I saw this book on the towne libary shelf and the cover art drew me in. Also, the description of the story is what made me take out this novel. The author is new to me.
STORY SUMMARY
Cerise and Anna are two different women. Both are young. Both are pregnant. They both make very different choices with their lives.
Teenage Cerise struggles to support herself and her baby daughter, Melody.
Anna finishes college, marries, and later gives birth to two daughters, Lucy and Ellen.
When Cerise gets pregnant again, Melody is a young teen. With this second baby, Travis, a chubby little boy, and shortly after this birth, tragedy strikes Cerise. It's a horrible accident and it tears her life apart. She already had just a tenuous hold on society and now even that is gone. She is homeless.
As the story moves forward, Cerise and Anna seem destined to approach each other. Their stories become interwoven in a dramatic way. When they finally do intersect, both of the women become emotionally stronger, and are inspired by what they see in one another. They are also changed by what they learn.
MY THOUGHTS
This is one beautiful story. The character development is rich and well thought out. I loved both women. I loved their children. There are several heart-wrenching scenes in this story and they are all exquisitely played out.
It's a very compelling tale of motherhood. It's just so well written that it's probably going to be my favorite book of the summer and I've read a lot of books this summer.
There were just a couple of things I didn't care for in the story: one was the use of some New Age methods by a minor character and some of the ways she spoke about a female god. The quote was "Justice is the business of the Goddess......you need to find a new way to align yourself with the intention of the universe." Now, I didn't see where the author claims to be a Christ follower but as a Christ follower and a believer in the One True God, I found this a bit disturbing. However, I wasn't shocked by it. Nothing shocks me anymore and it's just a blip in the script I can overlook. The world is secular and this is written as a secular story. The character goes on to talk about tarot cards, channeling but it's only a passing mention. Again, it's in keeping with this minor character and I could easily gloss over that, especially because the minor character only appears briefly towards the middle of the book.
The main themes in this story are: motherhood, mother-child relationship; single parenting/teenage pregnancy; abortion; pregnancy; homelessness; perseverance; tragedy; kidnapping; love; personal growth; art.
There are a couple of things that could be triggers for people who have had an abortion or have been involved in a house fire, a kidnapping, or the death of a child.
In my opinion, this book is appropriate for ages 17 and older (due to some mature content).
On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being the highest, I rate this a 10.
3 comments:
This sounds like a good book. I will have to see if our library has it! Thanks for the review.
I've never seen this one. Will keep a lookout for it.
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