When I saw a coil-bound ARC of this book in our offices I grabbed it right away. I *loved* all three of Fiona Gibson's previous Red Dress Ink titles -- Babyface, Wonderboy, and Lucky Girl -- and Something Good is no exception. Fiona Gibson's characters are wonderfully real, and their relationships are poignant and warmhearted. You root for the characters because they're so vulnerable, and they infuriate you because they're so stubborn and proud.
According to the back cover copy, this novel is chiefly about teenager Hannah and her difficult relationship with her mother, Jane. But the book is about more than the back cover copy would have you believe. At its heart it is, like Fiona Gibson's other wonderful novels, a story about parents (mothers AND fathers) and children, and how parenting, like life, is not something anyone can become an expert at; even those who put on a flawless face are just muddling through, doing their best. As a parent, that's a message that I find very reassuring. As a reader, it makes the story both achingly suspenseful because it's so real -- and also so very, very satisfying when (spoiler alert!) the characters each find their own version of happiness and contentment in the end.
