North of Beautiful by Justina Chen Headley

I have been so remiss about writing promptly–I read this almost a month ago! When we were on vacation I only read one book, and this was it.  I really liked it, and I thought the writing was great.  In terms of content it did remind me a bit of Sarah Dessen-a thoughtful story, some quirkiness, and smart characters.  But it’s definitely not a Dessen knock off. 

Terra is the daughter of a well known cartographer (well known in map-making circles, that is!) and a mother who has been beaten down by the domineering, self absorbed, nasty father to become a timid obese woman.  Terra is a talented artist.  She has a prominent birthmark on her face, and this invites nastiness and condescension from her father.  She basically can’t wait to just leave their tiny town.  And then of course a boy enters the scene and things start to happen.  When Terra and her mother embark on their international journey  I thought it really made the book.  I felt swept along with them.  I don’t know how realistic some of the relationships are (when I described the nasty dad to Paul he remarked “I don’t know how you can read all these books with these unbelievably mean fathers”), but I thought the story was very moving and compelling and ultimately extremely satisfying.