Praise for Lookin' for Love

Author Susen Edwards puts heart and soul into this evocative work to craft an emotional journey based on real events. Ava’s story is both heartbreaking and inspiring, depicting the harsh realities of addiction and the dark side of the 1970s go-go dancing and drug trade with vivid descriptions that are multi-sensory and totally immersive. The storyline of Ava’s struggles, from her tumultuous relationships to the oppressive environment of a Kenyan prison, evokes a profound sense of empathy and sorrow thanks to the author’s commitment to detail in every speech, thought, and action Ava makes. Her ultimate journey to redemption through faith and forgiveness is deeply moving, and the narrative flows with confidence and pathos into the portrayal of her descent into addiction and subsequent recovery. The dialogue and general tone felt raw and authentic, shedding light on the complex nature of addiction and the strength required to overcome it from a personal perspective that links closely to faith. Overall, Lookin' for Love is a powerful work that fans of uplifting, realistic fiction everywhere will appreciate.

Lookin' for Love: A Novel

By Susen Edwards

Inspired by a true story, the second novel from Edwards (author of What a Trip) is a compelling and inspiring reflection on the challenges and rewards of daring to make changes, with an emphasis on facing addiction. As a child, Ava Stanton understands that her mother’s love is contingent on good behavior and good grades. When she struggles in high school, her mother tells her “You’re no good. You were never any good.” Feeling unworthy and unloved, Ava develops an interest in “bad boys,” ultimately leaving college to marry Tom, a high school dropout who was dishonorably discharged from the Navy. A violent alcoholic, Tom begins beating her during their honeymoon. 

Eventually Ava manages to divorce Tom, leaving her a single mother of two young sons. Her decision to become a go-go dancer in a gentleman’s club to support the family ultimately leads to her own addiction. With clear-eyes and much empathy, Edwards charts Ava’s descent into alcohol and drug dependency. She starts with one vodka and orange juice per night to loosen up her dancing, but as she struggles to keep up with her exhausting job and cope with her now-sober ex-husband’s remarriage and reinsertion into her sons’ lives, she turns to drugs, until eventually they take over: “I needed coke or speed to get going in the morning. Pot in the afternoon softened the edges. Alcohol in the evening helped me sleep.” 

The consequences of Ava’s addictions range from shocking to heartbreaking as Ava’s journey, as the title suggests, leads to the wrong places. Ava’s erratic struggle to free herself and reconnect with her children will inspire both sympathy and understandable frustration from readers—as in real life, even time in prison cannot prevent her from being pulled back in. Ava’s path toward healing ultimately is paved with Christian spirituality, but Edwards’s realistic, compassionate approach offers a balanced look at the requirements of creating lasting change.

Lookin' for Love: A Novel

By Susen Edwards

CrossroadReviews gave Lookin' for Love a five-star review. To read the entire review, click on the link below.

http://www.crossroadreviews.com/2024/09/bookreview-lookin-for-love-by-susen.html

RAITING: ⭐⭐⭐ ⭐

If you enjoy a thrilling ride that is based on a true story. This woman needs a very long vacation from life with everything she's been through. This was one of those stories that you can just sit there, hold on, and enjoy the ride. This is an inspiration to life. 

KIRKUS BOOK REVIEW 

Edwards’ novel traces a woman’s descent into the world of drug trafficking and her search for a better life. 

“You made your bed. Now go lie in it,” says Ava Harrison’s harsh mother when her daughter seeks help to escape her abusive marriage. After a childhood of neglect and emotional abuse in New Jersey, Ava marries Tom in 1963 only to discover that they will never make the loving home she craves when Tom beats and rapes her on their wedding night. As a naturally gifted performer, Ava eventually finds liberation through the easy money of dancing at the local club, Gentlemen’s Delight, and she manages to escape her marriage with her two young sons. With hippie drug culture in full swing, it isn’t long before Ava relies on a combination of marijuana, cocaine, and alcohol to fuel her performances and get through her days. After losing custody of her children, she meets her second husband, a loving but lazy stoner named Jack Novak, and the charming Mike Ambrose—a drug trafficker who draws Ava into his world of international smuggling. From Colombia to Kenya, Ava follows Mike into a wild existence very different from her humble beginnings—one with extreme consequences. Edwards immediately captures readers’ sympathy for Ava from the moment she describes her childhood spent as an average girl who just wants her parents’ love and approval. Each of Ava’s increasingly terrible decisions flows logically from her history and the societal pressures on women of the time; it’s hard to not to empathize. The novel’s first-person narration has a flowing, conversational style . . . some truly harrowing scenes involving abuse, drug smuggling, and foreign prisons all ratchet up the tension and will keep readers engaged along her long road to redemption. 

