Review: Following My Toes by Laurel Osterkamp

Title:		Following My Toes
Author:        Laurel Osterkamp
Publisher:		PMI Books
Pub Date:		04/23/2006
ISBN:		1933826274

Pages:          235

Even if nobody believes her, Faith Emerson knows she’s psychic. After all, she totally saw it coming when Peter, her boyfriend of two years, dumped her for her best friend. 

Heartbroken, Faith needs a fresh start. So when her good friend Carolyn suggests she move from Duluth to Minneapolis, Faith takes the plunge and embarks on a new adventure. However, Faith soon learns things don’t always go as planned when she’s forced to deal with a coffee shop customer from hell, a bruised tailbone, a phone-sex operator roommate, a freeloading little sister, her parents’ taxidermy convention, and a new love interest who may be stalking her. Yet every time Faith tries to rely on her perceptive abilities, friends or family accuse her of being self-involved.

Faith believes in love, but knows she must solve the stalker mystery before she can trust any of the new men in her life. In the process she discovers that she has more to learn about following her heart and following her instincts than she ever imagined.

Following My Toes is a tale of love and forgiveness, told with humor and a fresh, innovative voice!

Laurel Osterkamp has been a comedy writer for Minneapolis performance groups over the last seven years. She currently teaches creative writing to high school students, and lives in Minneapolis with her husband and son. This is her first novel.

(Summary and cover via Goodreads)

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Following My Toes is the story of Faith, a maybe psychic who loves to follow her feelings. The story actually starts with Faith and two others being abducted, and then we get a giant flashback to see how they got to that point. I find the term "chick lit" gets a bad rap amongst many readers, but this was chick lit in the best senses of the word. It was fun. There were break-ups, make-ups, friendships, and entirely new lives. The cast of characters was hilarious. I think I'd have a hard time picking a favorite, but if forced I'd probably choose Faith's eccentric roommate Missy. Missy was a free spirit who was loads of fun.

The ending was not entirely unpredictable, but twists and turns are not what this book is about. It's about exploring the intricacies of various relationships and forgiveness. Can Faith forgive people who have wronged her? Is forgiveness really necessary to truly move on with your life after you've been hurt? Can being introspective about our own feelings blind us to everything else in the world around us? All of these are touched upon with a lightly humorous touch. I found myself laughing many times. The ending was satisfying and made sense for all the characters and their quirks.

I kind of thought we'd get to the actual explanation of the abduction from the first few pages sooner, but that didn't take away from my enjoyment. Overall, I found this book to be fun and funny, while still providing several things to think about. In the end, I felt like the characters were old friends I would love to keep hanging out with. And I definitely want to know where they are going from here.

Copy of book won in website giveaway.