Where I Belong

December 20, 2010
The recession hits Corrinne Corcoran's wealthy family hard in Heasley's first novel. Corrinne's father loses his job and moves to Dubai to find work, leaving her mother behind to sell their Manhattan apartment while 16-year-old Corrinne and her younger brother, Tripp, head to Broken Spoke, Tex., her mother's long (and best) forgotten hometown. Corrinne is horrified to trade her ritzy, snobby, Gossip Girl–style life for the slow-paced, carbohydrate-rich world of her grandparents. The moral of Heasley's story is one familiar to any number of romantic comedies on page and on screen: namely, that smalltown life is every bit as rewarding as the bustle of the city if given half a chance. This premise results in a predictable story, as Heasley dishes out one smalltown cliché after another in an effort to deliver some tension. Painful manure episodes aside, Heasley also offers plenty of Texas boys, football parties, and a rodeo as city girl turns country girl and learns some lessons about family and good old-fashioned fun. A sweet, by-the-numbers romance with a substantial dose of corny humor. Ages 12–up.

January 1, 2011

Sixteen-year-old Corrinne begins her self-focused narrative with a plea—"If you hate me at first, keep reading." She's easy to dislike: Wealthy, shallow and something of a bad girl, she readily evades her lax parents to enjoy lots of underage drinking. After her father loses his job, she and younger brother Tripp are shipped off to live with her salt-of-the-earth grandparents in small-town Texas, where the biggest issues may be whether or not the high-school football team has a winning season and who will attend the adult-ignored beer parties. She falls for musical hunk Rider, while football hunk Bubby falls for her. After reluctantly taking a job at a stable, she explores the reasons her mother turned her back on small-town life. Planning a fund-raising rodeo and enduring a visit from her rich NYC BFF push Corrinne to reexamine her values—all before Thanksgiving. Patience really is required: Rich girl Corrinne is truly obnoxious, but her attitude is amusing, and her evolution, although much too facile, is at least entertaining. (Fiction. 12 & up)

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

March 1, 2011

Gr 9 Up-It must be a bad dream. Corrine Corcoran finds herself living in a rural town in Texas with her brother and grandparents. Instead of riding her own horse and sharing a room with her best friend at an elite prep school, she is sharing a bedroom with her mother and working as a stable hand. Her family is the victim of a Madoff-like investment scam and her father was laid off from his job, forcing her parents to give up their posh Manhattan lifestyle. Despite her efforts to remain removed from the town's disappointing social scene, Corrine manages to attract a new friend, the attention of the local football star, and a responsible role in the upcoming rodeo event. As her friend from Manhattan plans a visit to Broken Spoke, the teen worries that Waverly will learn the truth about her unglamorous existence as a "recessionista." In the end, Corrine learns that the town has changed her in ways she did not anticipate. Corrine's voice is witty and appropriately bratty in the spoiled-rich-girl tone. The plot is predictable but moves along at a satisfying pace. While realistic for some, underage drinking is accepted by the adults in both Manhattan and Texas, and the recession is too obviously superimposed on the plot. However, readers looking for the comfortingly familiar riches-to-rags story will not be disappointed.-Lynn Rashid, Marriotts Ridge High School, Marriottsville, MD

Copyright 2011 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.