Amanda Blick has what most would consider a rich, fulfilled life. She is an heiress married to a handsome restaurant owner and has a mischievous son. She lives the American Dream in a way that many cannot fathom and in a community that embraces her. While she gave up her career dreams, she was content with the life she had with her husband and her son, Max right up until the day she found her husband in a compromising position with a woman at his job. At the same time, she gets devastating news about her beloved mother, who is her remaining parent. How Amanda chooses to handle the situation is what this novel is about and our glimpse into Amanda’s healing process is intriguing. As Amanda struggles to move forward, we see that she is not as strong as she thinks and that her vulnerabilities lead her into making some decisions, even at the end of the novel, that seem rather dubious. Overall, the plot is excellent and the character is real. Amanda feels like a friend of ours that makes us cringe, makes us cheer, and makes us sigh because we wonder if she will really get it together. Ultimately, the book left me wondering if she would. This isn’t your typical beach read, but it was easy to read and a good book that was well worth my time and entertaining.

Sixteen years is such a short time. Right now, it doesn’t seem like it because it’s all you’ve known, but I was exactly that age when you were born and I could probably, if I choose to, remember a time that there wasn’t a you in my world, but I don’t. Since there was a you, the way I think about life has changed and all of that in the context of having a you somewhere in it. Because of the you in my life, I am more inclined to view the world in a way that offers more potential than ever and more calamity than ever and in such, I have expanded the horizons of my ever.

Lately, sister, you and I have been talking and it occurs to me that we are going to have differences. It has always been me for you and you for me and our age difference has never bothered either of us because we love each other like cupcakes love icing and sprinkles. Tonight, you mentioned something to me and asked me to promise, prior to telling me, not to get mad at you and to not love you less.

Here’s a secret: I’ve been mad at you many times and they’ve only made me love you more.

Sisters are unlike any other love that I have experienced. I don’t know if this is true for others, Sister, but I know this is true for me. It’s not like the love I have for my son, though it is not less in love. It’s not like any love I have experienced with men in life, though it is not less in love. It’s not like the love I have for our mother. It is all encompassing, truly unconditional love that makes me want to be around you all the time but allow you to be free to grow up as an individual. It makes me want to tell you secrets, want to hear yours, and want to have you as a daily part of my life. When I pray, amongst the many things I am grateful for is the amazing, miracle of a sister who arrived in my life just in time to save me from some of the mistakes I could have made and who showed me love when I needed it the most.

Sister, never doubt that you are loved. Always, always, always loved. Never loved less because we disagree. Never loved less because I am profoundly thankful of the good things that you receive. I cannot imagine a world in which I exist that you do not, even though I’ve been there. I love you, Sister. Happy birthday.

Love,
Sister

That didn’t happen. When I picked up the book, I found myself struggling to make it through even the first 20 pages of it. Let me explain why.

Make it Stay is a book about a couple who are longtime friends with another couple. The book begins with the wife, Rachel, a curious writer, asking her Scottish husband, Neil, to tell her, yet again, how he met their friends, Mike and Tilda. As Neil weaves the story of how he met Mike and how Mike eventually come to find Tilda and have a child together, Rachel discovers some disturbing information about their friends. After that night, nothing is the same between her and Mike and Tilda as well as her and Neil. The intermix of very different personalities casts all of their relationships into dubious territory and the novel weaves the reader through the ways that they deal with the repercussions of their choices.

The plot sounds straightforward enough, but it is a dialogue heavy book and also contains many flashback sequences, which can be somewhat confusing. While I liked the descriptive details, I found it difficult to want to pick up and read this book and I was never quite satisfied after setting it back down, especially at the end of the novel. I rarely have so little to say about a book, but I just couldn’t get into this one and enjoy it.

As someone who thrives on a good conspiracy theory, I know, I know, I should know better, but I do thrive on them, I couldn’t wait to see what Nicole Baart’s take on what it might be like to be in that uncomfortable position of loving someone and then having them disappear would look like. I tend to live vicariously through my books and would never, ever want to experience this firsthand, but I have frequently wondered about the people that just drop off the face of the earth. Did they choose it? Did something happen to them? Are they still there?

With these questions in mind, I opened up the beautifully illustrated cover of Far From Here and settled down for a good read. Danica and Etsell have been married for the majority of their adult lives. Etsell is a passionate pilot and Danica is his flight-phobic support system. On the surface, their marriage is perfect, even after ten years, and though Danica cannot share Etsell’s dream of flight, they begin to discuss having a family.

Etsell takes a flight job for a friend and will be in Alaska for two weeks flying, which is his dream job. Etsell has always wanted to work there on a permanent basis but Danica is set in her feelings of staying where they have planted roots and avoiding flying at all costs. It is with this dissonance between them that Etsell leaves for his two week business trip.

Danica focuses on his return until her doorbell rings and she gets the news that Etsell has gone missing. The remainder of the book, without giving anything away, is spent determining what has happened to him, if he meant to leave her, and exactly what was happening in their relationship when he left. Ultimately, Danica looks within herself and looks at how you can live with someone for ten years and never really know or understand them or yourself.

