this book is about potential in kids. I don't really vibe with that. I feel all kids have potential and that's point is this book but there are still moments where kids feel bad and that's just hard to take

With thanks to netgalley for allowing me to review this book.

Going places is YA book about one boy dealing with the death of his father. I did enjoy it and of course it was sad.

This book felt very in the vein of paper towns in a way that was very comforting to me while reading. The crux of teenage reality with adult expectations is a fascinating topic for a book and something that will be relatable for a lot of teens.

A YA coming of age story about grief,this was a well developed story that I enjoyed reading.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this ARC

I was really excited to read this because I love YA fiction and I like reading about grief (not in a morbid way, it’s just an emotion and process which I like to hear other perspectives on). However I found the main character really difficult to like and he really bugged me. I felt like the beginning of the book was just a whole load of characters who felt flat to me, and Hudson going into different situations - from home to school to dog walking to his elderly customers. I didn’t feel like there was any emotion or underlying story to pull them all together and make me keep reading. Sad to DNF but this was really not for me.

Coming of age in the time of what some see as a needless war with loss that hits at home Going Places is the story of Hudson Wheeler and his life navigating through friendship, lost love, the death of his father. This story touches reality so close you feel it in your bones. Between the loss of his father, the dementia Mr. Pirkle is experiencing and just life as a senior in high school Hunter grows in just a short time from a boy to a man with the ability to be empathetic of others and not just living in his own bubble.

This book is hopeful and yet full of heartbreak. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thank you Netgalley, Amberjack Publishing and Kathryn Berla for the opportunity to read Going Places in lieu of my honest review.

I couldn’t get into this book, not because of the storyline but because it wasn’t really my style. If you like coming of age stories, stories about lost parents or war you might like this.

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Even though I am an adult, I still like to read YA books. My daughter and I share books back and forth all the time. This is a book that both of us would enjoy. The characters were great and I really cared about them. Any book that can draw you into the story and make you care, is a good book.

Now, this book I loved! Truly! It was beautifully-sculpted and I absolutely believed that this world in which Hudson lived was real. I adored the not-too-neat-and-tidy-ending and the relationships that didn't have to be romantic to be meaningful - a trope that exhausts me in YA! The characters were so beautifully created that I didn't even really think of anyone as secondary. I also really really liked that there were people aged all the way from elementary school through their 90s! I mean, that's good writing, to be able to "get" those folks all done correctly? Very cool.. Great Read!!!

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

Hudson Wheeler's 4th grade teacher wrote a note stating he was going places, which his mom has stuck to their refrigerator. Hudson's dad died in Iraq the next year, and since then, he only wants to concentrate on his art and feels like the note is no longer true. Hudson convinces his mom to let him homeschool his senior year, thinking he can earn some money for minimal work with his two jobs and mostly laze around the rest of the time. However, Hudson ends up becoming friends with two girls who keep his life busy – Alana, whom he loves, and Fritzy, a tall, athletic girl who becomes like a sister to him. Between the girls and his elderly Distress Dial clients, Hudson keeps busy and ends up learning more than he expects.

Hudson definitely became a more likable character by the end of the book. The graphic novel he came up with in the end sounded really intriguing; I wish it were a real book I could check out. I loved the scenes with Mr. Pirkle and Fritzy. I hope there will be a sequel to this story.

It was just what I thought peaceful environment, Adorable characters. Just what Kathryn Berla does best. Would recommend for an easy weekend read.

My rating: 3.5 stars
I got to read a little excerpt of this from bookishfirst, but I was a little unsure if I wanted to read it. As someone who was homeschooled, a lot of books don't really do it justice in my opinion. While this one doesn't really talk about the homeschooling part of Hudson's year, it does mention how much work he does have to do (which is true) and how things can be changed for your interests as long as they follow certain guidelines. For me, it was nice to see that in a book, as well as Hudson still having a social life, and being able to do things. (This was in part because of him still being able to take a couple classes at his high school.)

I also liked how we saw Hudson grow and change throughout this book. He is quite the entrepreneur and I really liked that. He has a dog walking business and another business that helps the older generation. This is something that I really loved seeing because a lot of young people are afraid of old people for some reason. So it was really nice to see him not be afraid of them, and actually trying to help them with things. He was never short on patience with them and was just truly caring. There were a few times that I was like no Hudson you have to go and see what that is even though it's late, but he did do very well in my opinion for the situation he was in.

I loved his friend Fritzy, and she was just so good in my opinion with putting him in his place, and just generally helping him become a better person.

I could have done without a certain character and just didn't really care for what she brought to Hudson's life after awhile.

Overall I really liked this book and enjoyed reading it. It was a quick read, and it did deal with several different topics that we're all handled really well in my opinion. I highly recommend this book if you're looking for a quick read.

