Someone Else's Life by Katie Dale

Title: Someone Else's Life
Author: Katie Dale
Release Date: February 14th, 2012
Publisher: Random House Children's Book
Pages: 512
Format: Electronic Copy
Acquired: ARC; Netgalley
Age Group: Young Adult
Rating: 5 Stars

When 17-year-old Rosie's mother, Trudie, dies from Huntington's Disease, her pain is intensified by the knowledge that she has a fifty percent chance of inheriting the crippling disease herself. Only when Rosie tells her mother's best friend, "Aunt Sarah," that she is going to test for the disease does Sarah, a midwife, reveal that Trudie wasn't her real mother after all. Rosie was swapped at birth with a sickly baby who was destined to die.
Devastated, Rosie decides to trace her real mother, joining her ex-boyfriend on his gap year travels, to find her birth mother in California. But all does not go as planned. As Rosie discovers yet more of her family's deeply buried secrets and lies, she is left with an agonizing decision of her own, one which will be the most heart breaking and far-reaching of all.

I actually had to run to the store and buy myself an official copy because I don't think a book has touched me as much as this novel has.

At first I thought this would be a little dull and I was questioning why I even requested this book in the first place, but from the first page the magic that Dale weaves into this tale cannot go without saying. She brings to life Rosie and all her characters; she makes the reader feel like they are taking part in this crazy world that Rosie has been thrust into.

The author has a beautiful way of writing that is both haunting and gets deep into the reader's skin. I  could never imagine what it would be like to Rosie and being in her shoes and seeing what she had to go through is really something that no one can miss. This book is one that should be talked about more and more, and I would even think something that should be remembered. Topics that get faced in this novel are very personal and very heart wrenching, there were moments when I just wanted all of Rosie's misery to end, but at the same time I knew Dale had something going here.

I don't think I imagined the ending to be what it was; at this stage of my reading life I feel like most books are a little predictable. Reading enough YA, a trend starts to appear, but I like Dale because this was not an ending I would have pictured. I don't know how I feel about it exactly, so it really does leave it to the reader to decide.

Get this book, get this book for a friend, get this book for your mom, heck, get this book for your dog. It is an incredible story that must, must, must be read because Dale's powerful words cannot go missed.