Watch Over Me by Nina LaCour

If you are a Nina LaCour fan, as I am, you will be surprised by Watch Over Me. It is not ‘typical’ Nina LaCour fare.

Mila has just graduated high school and is aging out of foster care. She has been accepted as an intern teacher at a farm in a remote part of Northern California, across the street from the Pacific Ocean. She is totally surprised at her acceptance. The owners of the farm, Terry and Julia, take in children who have experienced trauma and are having a difficult time dealing with it.

Mila originally came from a loving family including her mother and grandparents. But as lonely people do, her mother attached herself to a controlling man who is gradually reducing her self esteem all the while making Mila’s life miserable. Mila yearns for the good old days that will never return.

Mila’s pupil at the farm is nine-year-old Lee and over the course of the weeks, she develops an attachment so deep with him that she is surprised at the emotions she feels for him…something she hasn’t felt since her grandparents. The question remains, can she help him overcome the ghosts that haunt him, all the while overcoming the ghosts that haunt her?

While an easy read, it is an emotional one as well. Those of us who have never suffered deep trauma can never understand what someone is going through who has suffered it. But we can hope that with family, friends, love and support, we can ease their burden. That’s what Watch Over Me tries to tell us.

So, I do suggest you read Watch Over Me, but I also suggest you read my favorite Nina LaCour book, Everything Leads to You or is it We Are Okay which I gave 5 stars to or Hold Still which is the first book of hers that I read and gave 4 1/2 stars to (now I’m just confusing myself). You should just read them all because you can’t go bad with any Nina LaCour book.