Book Review: right where i belong by Krista McGee
Natalia’s about to discover her place in the world . . . and it’s not following in her father’s footsteps.
After watching her father jump from one marriage to the next, Natalia has completely written off love. And when her father divorces his third wife—the only one who has been a mother to her—Natalia is ready to write him off too.
Needing a change of scenery, Natalia leaves her home in Spain and relocates with her stepmother to sun-soaked Florida. But she didn’t realize just how far a new school, a new culture, and a new lifestyle would push her out of her comfort zone.
One of her biggest surprises comes from Brian, a pastor’s son with an adorable smile, who loves God with a sincerity that astounds Natalia. She doesn’t want to fall for him, but she can’t seem to avoid him long enough to get him out of her mind.
Love is the last thing Natalia wants. Even so, God has her right where she belongs.
This is the third book in this series by Ms. McGee and the third of her books I’ve read. I picked up the first book, First Date, last year but didn’t realize at the time it was YA. It wasn’t an issue, but I was a big shocked. This one, of course, I went into knowing mostly what to expect as far as that’s concerned :).
As with the others, right where i belong was a fairly quick, easy read while dealing with serious issues of absentee parents, knowing God’s will, and what to do when God’s will conflicts with the will of those same parents – and so on.
Natalia is a lovely girl, fairly typical despite the cultural differences from her home country of Spain v. the U.S.. She and her friends talk about make-up and clothes and boys, along with God, the Bible, and His plan for their lives.
We do get a bit of Brian’s point-of-view, which I really liked for several reasons – first I just love getting in “his” head [whoever he is in the scenario] and because I’ve not seen it done much in the YA I’ve read.
The two fight an attraction to each other, both believing, for different reasons, that they’re not supposed to be together. God works with them separately and, eventually, will show them if/how their lives could mesh.
I also really liked Spencer – he probably shows the most growth, especially in the spiritual arena. From spoiled rich kid to wondering how God’s going to use his life… Well, I hope Ms. McGee one day decides to write “New Adult” or “Grown-up” fiction so we can see how all of these peeps turn out. I’d LOVE to read the story of Spencer finding his Ms. Right!
Er, anyway – as I often find with YA, there’s a bit less than I prefer in the romance department [not all YAs even have that first kiss, for instance] but are perfectly in tone with what I’d what my now-11yo reading one day.
It appears this is the end of this series [unless she picks up my idea of Spencer’s story – and maybe Lexi’s or… hey – they could be the same story – or different ones 😉 – though them ending up together could be great fun 😀 – er right – thinking out loud here…] and it seems that Ms. McGee’s next offering is going to be a bit different, though still YA. It’s less in my preferred reading wheelhouse but I’ll still give it a shot :).
Overall Rating: 8 out of 10 stars