Review: Someone Else's Life by Katie Dale - Farah

Title: Someone Else's Life
Author: Katie Dale
Publication date: February 14th, 2012 (US release)
Publisher: Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Genre(s): Young Adult (Contemporary)
Challenges: YA Contemporary, SARC, A-Z Title, DAC

Source: NetGalley
Format: Digital ARC

Pages: 512  

When 17-year-old Rosie's mother, Trudie, dies from Huntington's Disease, her pain is intensified by the knowledge that she has a fifty percent chance of inheriting the crippling disease herself. Only when Rosie tells her mother's best friend, "Aunt Sarah," that she is going to test for the disease does Sarah, a midwife, reveal that Trudie wasn't her real mother after all. Rosie was swapped at birth with a sickly baby who was destined to die.
Devastated, Rosie decides to trace her real mother, joining her ex-boyfriend on his gap year travels, to find her birth mother in California. But all does not go as planned. As Rosie discovers yet more of her family's deeply buried secrets and lies, she is left with an agonizing decision of her own, one which will be the most heart breaking and far-reaching of all.

Someone Else's Life is a story full of life, heartbreak, love, and reality. Katie Dale wrote a story so interesting and different, that made it feel like it was real life story. Someone Else's Life is definitely one of the greatest 2012 contemporary novels!

Rosie, the main protagonist's mother has died from Huntington's disease. After her mother's death, Rosie starts thinking about the chances she might end up enheriting it as well. That's when her mom's best friend Sarah tells Rosie that Trudy wasn't her real mother. That's when the story gets real interesting, because how would you feel if you suddenly found out your mother wasn't who you though she was?

The story evolves as Rosie and her ex-boyfriend travel to have "fun", but Rosie actually just goes there in search of her real mother.  As they both travel, feelings unravel, new people show up, and it just gets more and more interesting.

I loved how easily I could relate to the  characters. Everything just felt so real, and I never felt like the decisions made were somewhat unrealistic. Even though at some points, I felt like there was a bit too much drama, I guess that's how things turn out after a tragic realization.

Someone Else'e life is a great stand alone novel, that will leave you closing the book with a smile. I really do look forward for Katie's next novel.

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