Ink is Thicker Than Water by Amy Spalding – a Review

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Description:
For Kellie Brooks, family has always been a tough word to define. Combine her hippie mom and tattooist stepdad, her adopted overachieving sister, her younger half brother, and her tough-love dad, and average Kellie’s the one stuck in the middle, overlooked and impermanent. When Kellie’s sister finally meets her birth mother and her best friend starts hanging with a cooler crowd, the feeling only grows stronger.

But then she reconnects with Oliver, the sweet and sensitive college guy she had a near hookup with last year. Oliver is intense and attractive, and she’s sure he’s totally out of her league. But as she discovers that maybe intensity isn’t always a good thing, it’s yet another relationship she feels is spiraling out of her control.

It’ll take a new role on the school newspaper and a new job at her mom’s tattoo shop for Kellie to realize that defining herself both outside and within her family is what can finally allow her to feel permanent, just like a tattoo.

Review:

Ink is Thicker than Water by Amy Spalding is the heart warming story of Kellie Brooks and her unconventional life.  Kellie is a beautiful, 16 year old slight under-achiever from a divorced family.  Her life consists of a wonderful family dynamic and her family life seems ideal until her adoptive sister Sara’s birth mother returns – wreaking havoc on her family life. 

Kellie struggles with walking in her sisters shadow and finding her place in the world. With all the turmoil at home, Kellie begins to focus on her high school life and her future. Joining the school paper is exactly what she needs. Then her life is rocked a little more when her best friend walks away and she has no idea why. She meets college student, Oliver, and her life begins to change in ways she never imagined.  

I enjoyed this book and the characters – including the sub-characters.  This book takes a realistic look at family, life and relationship struggles – without the over dramatics of it all.  While the relationship with Oliver at times grated my nerves, I soon came to realize why all the insecurities.  Which in the end made for a thoroughly well rounded book. 

Reviewed by Erin

Copy provided by Publisher