In My Mailbox: Week of March 2
Title: Lowcountry Boneyard Author: Susan M Boyer Received: CLP Blog Tours Synopsis: Where is Kent Heyward? The twenty-three-year-old heiress from one of Charleston’s oldest families…
Book Review: What Tears Us Apart by Deborah Cloyed
I received a copy of What Tears Us Apart by Deborah Cloyed in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:
Love lives in the most dangerous places of the heart
The real world. That’s what Leda desperately seeks when she flees her life of privilege to travel to Kenya. She finds it at a boys’orphanage in the slums of Nairobi. What she doesn’t expect is to fall for Ita, the charismatic and thoughtful man who gave up his dreams to offer children a haven in the midst of turmoil.
Their love should be enough for one another-it embodies the soul-deep connection both have always craved. But it is threatened by Ita’s troubled childhood friend, Chege, a gang leader with whom he shares a complex history. As political unrest reaches a boiling point and the slum erupts in violence, Leda is attacked…and forced to put her trust in Chege, the one person who otherwise inspires anything but.
In the aftermath of Leda’s rescue, disturbing secrets are exposed, and Leda, Ita and Chege are each left grappling with their own regret and confusion. Their worlds upturned, they must now face the reality that sometimes the most treacherous threat is not the world outside, but the demons within.
Review:
When I read the synopsis for this book, I thought whoa. Deep subjects and plenty of food for thought with this story. I was able to get into the reading and start to connect with the characters, but at times it was almost a bit too heavy for me. I will say that this book will give you a lot to talk about though, which I think is great. I brought up some discussion points with my fiancé and friends, and I always think that is important in a book. I saw one reviewer describe this novel as “ambitious” and do I agree with that term. A lot of research and heart went into the writing of What Tears Us Apart, and while not totally my style of reading, still a good book.
3.5 stars
Author Profile: Deborah Cloyed
Author: Deborah Cloyed
Website: http://www.deborahcloyed.com/
Bio: DEBORAH CLOYED lives in Los Angeles, in Humphrey Bogart’s old room with a view. As a photographer, travel writer, or curious nomad, she’s previously resided in London, Barcelona, Thailand, Honduras, Kenya, and New York City. She’s traveled to twenty other countries besides, several as a contestant with her childhood best friend on CBS’ The Amazing Race. She runs a photography school for kids and is happily at work on her next book – a nonlinear love story set against the political violence in Kenya 2007-2008.
Titles: The Summer We Came To Life
See my review of The Summer We Came To Life
Happy 2nd Birthday Chick Lit Plus!
I am a bad, bad girl. I forgot a very special birthday- the 2nd birthday of Chick Lit Plus! Man, I felt like such a…
The Summer We Came to Life by Deborah Cloyed
The Summer We Came to Life by Deborah Cloyed explores the friendship between four young women- Samantha, Isabel, Kendra and Mina. Childhood friends, the girls take a trip each year to someplace exotic, and this year they are in Honduras. But this trip is different, because Mina is no longer with them. She lost her battle to cancer, and now the three friends are struggling to move forward without her. Each friend is at a different place in her life, and with her own unique problem she is trying to figure out. Also in Honduras with the group are Isabel and Kendra’s mothers, and Mina’s and Kendra’s father. The adults are also trying to find their own answers in life, and to understand about the journey they’ve taken so far.
This wasn’t a terrible book, it was well written and Cloyed takes readers on a unique journey with her characters. I struggled a bit to get into the story after Samantha drowns and goes into a different world, one where she is with Mina again. I just got lost after that plot twist, and couldn’t find the same enthusiasm that I had in the beginning of the novel. The narratives are a bit all over the place- from Samantha’s point of view to the parents, and it was confusing to keep jumping all over the place with that. I think Cloyed really wants readers to take away the lesson to never give up on life, to always keep fighting for yourself and what you believe, which is great. The four girls make for an interesting and creative character set, but the second half of the book just fell flat for me.
[Rating: 3]
Guest Post by Deborah Cloyed
Living Life and Writing Fiction The number one question I get about the book is how much it is based on real life people and…
In My Mailbox: Week of May 22
In My Mailbox: Week of May 22, 2011
Title: Love and Freedom
Author: Sue Moorcroft
Received: From Choc Lit
Synopsis: New start, new love. That’s what Honor Sontag needs after her life falls apart, leaving her reputation in tatters and her head all over the place. So she flees her native America and heads for Brighton, England. Honor’s hoping for a much-deserved break and the chance to find the mother who abandoned her as a baby. What she gets is an entanglement with a mysterious male whose family seems to have a finger in every pot in town. Martyn Mayfair has sworn off women with strings attached, but is irresistibly drawn to Honor, the American who keeps popping up in his life. All he wants is an uncomplicated relationship built on honesty, but Honor’s past threatens to undermine everything. When secrets about her mother start to spill out …Honor has to make an agonising choice. Will she live up to her dutiful name and please others? Or will she choose freedom? From the best selling author of Starting Over, this novel has great charm and a cast of unforgettable characters.
Title: Confessions of a Call Center Girl
Author: Lisa Lim
Received: From Lisa Lim
Synopsis: Madison Lee is a fresh college grad, ready to take on the world of print media. But she has zero luck landing a job. Unemployment is at ten percent and on the rise. Desperate and left with no other options, she accepts a position as a service rep at a call center in Pocatello, Idaho. At the Lightning Speed call center in Spudsville, Maddy plunges into the wild and dysfunctional world of customer service where Sales is prided over Service and an eight hour shift is equivalent to eight hours of callers bashing her over the phone. Oh sure, the calls are bad. But Maddy manages to find humor on the phone and off the phone. And with all the salacious drama behind the calls, there is never a dull moment at the Lightning Speed call center.
Lately . . . Maddy has been pining for her smolderingly gorgeous co-worker Mika Harket. Now things are heating up on the phone–and elsewhere. Don’t hang up on this novel. Working at a call center has never been this garish . . . or this delightful.
Title: The Summer We Came to Life
Author: Deborah Cloyed
Received: From Eric @ Planned Television Arts
Synopsis: Every summer, Samantha Wheland joins her childhood friends – Isabel, Kendra and Mina – on a vacation somewhere exotic and fabulous. This year, it’s a beach house in Honduras, but for the first time, their clan is not complete. Mina lost her battle against cancer six months prior, and the friends she left behind are still struggling to find a way to move on without her. Before the trip ends, the bonds of friendship with her living friends, the older generation’s stories of love and loss, and Samantha’s glimpse into a world far removed from the one in which she belongs will convince her to trust her heart.
Title: One Bird’s Choice
Author: Iain Reid
Received: From a friend
Synopsis: Meet Iain Reid: an overeducated, underemployed twenty-something, living in the big city in a bug-filled basement apartment and struggling to make ends meet. When Iain lands a job at a radio station near his childhood home, he decides to take it. But the work is only part time, so he is forced to move back in with his lovable but eccentric parents on their hobby farm. What starts out as a temporary arrangement turns into a year-long extended stay, in which Iain finds himself fighting with the farm fowl, taking fashion advice from the elderly, fattening up on a gluttonous fare of home-cooked food, and ultimately easing (perhaps a little too comfortably) into the semi-retired, rural lifestyle. A hilarious and heartwarming comic memoir about food, family, and finally growing up, One Bird’s Choice marks the arrival of a funny, original, and fresh new voice.