Does Danica ever find out what happened to Etsell? Does he return? Did he mean to leave her? Far From Here is a book that kept me entertained and moving through it at a rapid pace. The writing was well done and the characters were dynamic. With every page turn I felt like I needed to know more. I wanted a neatly packaged ending, but we don’t always get them in real life. Many books neglect the secondary characters and this book was an exception. The secondary characters in the novel are those that are used to show us who Danica truly is and they were not just thrown in there to add “filler” to the book. This was a nicely done book and I’d honestly like to see a sequel to it, if for no other reason than to tidy up the ending and to find out what Danica chooses to do from here.

Here’s the thing though, what those people are doing is hard work and no one is struggling with this decision more than they are and they need their friends, family and community to help them through it because it’s only going to end one of two ways: with them back in the role of partners for life and resenting how you treated them/thankful for how you treated them or with them devastated and alone and resenting you for how you treated them/thankful for how you treated them. And trust me…they remember. Every single second of it.

A couple of years ago I posted that I was dealing with separation from my husband and that we were going to privately make some decisions on our own. In the last 2 years, many, many mistakes have been made, but we are working on things. As I reflect on the last two years, what I think about frequently was how people chose to treat us differently when they found out that we were separating. There was automatic third wheel status. We weren’t then, and are not now, invited to places where we were previously invited as a couple. People see us differently. I had a taste of how people would view me as a divorced woman and, frankly, it wasn’t kind.

I was very, very angry. Without stirring up my personal life with a mixer, I’ll just say that there are some things in the past that were way out of my control and it felt like I was being punished for that by people that were supposed to be my friends and people that were supposed to care for me. Even more interesting is how people have responded in the 7 months since my husband and I decided to truly try to fix this marriage. People that had taken sides, and probably understandably so, immediately shunned both of us because we were clearly idiots for going back to someone who was nuts. So quick they were to forget that we have an 11-year-old son and a life we’ve built together since we were just out of our teens. We have been building a life together for 1/3 of the life I have, 1/3 of the life he has.

I can’t make those around me understand my situation, nor am I going to pull my hair out because I can’t get to where they are with it. Every now and then I remember that I started this blog just to vent and I am far too tired to make it pretty or more thoughtful. Maybe those that come here looking for “supporting friends reconciliation” won’t need something flowery though.

All they need to understand is that if you love and care for someone, you can do it conditionally or unconditionally. It won’t be easy if you choose the latter, but it’s the only way it’s going to last. People have reasons as to why they do things that we don’t understand or agree with but we can choose to disagree and not let it affect our relationship or we can say that isn’t possible and part ways. There is nothing in any of this that says we have to make someone who is sad or suffering feel worse about with what they are struggling because we are uncomfortable with their decisions.

And I suppose that’s where I am. Picking my flowers, leaving the poison ivy (of which I’m highly allergic) and realizing that life works out exactly the way it should. And people do, too.

Tonight, as AJ is in his 11th year, we went to dinner. All day he has complained that his stomach hurts and it’s cramping and it “must be a growth spurt, Mama, ’cause I just can’t get full. I eat and eat and eat.” AJ thinks his mama doesn’t understand, but as a mom who went through many of those, her last at 21 years of age, I remember them well. For dinner, I asked him to eat a lot of protein to help fill him up and some fruit. He wrinkled his nose and asked about the free ice cream that McDougals offers. It’s a small 2 oz cup, the size of most sauce containers in sit-down restaurants. Lately, he has not been getting these small treats as I am watching my carbs and I’m not keeping things like that in the house. I grudgingly nodded and said if he ate all of his good food, he could have the small, 2oz cup of ice cream.

As we ate, we watched grown adults overload their cups to 4 times the amount of ice cream allowed, many of them laughing at their cleverness as they walked away. We continued to eat slowly and AJ cut his chicken and grumbled, but he ate it because there was ice cream at the end of this gray rainbow. However, when he was done, he happily jumped up to go to the ice cream machine, pulled out his cup and…nothing. There was no ice cream left. The sign blinked, “Freezing. Freezing. Freezing.”

He turned to me with an unhappy, accusatory glare. Leon and I had already eaten our ice cream because we hadn’t spent our time grumbling about eating healthy food. “Mom, it’s out!” He turned again and managed to get ice cream the size of a quarter out of the machine, but that was it. A group of college students who had just gotten full cups and hadn’t yet received their food, and who would likely be there after the ice cream had frozen, watched him carefully and I noticed a couple averted their eyes. I wondered to myself if all of those adults who had gleefully taken much more than their share would feel as gleeful if they saw AJ’s crestfallen face.

