Heather Young's Ezra and Hadassah

Title: The Realities of Royalty

Heather Young “Ezra and Hadassah: A Portrait of American Royalty”

Reviewed by Kelsey Britt

11/24/2014

4:32pm

I was not really sure what to think about this book before I started it, but it sounded pretty interesting. I am a sucker for true stories – and so I dove in head first. By the time you get to the end of this book, your heart has been pulled in a million different directions, and I found myself feeling more like a trusted confidant than an anonymous reader. Heather Young hands you her heart on a platter that just so happens to be disguised in the pages of this book.  As she takes you through the things that happened in her life, it reads much more like a novel than like a non-fiction auto-biography.

As Young - who was born as the title character of Hadassah - moves through her life in the Oregon state foster program with her brother Ezra, they encounter all the worst kinds of people. They see many let downs in their lives and they each have to find their own way to survive in their harsh reality - and sometimes that does not always mean that they get through it hand in hand.  Their struggle in this world is at once harrowing and heartwarming and I found it to be well worth my time and investment. 

Since I finished the book, I cannot get the characters and themes out of my head and that is something that I deeply appreciate with a well-written book.  I find myself constantly wishing I had been able to be there for these children throughout their lives, and it’s a definite motivation to do my best to be there for the people that I know and love today.  It was a deeply moving read from start to finish.

I would give Ezra and Hadassah 4 out of 5 stars!

Kelsey Britt