Eden West lived the life that most people never have to experience. She struggled with the love she felt for her father and the confusion of not being enough to be well for. She only wanted acceptance and the unconditional love that we all long for from our parents, that we all take for granted. And as a child it would have been devastating to feel that your father didn’t want you or love you, and then as an adult it is the one reason why relationships aren’t successful due to the fear of not being “enough” for the person to stick around.

This book covers all the emotional walls that society has defined for us – to have to be something “important” or “healthy” in order to be accepted as a human being. It touches on the thoughts of depressives and possibly schizophrenics and gives you a little bit of an insight into the everyday struggle that they go through just to get through the day.

It was a fabulous book because it didn’t hold back anything. It showed David in his “good” state of mind and the “worst” state of minds. When he could handle things well and when he felt himself becoming his darker self. And the more you read, the more you understand his plight. He wanted to be the best that could for his wife and his child. He remembered the type of person he had once been and longed to be that person for them again. He struggled so much and tried so hard that the longer he did it, the worse he got until finally one day he did something unthinkable – he frightened his only daughter and would forever be haunted by that memory. But with that event came about an understanding for him, a chance to be who he really was and feel happy with what he could be without having to answer to anyone, without having to feel “boxed” in or judged. And for David that was the perfect life. But society would deem it an unhealthy lifestyle, to which Eden also became a victim of despite all the times she worked at the “Hope House” shelter.

Eden was a likable character, a gentle (although lost) and lovable soul. She felt things deeply and made you feel them too. If you were never a single parent child, it helped you to understand the feelings of loss, confusion and regret of losing a parent. And for Eden it defined her adulthood because who could love a person who's own father couldn’t love enough to get well for? In one of the pages you read there’s a simple sentence that just hit me – “My father. The man I loved first and who first loved me.” It’s the perfect summation of all her life, for any daughter’s life. And if your own father couldn’t love you enough to be with you, then why would anyone else? I imagine that thought would run through any woman’s head at some point, but maybe not take over their lives as completely as Eden’s. But she was the type of person who just wanted to understand, needed to understand why she wasn’t enough. And by the end of the book, she does understand, with a little bit of help from that wonderful boyfriend of hers, who is undoubtedly a “knight in shining armour” and one who will forever be in my good books!!!

So if you’re looking for a book that’s a bit emotional, a bit romantic, a bit informative and just a wonderfully creative read that please read Amy Hatvany’s book “Outside the Lines” because you won’t regret it…nor will you want to put it down, which I never would have had I not had two young children to care for as well. It was a fantastic book and I will surely read it again!!!