Lone Star Book Blog Tour: Rounding Home by Sarah Swindell (Review)

ROUNDING HOME

by
SARAH SWINDELL
Genre: Memoir / Family / Autism
Date of Publication: August 2, 2019
Number of Pages: 256
Scroll down for giveaway!

In 1991, twenty-one-year-old Sarah, the recently divorced mother to two-year-old Hayley, moved from the dusty small town of Farmington, New Mexico to the bustling city of Houston, Texas with dreams of a better life. A year later, she was swept off her feet by Greg Swindell, an established Major League Baseball player who had just signed a lucrative contract with the Houston Astros and was quickly becoming the talk of the city. 
Six weeks after their first date, Greg asked Sarah to quit her job as a hairdresser and marry him during Spring Training in Florida. Over the next several years, Sarah’s Cinderella story continued with the addition of three more children, a lifestyle only a few ever dream of living, and a love story even fewer ever experience.
That is until 2002 when her picture-perfect life came to a gut-wrenching halt, and Sarah was faced with more pain than she ever thought possible. For almost a decade, the puzzle pieces would cease to align due to an avalanche of events; a devastating autism diagnosis, a painful affair, multiple marriages, multiple divorces and her children’s own personal struggles with self-harm, eating disorders, and attempted suicide. 
If you have ever felt lost, betrayed, or heartbroken, this story will inspire you to never give up on finding true joy and happiness again. It will prove there is no such thing as the “perfect family” and that difficult times can actually make you stronger than you ever dreamed possible.

PRAISE FOR ROUNDING HOME:
Rounding Home takes you on a riveting journey through the eyes of an exceptional woman who embraced struggle, love, success, and the unimaginable, autism. Get ready to laugh, cry, and flutter with romance; it’s one hell of a love story!” — Gena Lee Nolin, actress, author, advocate, “Thyroid Sexy,” wife & mother
“In Rounding Home, Sarah writes with gritty honesty, a deeply moving account of life with her autistic son. This testament to the resilience of the human spirit will touch your heart and soul.” — Gayle Nobel, life coach, autism mom, and author of three books about living with autism
“This story of the Swindell family is a poignant demonstration of how each family member responded and was changed, for better or worse, as they struggled to come to terms with how their lives had been altered. And although there was damage along the way, they ultimately triumph by rekindling the love that created their family unit in the first place.” — Dr. Bryan Jepson, author, physician, and father of two sons with autism


“If you ever see someone who you think may be in a bad place or going through difficult personal times, reach out to them often.”

Rounding Home is Sarah Swindell’s emotive memoir about her life as the wife of a baseball star (Greg Swindell), mother of three daughters, and mother of a son diagnosed with autism at the tender age of eighteen months. Sarah’s story is exhausting to read but also encouraging and uplifting.

No one is without flaws or has the perfect life, marriage, home, and career, and Sarah Swindell will no doubt be the first to agree with that statement. This memoir is a frank and extremely organic conversation between the author and the reader. The reader can empathize and maybe even sympathize with Sarah’s trials, mistakes, and heartbreaks as well as her joy and laughter when the clouds occasionally part and show her that the sun still shines. Rounding Home is a cathartic narration of a woman baring her soul and heart so that others who are struggling, either with similar issues of caring for a disabled child and weathering a broken marriage or something else entirely, can grasp the fingers of love and hope that Sarah Swindell holds out and know that they are not alone. A huge takeaway of Rounding Home (for me, at least) is the importance of finding and reaching out to those friends and family who freely support you through everything, even the wrong choices and the stubborn refusal to heed their good advice. Sarah acknowledges so many people throughout her story that have shown her and her family unconditional love, guidance, a soft shoulder to cry on, and a safe place to land when the world simply becomes too much.

Rounding Home is also a story about choices and handling crushing blows that life often deals indiscriminately. No one can avoid bad news, but how we live through those storms is what ultimately shapes us. Sarah shows us that no fairy tale life filled money, fame, and the perfect family is complete without the big bad wolf eventually crashing the party. In this case, that wolf bares its teeth when Sarah and Greg Swindell’s son, Dawson, is diagnosed with severe autism, complete with the prognosis of their son remaining nonverbal and dependent on others for the rest of his life. This news sent the entire family into a tailspin that took years for everyone to find some measure of control again, and no one escaped those years unscathed. Those dark years were full of tears, betrayal, bad decisions, and long-lasting effects. But through it all, Dawson has been lovingly cared for and the grounding force in both Sarah’s and Greg’s lives and the lives of their three daughters. Their sweet love for Dawson remains clear and unwavering throughout the story, into the epilogue, and no doubt each day after.

An interesting aspect of this extraordinary memoir is that while Sarah often owns up to her mistakes and poor choices throughout those rough years (including several marriages and divorces), she doesn’t necessarily try to sugarcoat her part in cracking the fairy tale or try to dodge the blame and dole out possible excuses for her behavior and broken promises to each subsequent husband and stepchildren. She readily admits others, including her first husband, Greg, share in the responsibility of injured relationships and misguided decisions, but she also readily shoulders her own blame in hurting the people she holds most dear. Both the apologies and the expressions of gratitude to so many come across as sincere and heartfelt.

While Rounding Home can be emotionally difficult to read, Sarah Swindell’s sense of humor does shine through occasionally, offering a bit of comic relief and honest laughter amidst the heartbreak. Many memoirs are often full of dramatic confessions and revelations, and Rounding Home is definitely that and more. Sarah is a natural storyteller and is funny, honest, and refreshingly unfiltered in her narration. Her story will touch your heart, remind you that love always finds its way home, and cause you to count your blessings, one by one.

Enter the giveaway on or before September 1, 2019, for a chance to win a signed copy of Rounding Home by Sarah Swindell AND a personalized signed Greg Swindell baseball card!


Sarah Swindell lives in the Austin area with her husband, Greg, a former Major League Baseball player and 2019 Texas Sports Hall of Fame inductee. Sarah is a commercial actress/model and has been working in the industry for over thirty years. She enjoys spending her free time with her four grown children and several grandchildren who reside in Texas as well.

Sarah is an avid moviegoer, loves yoga and true-crime podcasts, and advocates for children and adults with autism and other disabilities. Her son was diagnosed with severe autism at the age of eighteen months and continues to touch peoples’ hearts to this day.

WEBSITE  ⬧  BLOG
GOODREADS ⬧  TWITTER ⬧  INSTAGRAM
AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE—————————————–

GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!
FOUR WINNERS: SIGNED COPIES OF ROUNDING HOME
+ SIGNED GREG SWINDELL BASEBALL CARD
August 22-September 1, 2019

CHECK OUT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:

8/22/19 Promo Chapter Break Book Blog
8/22/19 BONUS Post Hall Ways Blog
8/23/19 Review The Clueless Gent
8/24/19 Review StoreyBook Reviews
8/25/19 Excerpt Texas Book Lover
8/26/19 Excerpt Story Schmoozing Book Reviews
8/27/19 Review Reading by Moonlight
8/28/19 Author Interview All the Ups and Downs
8/29/19 Scrapbook Forgotten Winds
8/30/19 Review Rainy Days with Amanda
8/31/19 Review Missus Gonzo
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