Asylum

Asylum -- Isobel Blackthorn

Have you ever felt like just dropping everything and running far, far away? To perhaps an island?
That is what Yvette Grimm did. She ran from her life in Malta and her boyfriend Carlos (what an oaf!) and met up with her mother, Leah, in Australia.
She wants to stay and her mom wants her to stay. There might even be a man on the horizon, but that will always be a complicated situation with Yvette, a romantic at heart.
I thoroughly enjoyed Asylum.
Yvette is such a lovable, but emotional human. You can even feel her hurt when her mother is a little cold towards her, always talking about her sister.
Asylum is just the right book at the right time for me.
Yvette, we sistas in arms.

My initial thoughts were that the cover seemed a little bland, but I always go by the saying, 'Never judge a book by it's cover'. I did like the thought of reading a very strong character driven book, and this is what the book is.

The story starts off with Yvette Grimm finding herself back in her childhood bedroom at her mother's Leah's house in Australia. She is on a holiday visa at the moment, but Leah has sent off her permanent residency forms. Yvette had to leave her old life in Malta. As you read through the book, you discover what Yvette's life was like with her boyfriend Carlos through little snippets, and why she had to leave. I love this little quote. The author uses a fantastic style of writing throughout, to the point and very clear.

'Yvette was seeking refuge from the wreckage of her life'

Yvette's mother tells her that she must get married to stay in Australia, but Yvette is a sort of a hopeless romantic and believes that you marry for love not convenience.

The story follows Yvette through her struggles of belonging no-where. Yvette takes you to a cockroach infested flat, to a cute little house to singing in a choir and a life changing event. It was a beautiful journey that the author took me on. Laughing in places, crying the next.

I loved the character of Yvette, she never let anything get her down, she was always expecting the worst, and this made her a much stronger person. I didn't like her mum Leah, she seemed very cold towards Yvette, and always going on about her sister Debbie, which made Yvette feel alone at times.

I think the main idea of the book is to inform you about the difficulties that people have in gaining residencies. Even though Yvette's mum and sister live in Australia it doesn't make her a definite case to live their permanently, just because she stayed with her dad in England when her mother and sister moved back when they were children. I find the topic on political asylum quite fascinating and this book does question that.

I would love to read other books with a similar topic to this one, it was a fascinating read. I would recommend to anyone looking for a strong female character lead.

I gave Asylum by Isobel Blackthorn 4 out of 5 stars.

A roller coaster ride of emotions,very strong main character

Asylum by Isobel Blackthorn was a book I really enjoyed and look forward to reading more by this author. I am getting around to finally reviewing this book even though I finished this book over a month ago, due to being sick.

Yvette Grimm, a 29 year old woman has decided to go to Australia to visit on a visa and try to get a citizenship there even though she knows it is practically impossible unless she gets married. So she goes to stay with her mother Isobel and they get along just fine although her mentioning Yvette's sister and comparing the two of them really bothers Yvette.

Yvette had a somewhat tragic childhood living with a violent Father and then a broken home after he leaves, and she mainly came to Australia to get away from her boyfriend, Carlos, a likeable man but also a criminal, so she has a lot of issues to deal with, all caused by her own bad choices and being Yvette she rather escape the problems than deal with them, so she takes off to Australia, leaving Malta behind along with Carlos.

On top of this she has a tendency to be quite judgmental even though she has so many if not a lot of the same problems as her friends do. Yvette is having a hard time finding her niche in life as she is used to having a man, and functioning without one is quite challenging to Yvette and quite comical at times as well!

In this book we see Yvette slowly transforming into a person with a lot more empathy towards others than at the beginning of the book, and she also begins to realize the shallowness her everyday life has been and her problems are ones she created for herself! There may be hope for her yet!

I liked the way this author wrote this book and I like how the plot weaves along and things change as the story goes along. I also liked that there were a great cast of characters all well developed that had their place in this book as well. In the end Yvette is more likeable than at the beginning and although her metamorphosis is slow, it is steady and headed in a much better direction than at any other time in her life.

I gave this book 5 stars and would like to read more by this author!