In “Find Me in California,” author Kerry Lonsdale creates a story that brims with star-crossed lovers, poor decisions, loss, abandonment, and many, many secrets. We meet the two protagonists as they each must deal with tragic events relating to their grandmothers. Both Matt and Julia had much different experiences growing up with their grandmothers. Julia was loved and pampered by hers after her mother callously abandoned her, and Matt was ignored and callously isolated by his after the parents who loved him deeply died.
As circumstances cause their paths to cross, they feel a connection. And while their stories and backgrounds might be very different, they find that there is much that connects them. And thanks to a diary that Julia finds, we are privy to events from the past that provide details of just how their pasts are intertwined.
Lonsdale cleverly presents one grandmother as the “good” one and the other as the “evil” one. But as we come to find out, generalizations and first impressions can be very misleading, and long-held secrets can greatly damage families and relationships. Even secrets held with the best of intentions are harmful. And Lonsdale doesn’t stop with family secrets; both main characters suffer from what, on the surface, appears to be an attachment disorder. Both Julia and Matt felt that they were abandoned by their mothers, and since then, both have felt the sting of that abandonment, that loss. Both fear falling in love because of the real possibility that that love might not last, thus resulting in yet another abandonment.
Between the present day chapters, which are clearly labeled as being from either Julia or Matt’s point of view, and the diary entries from the 70s, we are able to piece together bits from the past and present to gain a complete picture of how Matt’s and Julia’s families crossed paths with tragic results. There’s a bit of mystery as well, as Matt spends a weekend with an ethereal creature who might be real or might be a figure from the past or even a figment of his imagination.
Yet in spite of the heartbreaking loss that each of the characters in the story suffers, the theme that emerges is uplifting and hopeful. This touching novel is about opening up to love and facing not just the past but the future with an open mind and an open heart. It’s about forgiveness and letting go of past grievances, but it’s also about finding connections and making the most of missed opportunities.
This review was first posted on Bookreporter.com.