Book Review: A Pursuit of Home

It's been awhile since I talked about a book, so it's fitting to come back with a new favorite!

When she learns the family she thought dead might be alive and in danger, Jess Beuchene knows her secrets can only stay buried for so long. Desperation brings her to Derek Thornbury, an expert in history and artifacts, to help her decipher the clues in an old family diary. Will their search to uncover the truth of the past lead to a future together? (Goodreads)

Kristi Ann Hunter is one of my most favorite authors, and this book reminds me why that is. In this case, Jess was a minor character from previous books who never really stood out to me. She wasn't someone I remembered, and definitely not someone I cared about. Kristi made her larger than life here, and she became a favorite character. I really liked her. She definitely would have the potential to grate, as she is sometimes not very likable, but she really didn't. I think that's part of what makes Kristi such a great author. She's able to take this character who is interesting, and also sometimes very lacking in social skills, and makes her sympathetic.

I really liked Derek. He was very bookish, and I find that very attractive. He's also very into art history, which I also find very attractive. Art History was one of my many majors before I finally got myself figured out. Derek was loyal and brave, doing his very best to protect someone who hadn't been very nice to him up to this point.

I liked the conflict. Verbonne seemed so REAL! I actually googled it to see where it was on the map...that's before I read Kristi's notes at the back, where she explained that it wasn't a real country. Could have fooled me! The way it was described reminded me of pretty much every small European country ever. It's very obvious that Kristi did a ton of research on revolutions during that time period, because it all felt very authentic to me.

I really loved this book, and I'm anxious to see what Kristi comes up with next. She's an auto-buy author, for sure! I highly recommend this series. If you're new to Kristi's books, I recommend starting with A Noble Masquerade, as it'll have background information and characters that play into this series.

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**FTC Disclaimer: as a member of Kristi's street team, I received this book for free in exchange for fair and honest feedback.**

On being an introvert and a perfectionist...

Do any of you ever get that BLAH feeling and you just don't want to really engage? That's totally how I've been feeling about having much of a social life. I'm all talk these days. Let's go do something! We should get together! It would be fun to...

The list goes on and on. And I never follow through because I just haven't wanted to. I'm already an introvert, so going out after having already been out all day is just EXHAUSTING.

Okay, I know some people would not believe me for a single second about being an introvert because I'm SUPER GOOD at making people believe otherwise. Really, I could maybe make it as an actress if I only fit the current standard of beauty. Blah blah blah. Whatever.

No, I really am an introvert. When I get home, I am DONE. FINISHED. THE END. I don't want to talk to anyone, see anyone, interact in any way that requires actually speaking. I will sometimes text, but even that gets to be too much sometimes. It totally depends on the situation.

ANYWAY.

This all comes up because I am doing a Veteran's Day assembly at school on Monday, and I am DREADING IT. I shouldn't be dreading it. Veteran's Day is a super special day for me, and I always love talking about and honoring veterans.

Here's the thing: in addition to being an introvert, I am also a raging perfectionist, and the very thought of something not going as planned STRESSES ME OUT. Even though I know FULL WELL that I can't have everything work out every time. It doesn't matter. I still get super anxious about things like this because WHAT IF SOMETHING GOES WRONG. Something will go wrong. This is a given. Knowing this does not in any way lessen my anxiety about it.

I am only a perfectionist when it comes to myself. I have this weird obsession about HAVING TO BE PERFECT at all times, and I'm totally not, so I'm constantly stressed about not being perfect. I KNOW. Circular argument in every sense.

It's awful.

Other people don't have to be perfect, even though I'll be fully honest and admit that it stresses me out there too when people don't do it the way I would, but I'm pretty good at keeping my mouth shut and just stressing in private.

I'm working on it.