Hudson is a gentle soul who loves the wrong girl while floundering through his senior year of high school. I love his work ethic, his life goals, and his ability to pick up the pieces and move forward.

Great novel.

As I don't recall reading any works about this author, I definitely enjoyed this. I was pleasantly surprised by the writing style and the overall plot. It's a fast read with nice story.

This told Hudson’s story. Hudson is a senior in high school and decided to be homeschooled that year and to spend more time taking care of his two businesses. The first one is a dog walking business and the other a helping the elderly business.

I wanted to like this. This is the third book I’ve read by this author and I always end up disappointed…
I didn’t like the main character, I found him really antipatic and I just wanted to knock some sense into him.
That really kept me from getting into the story.
Thankfully, it was a fast read and overall, it was kinda ok though I did see some things coming...

Sorry, I didn't read and review by publication date.One of the most surprising things about this book is that the author is female, and yet it seems as if she may completely understand the thoughts and actions of a teen-age boy.

The main character, Hudson, is a high school senior who has lots of plans for his life and doesn’t want to waste time going to school. He’s had several losses in his life: his father died when he was younger, one friend moved away and the other one is so wrapped up in a relationship, he doesn’t have time for him friend anymore. After talking his mom into letting him be home schooled, He is told he has to take at least two classes at school. While trying to enlarge his dog walking and caring for seniors businesses, and finishing his schoolwork, he really wants a girl friend; however, in the typical high school hierarchy he is sure that the popular girls won’t like him.

This is a lighthearted look at the growing-up years. If you are an adult, you will probably smile as it brings back memories.

Description:

Everyone had high expectations for Hudson Wheeler. His fourth grade teacher even wrote to his parents that Hudson was "going places." But everything went downhill after his father died on the battlefield of Iraq one year later. Now facing his senior year of high school without his two best friends by his side and with his teacher's letter still haunting him, Hudson seizes homeschooling as an opportunity to retreat from the world.

What happens during this year will prove to be anything but a retreat, as Hudson experiences love and rejection for the first time and solves the painful mystery of the “girl in the window”—an apparition seen only by the WWII vet whose poignant plight forces Hudson out of the comfort zone of boyhood.

Going Places is a peek into what male adolescence looks like today for those who don't follow traditional paths as they strive to find themselves.

My take:

There are a lot of stories like this in one way, but not enough in another. Hudson Wheeler chooses to forego his senior year and home school himself, not because he is angry or bullied or painfully awkward. That makes him different because he is not angsty or depressed. He actually is set on not falling into the trap of post high school expectations but he does this with a proposal to his mother to both take two classes at the high school (yoga and AP art), work at his two businesses that he creates (dog walking and Distress Dial for seniors with emergencies just below 911), and work on his graphic novel. He does that, but that is just one small part of a very convoluted and bustling story line. I think we need more stories like this about what home schooling might look like. Hudson's life is more about choosing an alternative path than dropping out, hiding out, religious zeal or disappointment and fear about the public school system

What also makes this different from other YA is that he is not the strong female protagonist, and as an 18 year old, he is pretty wimpy, but his commitment to his work and the maturity he shows to do what needs to be done is unusual. Sigh, unfortunately, he is still a doofus in the love department, just that he is not clueless as to how much of a doofus he is, he just cannot help it.

Hudson, by the end of the book, becomes the heroic lead but not because of what he does. More because of the cast of side characters that he holds on to: Fritzy, Mr. Pirckle, his mom, his dead father, even Jennifer the pink male poodle. This book is not a fast read because the characters are eccentric and shooting off in different directions, but they are going places and the journey, not the destination is the adventure.

A digital advanced copy provided by Net Galley and the publisher for an honest review.

It's more 3.5 stars, to be honest.

This is a fast reading and it’s not too demanding, and yet it deals with some important and delicate topics, like the loss and the war, for example. It’s a story about being young, dealing with first love, with friendship and with new responsibilities, and it’s about being old, with the loneliness that can entail but also with the friendship and relationships that are there, and the reality about living with your choices, both in the past and in the present.

It’s a short book, and it’s also a fast reading, and yet we have so much in these pages: we have a good MC, Hudson, that try to find a place for his own… he’s quite mature for his age, but he has yet to find his place in the world and live up to the expectations others put on your shoulders is not an easy task. Also, the life has expectations on her own: every choice and every action has consequences, and you have to live with that, even when you didn’t think about them in the first place (for example Hudson is an enterprising kid and the Distress Dial is a good idea, he set up a service for older people that can call him for everything that is just less than an emergency. Great idea, but the reality of it, well.. it reveals to be quite different from what he thought when he started it!). And then there is the first crush, his first love (I wasn’t a fan of Alana, but I think it may be the intent of the author… to represent the first love with all the good and all the bad wrapped up from the start) and some new friends, that he found in some uncommon places.

