How Far Is The Ocean From Here by Amy Shearn

ARC - Reviewed for Book Browse

Susannah Prue is a young, unmarried surrogate mother who, in the days before her delivery date, panics. Jumping into her car, she flees her Chicago home and a few days later pulls up to a bleak motel in the Southwest—the Thunder Lodge. There, she encounters misfits, much like herself, who also carry secrets: the motel’s terse proprietors, their mentally disabled son, and a woman transporting her niece to the father she’s never met. But when the parents of Susannah’s baby discover her whereabouts, she can no longer ignore the profound power she holds over their lives.

Beautifully written, How Far Is the Ocean from Here explores the ways in which people care for one another and the ways in which they fail, the kinds of families we create when we have no one else to turn to, and the strangeness and unpredictability of love.

A beautifully written story about a surrogate mom who just wants to see the ocean. Leaving her life behind, Susannah sets of for nowhere, anywhere, wherever the road leads her just weeks before the baby she is carrying for Kit and Julian is due to arrive.

Although Susannah's thoughts aren't always clear, the reader can understand the wonderment and uncertainty she is feeling about turning over this *stranger* once he finally arrives. We see the deals she makes with herself throughout the book, if she makes it to the ocean, she'll keep this baby, if she doesn't Kit and Julian were meant to have him. It's truly a roller coaster ride of emotions for both the reader and all the characters involved.

We as readers get to peer into the lives of these characters: Into the road trip Susannah feels the need to take, Feeling the fear and uncertainly Kit and Julian experience not knowing what is to come. And of course the thoughts and feelings from the rest of the cast of characters who we are introduced to as the story progresses.

How Far is the Ocean From Here is a delightful book filled with a few questions, some answers and a whole lot of entertainment!! 4/5