which money and privilege is substituted for authentic relationship with her parents.   As a result, she’s never learned how to be open with others. In this novel, she grows emotionally and opens up to others, despite its inherent risk.   Although with some loose ends, Knotted Roots is an emotionally satisfying young adult novel that shows a realistic journey for a young woman.  It should appeal to readers in this genre.

 

Danielle HIll