Take Me Home by Daniela Sacerdoti (Fiction, 9/10E)

 December 2013 ebook, April 2014 Paperback, Black and White Publishing, 256 pages, Ebook, Review copy

Themes: terminal illness, losing those you love, being lost, losing your voice, seeing and sensing ghosts, lochs, building emotional bridges, finding what you truly want from life

Content: hardly displayed adult romance, paranormal activity, a bit of humour, tissues needed

Summary from Black and White Publishing

Inary Monteith’s life is at a crossroads. After a stolen night with her close friend Alex, she's just broken his heart by telling him it was all a terrible mistake. Then she has to rush home from London to the Scottish Highlands when her little sister's illness suddenly worsens – and in returning she must confront the painful memories she has been trying so hard to escape.

Back home, things become more complicated than she could ever have imagined. There's her sister's illness, her hostile brother, a smug ex she never wants to see again and her conflicted feelings about Alex in London and a handsome American she meets in Glen Avich. On top of that, she mysteriously loses her voice but regains a strange gift from her childhood – a sixth sense that runs in her family. And when a voice from the past keeps repeating, 'Take me home', she discovers a mystery that she knows she must unlock to set herself free.

Take Me Home is a beautiful story of love, loss, discovering one’s true abilities and, above all, never forgetting who you really are. 

Nayuleska's thoughts

Please don't be put off by the fact that there are ghosts/spirits involved in Inary's emotionally tough life. I scare easily yet I was able to read some of this at night. I only stopped because I needed sleep. The scary parts are a bit freaky, but, once Inary (and thus the reader) understood the cause of the paranormal activity, I didn't want to flee to the hills. I wanted to find out what Inary had in common with the ghosts that haunted her, how she would be able to help them.

Losing her sister is so tough on Inary, especially as she'd been away from Emily and their brother for a long while. It's not surprising resentment builds up from Logan. What is surprising is how he softens throughout the novel, and how both he and Inary build new bridges to each other. I cried at several points because the outcome of the even was so emotional. For me, Inary's relationship with Alex as just one of those things. OK, I did root for them at the end, but I was more intrigued by Inary's inability to speak, the supernatural side of her life (ghostly goings on!), and how she and her brother coped with their sister's death (not all that well for a while).

 I did like the emphasis on how anti-depressants are needed by some people, that it's there to help them during their trying time. Like Inary I both loved and hated the close knit Scottish community which was prone to gossiping about everything, yet showed how much they cared when Emily died. There are some insensitive so-and-sos who I may have backed Logan's desire to sort them out, especially when they hurt Inary even further.

Find out more on Daniela's website.

Suggested read

For more soul-searching after the death of a loved one do check out Kite's Spirit by Sita Brahmachari (Children's, 11 years +, 10/10E)