"It's easy to forget you're worthy when you're trying so hard just to make it through each day, but always remember: you are worthy. Never be embarrassed to accept a hand up when someone offers. Today someone helps you, but someday you'll return the favor by helping someone else in kind."

This quote perfectly sums up one of the central themes of ROAM.

It's a story about a family that has fallen on hard times, and the courage and the strength it takes to climb your way back to even ground.

Armstrong doesn't shy away from the realities of homelessness and poverty. Instead, she treats them with compassion and dignity.

Abby is a fantastic character with a wonderful voice. I was drawn into her inner world, and cheered for her to overcome the many obstacles she faces.

One of my favorite things about ROAM was that it delved into the family unit, and showed how times of trouble can forge even stronger bonds.

I really wanted to like this book. The synopsis held so much promise, but the book failed to deliver as much as I hoped for from it. I enjoyed it well enough, but with a few tweaks it could have been an even more enjoyable read.

This is not a bad read, and young adult readers would likely enjoy it. From me, this felt a bit unrealistic. A homeless teen, living in a van in a Walmart parking lot with her family starts a new school (guarding her secret that she is homeless and immediately makes friends with a great, accepting group of kids, including a kind and mature boyfriend. She gets bullied by a mean girl, but the whole school stands behind this homeless teen and rejects the bully they've known forever. This seems like an idyllic high school experience (homeless or not). Although the main character does struggle, it definitely feels like "struggle lite." But the main character is likeable, as is her family, and the reader will cheer for them (even though they may secretly be cynical). Thank you NetGalley and publishers for providing a digital ARC for review.

Thank you for the copy of Roam by C. H. Armstrong.

I really enjoy a YA novel that anyone could read and should read. The main character has suffered some hard things and they are entering their senior year of high school. This book gives great perspective and should be for all high school students.

I love that this book touches on such a raw topic of homelessness and does it in such a way that it is not offending anyone who has ever had to experience such a struggle. I also love when a book gives a character a fresh start. I highly recommend.

I tried a few times to get into this book, but something about it just kept not clicking for me, unfortunately. I feel like I've read quite a few stories that just felt a bit too similar, and the story just wasn't able to grip me. Something about the characters and the setting just didn't work for me, and perhaps it's a combination of me getting a bit older and having burned through a few too many similar stories in the past few years. While I'm not entirely put off this author, this particular book just wasn't for me, I think! I hope it finds its readers :)

Roam: To go from place to place without purpose or direction : wander.

Abby Lunde is a 17-year-old girl who is going through one of the most difficult moments of her life. After a scandal involving her family, Abby's life is turned upside down and she, her mother, sister and stepdad have to move to another city to rebuild their lives.

There's only one big problem: they have no money and end up living on the street in the middle of winter.

Being new to a school and city isn't easy, but being homeless makes it worse. Due because of the problems that Abby had at the old school, she decides that to start over in this new place, she needs to keep secrets (one of them her current living situation).

🔹

I really liked this book! Abby is such a beloved character and the author manages to make us feel the despair she feels. I just wanted to be able to keep this family in a little pot and protect them.

If there's a book I'd like to see translated in Portugal, it's this one, because it teaches so much about empathy, inner strength, unconditional love, forgiveness, gratitude and dedication.

In addition, after reading Roam, I became super interested in the book To Kill a Mockingbird (the author's favorite book) because of C. H. Armstrong's approaches to the book within the context of Abby's school dynamics.

You'll like this book if you like: characters who overcome adversity, books with a lot of family dynamics and young adult/young adult books.

I wasn't sure I'd enjoy this one after re-reading the synopsis before starting but I wanted to give it a fair shot. I'm glad I did as it was a good, well written story, the narrative flowed smoothly and didn't feel jarring. The characters were well developed and all felt unique in their own way. It was heartwarming and wrenching at the same time, seeing and feeling abbys worries trying to navigate a normal life.

Intriguing, well written and just excellent. I adored it so much. Such an intriguing and effective read. Absolutely excellent book and a brilliant read. Recommend!

I really tried to love this book as the cover and description were intriguing. But the characters fell flat for me and I just couldn't become connected with them.

This YA novel was fabulous, it is hard hitting and emotional., it pulled me in quickly and I couldn’t put it down. I would highly recommend giving it a go.

This was a great concept for a story, and there were some moments that were fantastically told, but at the time time, there was a lot that felt a little rushed, or half-hearted. I enjoyed the friendship between the girls, but the "romance" element just didn't do it for me.

I struggled with this one - I enjoyed the story and general plot but struggled to connect with the main character and I just couldn't get into the story properly. I would definitely give the author another go however.

This book did an excellent job of giving you flawed and complex characters that you could root for and fall in love with. The issues that are tackled in this book are unique and are certainly something I have not encountered before.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

Absolutely gorgeous writing that draws you in, hooks you like your a fish on the line, then slowly reals you in. You’re so trusting and engrossed that you come back with a jolt when the story ends!

I found myself wanting to dive right back in to start again, and that is precisely what I did. This is a book you will sink into willingly, then slowly realise it’s something like quicksand and you don’t want to put it down!

The characters aren’t perfect, they have quirks and such, and that just makes the whole premise of the story that much more brilliantly done!

Roam is a very timely YA novel. It is a very emotional and moving story. We meet Abby Lunde , a talented 17 year old who due to a series of events finds herself , along with her parents and younger sister living in a new city , homeless and living in the family van in the local Walmart parking lot. Each day is filled with the challenge of finding housing , food and stability.
Abby starts school and tries to fit in and keep her family's plight a secret . She makes friends and an enemy very quickly in the story as she tries to think about her future and survive day to day.
Very impressed with the overall concept of the book , a homeless story of an entire family written from the viewpoint of a teenager set today is very eye opening.
The book was well written and was an easy read but it was pretty predictable and though there were a few minor turns , the ending was pretty clear early on. This would be a wonderful read for young people and I would recommend it .

***this eBook was supplied free from Netgalley for an honest review. ***

This read really challenged me, in a good way. I loved reading about Abby's experience as a homeless teen. I especially loved the balance of her trying to hide it and have a normal life at school. It puts everything into perspective of how we don't know what anyone is going through or what their home lives are like. Some issues were dealt with a heavier hand than I normally like, but I still like that the story is something I haven't read before and made me think.

This was downloaded by mistake, thought this was poetry & it was not. If i was looking for a novel i would’ve had more of a liking to it.

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced reader copy of Roam. This book was incredibly sad, but a beautiful story. I enjoyed this book despite the heavy content.