Tuesday, May 26, 2015

Bringing the Past and Present together beautifully... The Mapmaker's Children by Sarah McCoy Review


The Mapmaker's Children

By Sarah McCoy

Via Netgalley ARC Thank you to the Publishers Crown and Sarah McCoy for a copy of the book for exchange of an honest review.

 
Synopsis:

When Sarah Brown, daughter of abolitionist John Brown, realizes that her artistic talents may be able to help save the lives of slaves fleeing north, she becomes one of the Underground Railroad’s leading mapmakers, taking her cues from the slave code quilts and hiding her maps within her paintings. She boldly embraces this calling after being told the shocking news that she can’t bear children, but as the country steers toward bloody civil war, Sarah faces difficult sacrifices that could put all she loves in peril.
   Eden, a modern woman desperate to conceive a child with her husband, moves to an old house in the suburbs and discovers a porcelain head hidden in the root cellar—the remains of an Underground Railroad doll with an extraordinary past of secret messages, danger and deliverance.
   Ingeniously plotted to a riveting end, Sarah and Eden’s woven lives connect the past to the present, forcing each of them to define courage, family, love, and legacy in a new way.

 

My Review:

Sarah McCoy writes a story that intersects the lives of two women past and present. I love when a book is placed in the perspective of the person; it transports you to their time and place. Sarah writes with emotions than run deep in her characters, when they felt you feel that same emotion.

 

The book takes place in 1859, Virginia, when Sarah Brown helps her father, John Brown, Abolitionist in the help with the Underground Railroad in her art by drawing maps to aid slaves to freedom. When her father is convicted and hung for treason. She carries on with the secret mission of the Underground Railroad. Sarah is an amazing woman; I could not imagine living in those times. McCoy writes her with a tough outside with a heart of gold in the center.

Eden was a harder character to reach, I felt very connected with her. There are so many emotions that arise when conception is a problem in a marriage and relationship. I really wanted Eden to feel powerful to the struggle she was going through. When a young girl comes into her life in an unexpected way, Eden learns she needs to make decisions of her own. 

This book brought a part of history that many people tend brush aside, up front and center. McCoy delivers the power of what is truly inside a strong woman past and present.
 
Follow Me:
Twitter @BooksBooksnMore
 

Monday, April 20, 2015

Review: A Denim Blue Sea by Joanne DeMaio


A Denim Blue Sea


By: Joanne DeMaio

 Kindle Edition:  370 Pages

This book was gifted for exchange for an honest review.  Thank You Joanne & Mary DeMaio

My Review:

What a joy to be invited to the Wedding of the Year with the whole gang from Stoney Point in Blue Jeans and Coffee Beans. I just love that when I start a book Joanne writes I am at the beach hearing the waves break and the smells of salt air the beach smells. I just love how Joanne writes the characters in a way that you know them like you have lived next to them. Maris and Jason are finishing the last minute details for their wedding. As the cottages are rented for the wedding, the gatherings and the sea is there to “Cures what ails you.”  

This book will have you running to the beach for more, Joanne Thank you again for the book for exchange of an honest review. Grab a Mason jar and head to the beach listen to the waves break and smell the salt air. It will definitely cure what ails you. 
Rating 5 Stars *****    

Synopsis:

 During two August weeks, denim designer Maris Carrington and coastal architect Jason Barlow prepare for their much-anticipated wedding. Guests arrive early, turning keys in charming cottage doors to begin their New England summer escape. The wedding is a reason for old friends to gather again; to meet in their shabby beach hangout and get the jukebox cranking; to walk that weathered boardwalk beneath a starry sky; to breathe the sweet salt air. "Cures what ails you," one of the friends, Neil, always said long before his life was sadly claimed. But his legacy was not.

When Maris discovers Neil's long-lost journal, its passages reveal a heartbreaking secret. Can truths be found within its timeworn pages? Can this leather-bound journal unite the friends as their lives begin to fray? A bittersweet family reunion, a surprising encounter from a devastating accident, a shocking confession leaving one marriage shattered--all will test the once close-knit circle. Suddenly this safe haven on the tranquil Connecticut shoreline churns with emotional turmoil, threatening even the beach wedding just days before it is to happen.

Yet like a silver cap on a breaking wave, love and friendship wash ashore with hope, ever shimmering, in The Denim Blue Sea.
 
Follow Me:
Twitter: @BooksBooksnMore

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Cover Reveal: MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE by Taylor Jenkins Reid!



We’re dreaming of summer—feet in the sand, soaking up the sun, taking a dip in the pool—but what we’re most excited about this summer is the release of Taylor Jenkins Reid’s third novel, MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE (on sale July 7, 2015). While we (impatiently!) wait for the book, today we’re giving you a first look at the gorgeous cover! Plenty more information below…
 
ABOUT MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE:
At the age of twenty-nine, Hannah Martin still has no idea what she wants to do with her life. She has lived in six different cities and held countless meaningless jobs since graduating college, but on the heels of a disastrous breakup, she has finally returned to her hometown of Los Angeles. To celebrate her first night back, her best friend, Gabby, takes Hannah out to a bar—where she meets up with her high school boyfriend, Ethan.
 
It’s just past midnight when Gabby asks Hannah if she’s ready to go. Ethan quickly offers to give her a ride later if she wants to stay.
Hannah hesitates.
What happens if she leaves with Gabby?
What happens if she leaves with Ethan?
 
In concurrent storylines, Hannah lives out the effects of each decision. Quickly, these parallel universes develop into surprisingly different stories with far-reaching consequences for Hannah and the people around her, raising questions like: Is anything meant to be? How much in our life is determined by chance? And perhaps most compellingly: Is there such a thing as a soul mate?
Hannah believes there is. And, in both worlds, she believes she’s found him.
 
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Taylor Jenkins Reid is an author and essayist from Acton, Massachusetts. She is the author of Forever, Interrupted and After I Do. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Alex, and her dog, Rabbit. You can follow her on Twitter @TJenkinsReid.
 
MAYBE IN ANOTHER LIFE by Taylor Jenkins Reid
 
Atria Books/Washington Square Press Paperback | 352 pages | ISBN:  9781476776880 | July 7, 2015 | $16.00
 
eBook: Atria Books/Washington Square Press | 352 pages | ISBN: 9781476776897 | July 7, 2015 | $11.99
 
 
FIND TAYLOR ONLINE:
http://www.taylorjenkinsreid.com/
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram