Finding Felicity by Stacey Kade-- YA set in college + A 90's WB show??? HELL to the YES!!

Finding Felicity

Caroline has never really been the kind of girl who fits in.  She sees other people find their place in social situations, seemingly effortlessly, and she wonders why she can't do that??  Is there some part of her that's missing?  Some part of her that's wrong?

Because of that she's spent a lot of time studying people and figuring out who it is she could be to make finding friends easier.  She also spent most of that time making up fake friends to her mom so that she wouldn't worry about her.  These "friends" are based on her favorite old-school TV show, Felicity.  When that all blows up, her mom threatens to take college away-- and all of Caroline's careful plans won't be possible if that happens.

She convinces her mom to let her go to college on a trial basis, and she hopes now her Felicity-esque life can blossom.

Do you guys even know what this book is???  It's a Young Adult book set in college!!!  I was ready to sing from the mountaintops at just the idea of it, and then I held it in my hands and felt the proof that it was real-- and now I'm basically still over here throwing confetti.  But seriously, we need more books about going to college.  It's such an untapped topic about such an important and confusing time in a lot of people's lives.

This book combines so many of my YES things that if you know me you'd be all-- Oh Michelle, this is so you!!  I mean, you've got 90's Felicity, starting college (which has a running spot on my PLEASE AUTHORS WRITE THIS List), and Stacey Kade (who I am mildly obsessed with).  So going into this, I had high expectations.

So, you've got Caroline who just doesn't fit in but desperately wants to.  In order to cope with her dad leaving & exiting her life, moving across the country in the middle of her high school years, and the pressure she feels from her mom to succeed socially, she makes up a fake life with fake friends inspired by the TV show, Felicity.  Felicity is her favorite binge-watch show, and even though it's almost 20 years old, Caroline relates to the awkwardness of Felicity and dreams of having her own Felicity experience once she goes to college.

As much as I loved reading about what Caroline was going through, I realized that she's not someone I relate to as a person.  Yeah, she's shy, and second-guesses herself, and also kind of dislikes herself/wants to be somebody else-- and all that is completely me, but girl takes it to a whole new level of weirdness that I'm never going to be down with.  She's just a tad too odd and embarrasses herself in that please-don't-make-me-look-directly-at-it way.  In spite of that, I (and I think most people will) hard-core relate to the fact that she didn't know where her place was when it came to social situations.  I think most of us have been put in scenarios where we don't feel comfortable and don't feel like we can be our true selves-- or wish we magically had different personalities.  I adored (and cringed) reading about those struggles.

The best part for me was when Caroline and Liam "meet" (because yes Caroline pulls a Felicity and follows her "Ben" to college), and we get to see that Liam, who was Mr. Popular in high school, is also having a tough time figuring out where he belongs in the college landscape.

The only thing I wished was different was how the ending just sort of rushed up on me.  Maybe this is my fault because I was so immersed in Caroline's drama, but I felt sort of surprised when I realized I was almost at the end.  I think I just wanted to see more of her journey, but also I think it was smart for this book to stick to a very narrow view of the college experience.

Honestly, I could talk about this book all day.  The "feel" of it captured the first days of college experience perfectly, and it made me super nostalgic for when I was the girl whose parents were helping her carry a TV and mini-fridge up to the 5th floor of Lawrence Hall.  This is going to be one of those books I recommend to EVERYBODY.

PS-- You don't have to have watched Felicity to enjoy the book, but I would suggest at least reading over the Wikipedia plot outline for the first season.

OVERALL: Confetti and cake for everyone because we have a YA book set in COLLEGE!!!!  Not only that but seriously-- it's SO good!!!  It's about this super-awkward girl w/ a Felicity (the TV show) obsession who needs to find herself-- and where better than college???  Totally 100% recommend and wish that you would pass it along to everyone you know!!

Date Published: 3/20/2018
How I got this book: ARC was provided by the author, but my review was not impacted by that
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers


Add it to your To-Read List!!

My Rating: 5/5

Character: Caroline Sands
Book: Read Between the Lines by Jo Knowles

• Obviously, I want to recommend Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell because it's also about a girl finding her place in college, but that just seems too easy, so I went with Read Between the Lines.  I think Caroline would like to read this because it's about characters that are trying to find themselves-- and it's about vastly different high school experiences.