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

“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!