Exactly Where You Need To Be
Amelia Diane Coombs
Simon and Schuster
Florie and Kacey bonded at high school over a shared love of the true crimes podcast Murder Me Later. Best friends for two years, Kacey totally gets Florie’s struggles with OCD. Her friendship is a rock on which Florie can have something of a normal life, but things will alter once Kacey begins college. Florie’s mom decided she needs a gap year before determining whether she’ll attend college or not. Kacey has promised nothing will change. Florie would like to believe that, but she hides a guilty secret. She’s in love with Kacey’s older brother Sam. It’s only part of Florie’s woes. She feels a growing desire to subdue her OCD, to leave her boring Washington hometown and forge her own path in life—if only her mom will let her.
… a class act of sympathetic characters.
When she and Kacey win tickets to a live Murder Me Later event in San Francisco it looks like the first step to freedom. Sam offers to drive them, so Florie decides to make a leap of faith and go on the road trip. Evading her over-protective mom is only the beginning. On the way Florie tastes true freedom for the first time and her feelings for Sam are realized. Her OCD diminishes as she experiences new things, but there are clouds on the horizon. Florie must square things with Kacey, who’s bound to feel betrayal over the relationship. There’s also the small matter of dealing with her mother. Can Florie overcome the perils and pitfalls and make it truly a summer to remember?
Exactly Where You Need To Be is a totally enjoyable novel that deals with the struggles to overcome OCD in a truly authentic and compassionate way. Florie, Kacey and Sam are a class act of sympathetic characters.
