Still Here, Still Reading

“Well, well, well. If it Isn’t yet another reinvention.”

These lines begin Kate Clayborn’s Georgie, All Along, a beautiful new novel (with a sweet yellow cover, which is one of my favorite book things lately). Georgie has just moved home to small-town Virginia after leaving her life in LA as a personal assistant, and she feels lost and blank, unsure whether her whole life has been consumed by taking care of what other people want, and wondering if she even knows how to want anything for herself. When she moves into her parents’ house while they are out of town, she discovers an unexpected roommate: Levi, the town’s former troublemaker, who is also staying there with his dog Hank. Levi only wants to stay under the radar and live a quiet life after the tumultuousness of his youth, but Georgie brings a kind of chaos that he didn’t know he needed, and these two broken opposites help each other learn how to be whole people.

I’m a longtime fan of Kate Clayborn, and I had been eagerly anticipating this novel. It did not disappoint. I like her because, like Emily Henry, her books are never cheesy or easy. I recognize that a big part of why I read lately is for escape. My life is busy, and reading is one of the ways I pull on the reins and keep it from getting out of control. I tear through novels, looking to lose myself in a story that is ultimately hopeful and doesn’t drag me down. But I also still want good writing, engaging characters, believable conflict and plots, and a story that really means something. I hate looking for escape and instead finding whiny characters, contrived plots, and a “who cares” sort of ending.

But Georgie and Levi brought me all the things I want. 

I understood both of them in a way. When Joe and I decided to move back to the area where I grew up, I was a little nervous. I would be back in a place where I had always felt some pressure to act a certain way, and to dependably be who I had always been. After being away, that pressure felt constricting. Who was I allowed to be when I moved back home?

What I found were things I should have realized all along–most of what I thought about myself when I was younger was a story that only existed in my head, and no one was really thinking that much about me anyway. I had married this great guy, who really likes every way that I am, and he is home for me, wherever we are. With his support and the perspective of age, I grew into the kind of freedom I dreamed about when I was younger, and I really loved watching Georgie and Levi grow into their own freedom too. You don’t always have to leave to change. But it really does help to find the people who understand what you’re trying to do, and who support you all the way.

If I’d had this book when I was 20, I might have found my own kind of freedom faster. But I’m glad this book exists now, and I can’t wait to read it again.