A satisfying conclusion to a strong pre-teen series: My review of Allison O'Brian on Her Own, volume 2

Publisher: Revell; Reprint edition (May 1, 2011)

Book Synopsis as provided by the publisher:

Continue the adventure of a lifetime!

It's 1948, and fourteen-year-old Allison O'Brian has never known what it's like to have a real family. She knows nothing about her father, and her mother is a glamorous movie star who has little time for her. But when Allison stumbles upon a long-lost letter, she learns there is more to her past than meets the eye, and she embarks on a coast-to-coast adventure to find the love of a family she has always dreamed about.

Volume 2 includes the last two stories in Allison's adventure: The Secret and The Promise. In The Secret, Allison is faced with the frightening prospect of losing the father she worked so hard to find. In The Promise, Allison deals with the fallout as her mother's movie-star identity is revealed and the normal life Allison has always wanted gets turned upside down.

Join this sweet and spunky girl as she makes her dreams come true!

MY REVIEW:

Maybe I shouldn't be admitting this as a grown man - but I greatly enjoyed the entire series of Allison O'Brian! My wife and I decided to check out these books to see if we could recommend them for our own daughters and nieces, and once we'd started them found we couldn't put them down! Volume 2 is an excellent follow-up to the first two stories, and Melody Carlson kept us hooked through books 3 and 4 all the way to the very satisfying conclusion. Allison is just such a likeable character, someone your heart breaks for and yet also feels proud of too, for her decisions to forgive those who have wronged her, including a major character in these two stories, a fellow schoolmate, Shirely, who causes a lot of heartache for Allison. The plot is exciting, with danger and intrigue and new and uncertain feelings of romance. Carlson handles teen issues with an expert hand, such as providing an excellent example of how Allison works through her feelings for an older boy and in the end decides that it's important, at this point in her life, to focus on being friends with him without fixating on having more than she's ready for. This volume provides a beautiful scene where someone is led to Jesus, and will give a clear message to your pre-teen or teen on the power of God's love.

I highly recommend both this book and the entire series, and give it 5 out of 5 stars.

Book has been provided courtesy of Baker Publishing Group and Graf-Martin Communications, Inc. Available at your favourite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.