But we don’t have just Hudson, we have Alana Love, his crush, and Fritzy, who is a giant of a girl and has the habit to call people for their surname and not their name, who is honest to a fault, almost, and yet it’s as good a friend as you can find, I liked her character a lot and I’d like to see more people like her around me. And then we have the client of Distress Dial, the older people. And it’s quite unique. We don’t read many YA with old persons in them and, foremost, we don’t see a lot of books with them as real protagonists. And here we have the second big subplot of the book: if on one hand, we have the youth and all its problems, on the other hand, we have the old age, and I liked the way in which the author speak about it. Mr. Pirkle is really well developed as a character, and with him, we feel the importance of the past, and the problematics that are sadly typical of the old age, but not just of that. We read about a lot of things in this book, about dementia too, for example, about the war, about the loneliness and the importance to reach out.

I liked this book a lot, because it surprised me in a really good way. I liked Hudson, I liked his voice and I liked him as MC, and I liked also the secondary characters, or at least some of them, Fritzy and Mr. Pirkle over all, and I liked that it’s a really non-conventional coming of age tale. But there were some things that I didn’t love, to be honest.

At the beginning of the book we read about Hudson that tries to convince his mother to let him be homeschooled and the mother just agreed (ok, she’s not right away in with the idea, but she doesn’t struggle, she just gave in and then we don’t see her around a lot… we almost never see her, and that really bugged me. I know that the book is not about mother-son relationships, but we’re speaking about a teen who lives with the mother so, yes, I would have liked to see her around a little bit more!). Another thing that wasn’t quite right for me was the part about Mr. Scolari. I won’t say more because I don’t want to spoiler something for you, but really, the part about Scolari’s private life was really uncalled for. It didn’t add something to the story, it’s not a mystery book and it was totally unrelated to the rest. That part really bugged me because I can’t see a reason for it, and I have tried.

So… I was quite surprised by this book, I enjoyed the reading, even if yes, it’s not a perfect book, and I loved the originality of it. So if you want to read an original YA, a tale of coming of age that is different but not demanding, well, this is the right book for you!

I must admit I did not finish this one. It's a cute story, with likable characters, but it read a little too young for me. I was excited about this one because of the homeschooling aspect, but it just wasn't keeping my attention. And I'm trying to be better about reading only books that truly engage me. Just because it wasn't my cup of tea, doesn't mean it won't be yours!

Rating: 4.5 Stars

This is my second Berla book, and I have to say, she knows how to write a book that tugs at my heartstrings. I really loved being able to accompany Hudson on his journey, as he took a crooked path in trying to find his way back from his grief and towards his future.

•Pro: I instantly like Hudson. He had an interesting voice, and I was so happy to be with him on this crazy journey.

•Pro: There were a multitude of other characters to love as well. Fritzy and Mr. Pirkle were two stellar characters, who brought so much to this story. I must also share my love for Jennifer, the boy poodle, who they dyed pink. I smiled every time Jennifer was on page.

•Con: There were two romantic threads in this story. One thread was tied off, the other not so much. I sort of want to know what happened, because that was the ship I was rooting for.

•Pro: Yeah for older folks! This was the second book I read in two days, that showed some love for our seniors. I loved all the different ways Berla presented these characters, and think it's important to show seniors and teens interacting in positive ways.

•Pro: It was nice to see an "alternate path" presented in the story. Maybe traditional high school and college is not for everyone, and it's important to show that there are other avenues that can lead to success and happiness.

•Pro: Hudson's mom was sort of awesome. She didn't make his new life choices easy for Hudson, nor did she allow him to do it all on his terms. There was bargaining and compromise, and I loved the way she was treating him as an adult.

•Pro: The main plot was one I love - a good coming of age, self-discovery type story, but there were a bunch of great sub-plots too, which were done in such a way, that I never felt overwhelmed by the amount of story I was getting.

•Pro: Connection is something I feel we don't have enough of these days, and part of what helped Hudson "find" himself, was connecting with others. In his effort to withdraw, he actually widened his social circle, and gained so many beautiful things by doing it.

•Pro: Hudson's struggle with trying to live up to other people's expectations and seeking validation gave me more to love. I think it's very human to need these these things, and I was really happy with the resolution Berla gave him concerning these needs.

•Pro: When Hudson finally opened up and shared some of himself, the concept for his graphic novel was born, and it brought tears to my eyes.

Overall: A beautiful story of love, loss, friendship, connection, and finding the places you will go.