ReadersLane gave Lookin' for Love a fantastic review. Excerpts appear below.

To read the entire review, go to https://www.readerslane.com/reviews-title/lookin-for-love/ 

Cocaine and Champagne 

. . . This novel has the clear, gripping ring of reading someone’s diary. Ava is up-front with us, speaking like she would with a friend, sharing her life in a fashion that is just as unvarnished as it is ultimately believable and tear-jerking. Something about the writing speaks of truth, of pure non-fiction. Perhaps it’s Ava’s tone, perhaps it’s the ability of hindsight that colors the way she can now tell things, perhaps its how she shares her soul with us, accepting blame while also pointing out injustice and depicting the loneliness of her life. . . .

Through the ups and downs, Lookin’ For Love shows just how harmful a life without love is and how vulnerable a person with no support network becomes. Ava is smart, but she is human. She needs kindness, she needs love: the love of her sons, of true friends, of a partner, and ultimately of herself. Ava falls in and out of addictions, and the spiral is compassionately depicted. The decisions stack up and Ava finds herself cornered. In the end, we’re all looking for love, and when that is not available, we’re all looking for comfort and merciful numbness.

Lookin’ for Love by Susen Edwards is a wild ride that not only keeps the pages turning but keeps you guessing as well. You follow the adventures of a woman named Ava; a troubled soul hell-bent on making poor life choices. Ava escapes from an abusive husband only to plunge headlong into the dark world of drugs and strip clubs. But when she agrees to visit Kenya with a small-time drug dealer with grand ambitions, things take off for the reader and fall apart for Ava. After every page you ask yourself: “What will Ava do next?”

---J.M. Adams, Emmy nominated journalist and author of Second Term

It’s often said one can only turn one’s life around after hitting rock bottom. In Susen Edwards’s second novel, Lookin’ For Love, Ava hits low after low. Based on true events, this tragic-turned-triumphant novel underscores how the power to change one's life trajectory can be found, but only if one is willing to do the hard work involved. Recovering addicts and members of faith-based recovery programs will find a familiar—yet wholly original—protagonist to cry with and ultimately cheer for.

—Ashley E. Sweeney, author of Hardland

Lookin' for Love by Susen Edwards is an inspiring story of harrowing trials and tribulations followed by incredible redemption. The story is riveting, leaving you wondering how Ava is ever going to dig herself out of the devastating drug-riddled, messy relationship hole she dug herself. Bit by bit, she builds up faith in herself and in God, coming out on the other side as a dignified woman, stronger than ever before. 

--Ginelle Testa, author of Making a Home Out of You

This roller coaster story has sharp turns, steep slopes, and jaw-dropping tension, careening from crisis to crisis. Ava, a go-go dancer, latches onto a series of men and learns sometimes our love life leads us into trouble with life-changing consequences, leaving us shattered until we find strength to carry on. Strap on your seatbelt for this scream machine ride and witness the drama in Ava’s topsy-turvy world.

 —Vivian Fransen, author of The Straight Spouse: A Memoir

In Lookin' For Love, author Susen Edwards delivers a gripping narrative that spans decades, immersing readers in the tumultuous journey of one woman's battle with addiction and the harrowing descent into the underbelly of society. Edwards masterfully portrays the dark allure of substance abuse and the relentless pursuit of survival against all odds. Through the highs and lows, the betrayals and redemption, this turbulent and unflinching tale is a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.

- Joanne Howard, author of Sleeping in the Sun

Ava is a child of the sixties whose journey over many decades forms a long and winding path toward what she wants out of life—thrill and adventure, love and belonging, and ultimately sobriety and salvation. Susen Edwards’ fast-paced work of modern Christian historical fiction will touch readers seeking stories of ordinary people finding faith and redemption.    

--Jude Berman, author of The Die and The Vow