Indies Helping Indies 5-Star Book Review

“Wren” by Alice Longaker – IHIBRP 5-Star Book Review

A Sensitive & Profound Teen Journey Filled With Summertime Sweetness & Daring Adventures!

Overview: While her mother deals with a diagnosis of advanced-stage breast cancer, Wren is sent to spend the summer with her grandparents in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas. Living without cell phone reception and internet access, Wren feels detached from those back home. Nevertheless, she learns a valuable lesson—Sorrow and loss are no match for family, friendship, and laughter.

Author Alice Longaker pens a highly personal and emotional coming-of-age journey for her wry yet affable teenage character, Wren, in this diary-style story. As she transitions from adolescence to womanhood, Wren’s humorous yet touching memoirs elicit summers spent chasing butterflies—or in Wren’s case, spiders—even as she copes with tough circumstances like homesickness, adolescent changes, shyness, boys, and rocky friendships. Readers get to know a precocious and talented young teenager who is far from home and on the brink of becoming a young woman as she wrestles with life changes and the possible loss of her mother.

Longaker’s memoir writing style in this novel allows readers to form an intimate link to her plucky main character as she regales readers with Wren’s quirky but profound reflections on daily life. The author sweeps us along on several hilarious adventures with her hippie grandparents and introduces us to new circumstances and friends.

“Wren” is filled with summertime sweetness and daring adventures. The story comes without the sappiness or idealism one expects with the usual coming-of-age read. This novel deals with difficult topics while providing lessons on how to move through Life’s toughest challenges with positivity, self-assuredness, and a healthy dose of prayer.

I highly recommend “Wren” to anyone, ages 12 and up, who loves a sentimental story that deals with life’s greatest joys and tragedies. It’s worth noting that the story also covers much of the history and flavor of the Ozark region. “Wren” is a must-read novel for pre-teens, teens, and young adults. This is a sensitive and profound journey not to be missed.

Congratulations to the author on this award-winning story! This novel will be permanently featured on my website at AuthorJBRichards.com under IHIBRP 5 Star Recommended Reads!