Touchstone eBook Lorraine Orman
Download As PDF : Touchstone eBook Lorraine Orman 
Sixteen-year-old Skye thinks her life sucks. She has no father, her mother is too busy to spend time with her, and her best friend is head over heels in love with a new boyfriend. Skye longs to be part of a real family. So when an invite arrives for her to travel to the remote West Coast of New Zealand to meet her ailing great-grandfather, she's keen to go. She's also determined to find out why her mother is estranged from the rest of the family. But the truth remains elusive and Skye finds herself embroiled in several difficult situations, all played out against a beautiful but threatened landscape. Why is her mother so cruel to her sister, Skye's aunt? What dangerous family secret is her great-grandfather trying to confess? Why is Skye drawn so strongly to her newly-found teenage cousin, Josh? What can she do to stop Josh's eco-warrior protest group being betrayed by a double agent? Skye is pulled in different directions - but the worst problem is her own fear. In the end all she can do is ... run.
Touchstone eBook Lorraine Orman
I really enjoyed reading Touchstone by Lorraine Orman. I'm from New Zealand where this early-teen novel is based. I loved the description of the land, the forest, the old mining town, and the westcoasties that bring the story alive. In this non-typical, coming-of-age story (refreshing that it's not based in a high school for once!), Skye travels back to the town of her great-grandfather's childhood, where secrets that tore her mother's family apart come out into the light. As Skye learns what it means to be herself - without trying to please everyone - she embarks on a journey that takes her to some of the most amazing scenery that New Zealand has to offer. With the help of her long-lost - or rather never-knew-about - cousin, Josh, they both attempt to change the environmental threats that come against the beautiful, untouched Wero Valley.I found the story a little slow to get into, but just a little and that might be because I read a lot of paranormal YA which is a lot more fast-paced. Once the characters arrived at Craghead, the storytelling stepped up a whole new level and kept my interest till the end. I was drawn into the world of the characters, believed that the fictional town and its beautiful surrounds could have actually existed on the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand.
I enjoyed the drama, the conflict, the coming-of-age aspect of the story, and was so wrapped up, invested in the environmental issues that the main characters faced, that once story was complete, I was left feeling very concerned for the fictional Wero Valley and the possible environmental disaster that could be happening. This kiwi author did a great job at drawing me in.
Thank you Lorraine for this story, its been a pleasure.
Joy Findlay
This review was written after I purchased Touchstone on Amazon. It is my honest and unbiased opinion.
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Touchstone eBook Lorraine Orman Reviews
This was one of the most gripping Young Adult books I've read in a long time.
The opening scene from long ago was brilliant - what a hook! It showed two adults from the past building up to making mistakes that would reverberate down through the generations.
Then the story fast-forwarded to a modern teenager living with the repercussions. There was a scene where the main protagonist, a teenage girl called Skye, was holding an imagined conversation with her dead father. Having lost my own father in childhood and had many imagined conversations with him since, this scene almost moved me to tears.
The story wound its way to the South Island where we met characters battling massive forces to save a pristine ecology from being ravaged by "Big Money." I could hardly believe it since, although names had been changed, it was clearly the same environmental cause my own young adult daughter suffered and risked her life for, several years ago. She walked the length of the country for months on end to get there, on her own two feet, refusing to use fossil-fuel energy forms of transport. She talked about the cause all the way there, trekking far and wide across country to meet speaking engagements. She was shot at, rained on, abused and starved. She suffered beyond belief but refused to give up, turning herself from a child to an adult in the process. This experience of my daughter, made me feel incredibly close to the story. Yet, I have never met this author in my life.
I could recognise things my daughter had told me, so I knew how well-researched this story really was. The espionage and the betrayal of the cause - something very like it really happened in that valley. The camp, the people there, the weird "greenies" and their love of nature and determination to prevent its destruction by greed. The heartlessness of the powers who would bulldoze a pristine and unique paradise to rip out coal for dirty power.
The characters were real - recognisable teenagers, adult red-necks, warring sisters, an aged dying man. The plot was well-shaped, building to a climax and concluding neatly afterwards. The author nailed the voices of the various narrators. The dialogue was skilfully written and the whole book was professional and perfectly edited.
Highly recommended and likely to increase a reader's appreciation and sympathy for environmental causes.
Orman has drawn on (fairly) current West Coast issues such as the protest group, Save Happy Valley Coalition (SHVC), an environmental activist movement, infiltrators to the protest groups, opencast mining and environmental issues as well as her own family history to write a realistic and enjoyable YA novel set in New Zealand's South Island. From the title & cover I was expecting a fantasy but this was instead quite an adventurous book set around open cast mining and environmental protest. Skye's mother will never tell her much at all about her family but when Skye finds a discarded letter that says her great grandfather is quite ill and probably won't pull through she confronts her mum and they end up travelling to a small settlement up in the hills from Westport. Lots of family secrets and a well established protest against a mining company's proposal for a second opencast mine in the fauna rich region form the background to this engaging story.
Touchstone is for readers who enjoy adventure and drama interwoven with threads of history, ecology and environmental issues.
The two main characters, Skye and Josh, are sixteen years old when they discover familial connections. It's easy to like these two, very real teenagers as they struggle to cope with family dramas which threaten to turn their worlds upside down. At the same time, they are forced to confront eco spies and traitors.
The story has several twists and turns, with a page-turning climax and a pleasing resolution of all the plot threads. The two teenage protagonists learn much about themselves as they are thrust unwittingly into a series of events, requiring them to make choices and take action.
Lorraine is obviously very familiar with this area of New Zealand’s west coast; mountain slopes, bush and wildlife are vividly described, as well as some surprising effects of mining on the landscape.
Lorraine has two other print books pitched for the same audience 'Cross Tides' and 'Hideout'. Having enjoyed Touchstone so much, I’m now looking forward to reading these.
I really enjoyed reading Touchstone by Lorraine Orman. I'm from New Zealand where this early-teen novel is based. I loved the description of the land, the forest, the old mining town, and the westcoasties that bring the story alive. In this non-typical, coming-of-age story (refreshing that it's not based in a high school for once!), Skye travels back to the town of her great-grandfather's childhood, where secrets that tore her mother's family apart come out into the light. As Skye learns what it means to be herself - without trying to please everyone - she embarks on a journey that takes her to some of the most amazing scenery that New Zealand has to offer. With the help of her long-lost - or rather never-knew-about - cousin, Josh, they both attempt to change the environmental threats that come against the beautiful, untouched Wero Valley.
I found the story a little slow to get into, but just a little and that might be because I read a lot of paranormal YA which is a lot more fast-paced. Once the characters arrived at Craghead, the storytelling stepped up a whole new level and kept my interest till the end. I was drawn into the world of the characters, believed that the fictional town and its beautiful surrounds could have actually existed on the west coast of the South Island of New Zealand.
I enjoyed the drama, the conflict, the coming-of-age aspect of the story, and was so wrapped up, invested in the environmental issues that the main characters faced, that once story was complete, I was left feeling very concerned for the fictional Wero Valley and the possible environmental disaster that could be happening. This kiwi author did a great job at drawing me in.
Thank you Lorraine for this story, its been a pleasure.
Joy Findlay
This review was written after I purchased Touchstone on . It is my honest and unbiased opinion.
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