This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
REVIEWED BY DEBS CARR
Vicky O’Rourke is seventeen and has been engaged to her fiancé Liam for two years. Her younger sister, Shania can’t wait to get engaged to the man of her dreams, but as is the custom for travellers, she has to wait until her older sister has married first before she can do so.
Vicky loves Liam, they’ve been neighbours since they were born and it’s always been accepted that they’ll get married one day, so she didn’t think twice when he asks her. The only trouble is, that as soon as Vicky is married, she will be expected to stay at home and look after her husband. She doesn’t mind doing this, but is finding excuses to delay the wedding so that she can go to college with her best-friend Kelly and study dressmaking.
Kelly has never been to Vicky’s home. She’s not a traveller and has therefore not been invited to their trailer. Vicky’s family and friends stick together, suspicious of outsiders and Kelly is an outsider. As is Jordan, the handsome boy at school, who not only seems to have a soft spot for Vicky, but also dates her nemesis and the school bully, Chloe.
As Vicky struggles to cope with the traditions her family lives by, she has to find ways to deal with her loving but strict father and his set rules about mixing with non-travellers. Things come to a head when Jordan continues to show an interest in her and Vicky starts to wonder if she can cope with being married at such a young age, and if being Liam’s wife and a homemaker means more to her than her dream of starting a business as a seamstress.
This was a lively, though sometimes sad story about an outsider struggling with other people's preconceptions. It was interesting reading about travellers and learning more about a different way of life and the rules the teenage characters had to abide by.
7/10
You can find out more about Kate Lace and her other fabulous books on her website here or follow her on Twitter @LaceKate