In the past, at times like these, I would have taken him out for ice cream elsewhere, but I can’t shelter him from this stuff. This is a minor disappointment, not a major one. I chose not to fix it. I said, “Bummer. Life isn’t fair.” Leon nodded and asked if we were ready to go. “I ate it in one bite!” AJ said unhappily. “Mom, all those people were filling their cups more than they were allowed and I didn’t get enough.”

AJ, that is just how life works sometime. Life isn’t fair. Sometimes, you eat the ice cream you get and move on. Maybe grumble a little less next time so you can get more. Or be ok with no ice cream this time and some ice cream next time. Life isn’t fair. However, there are plenty of folks that would kill for the life you have on most days. Their life isn’t fair, either. It’s going to be ok.

Next time we go, we still will not do our ice cream first. Belief systems are about hanging firm even when things don’t turn out the way you’d like. It’s a hard lesson. Life isn’t fair.

Let me save you time. That doesn’t happen here.

Some events in life are quiet, painful, thoughtful, and, by turns, beautiful. Parker is a 29-year-old who is a part of the boomerang generation. She works in a job she doesn’t despise, and yet she finds herself lacking partnership in her friendships and her romantic relationships. Her ties are weak, at best, with everyone in her life including her parents. The exception to this is the amazing bond she shares with the grandmother who raised her. When Dotty, her grandmother begins to exhibit signs of memory loss as well as the inability to care for herself, Parker’s carefully constructed life does begin to crumble and the question is begged: to whom does an adult child turn when there are no parents who are emotionally able to catch her fall and there is no support system other than the person who is ailing?

In Parker’s case, instead of leaning on the weak supports she has, she turns inward in a way that I have rarely seen in a novel. We tend to despair from the notion of an extrovert who has the ability to reach others or at least who has others that care about reaching her ignoring that help. In this case, Parker is left to go on her own until events with Dotty reach a bitter climax. Letters in Cardboard Boxes explores intergenerational friendships and how the most unlikely places provide us support in times of need. We never truly reach Parker and, frankly, that’s just how she’d prefer it. In the process, though, we get a story that winds us through some realistic life events that someone will need to hear and process.

If you are looking for a serious read that allows you to just feel the differences in relationships between women, this is the novel for you.

Note: I received this novel for free in exchange for my open and honest review of it.

An interview with the author:

I have just a few questions for you.

1. So many books with a female protagonist tend to lean towards a relationship focus due to the surge of “chick lit.” What made you decide to focus on the inter-generational relationships between Parker and her grandmother and Parker and Tanya?

Abby Slovin: I think the importance of these relationships is often undervalued in our society, particularly because we seem so averse to aging and its effects. But, I wanted to stress the value of these kinds of relationships to foster a better understanding of the world and ourselves. Also, it tends to put our own lives and problems into perspective when we have access to a much longer timeline.

I also created these relationships to toy with the concept of age. I’ve characterized these particular characters to not act “their age”; Dotty is whimsical and eager; Tanya is wise and mature; Parker is somewhere in the middle. I like to toy with the reader’s expectations of what a “grandmother” should act like, a “teenager”, a “twenty-something,” etc.

2. Do you have personal reasons for choosing the disease of Alzheimers and was it difficult for you to write about a subject that affects so many as the Baby Boomer generation begins to hit this stage?

Abby Slovin: Mainly, it felt like a story that needed to be told. My reasons were not necessarily personal, but I felt strongly about developing a story around loss. My decision to further develop this loss into Alzheimer’s had a lot to do with the nature of the disease. I wanted Parker to struggle with identity and her sense of security as she loses her grandmother and, to me, the idea that her grandmother also loses her memory and a sense of self provides a metaphor for what we all go through as the generations before us are lost. We lose that sense of a longer timeline, we lose a lot of our own history when this happens.

3. Frequently in the novel, Parker treats Jimmy the way men are frequently portrayed as treating women in novels: as someone to be used when needed and then discarded. What motivated you to give Parker the power and what were Parker’s reasons for detaching from Jimmy?

Abby Slovin: I think in a way, they both use each other. Jimmy’s behavior is consistent throughout the story, though. His relationship with Parker is always about convenience. For Parker, I think we see a very different person in the beginning of the novel. Someone who is conflicted by Jimmy’s treatment of her, his sort of indifference to their relationship. She definitely grapples with it more in her own head, and with her friend Jill, in the beginning. But, as her grandmother’s deterioration worsens, she reaches for anyone to fill that void, and ignores the red flags she saw before simply to have that feeling of loneliness subside. Its only once she finds the love letters from 1941 that she realizes she needs something more from a relationship. These letters, and her relationship with Jerry, remind her that she deserves something more.

4. Parker has a reluctant relationship with her parents that is never fully developed in the novel. Was there background to the story that we did not see or that went unexplained?

Abby Slovin: I think there are a lot of unspoken moments in this relationship between Parker and her parents, simply because their absence produced a lot of empty space and silence. Towards the end of the novel, Parker’s mother provided a little insight on their behavior, saying that she thought if they devoted their lives to something they truly loved, they would somehow make a difference in the world. I think this is a motivation people can relate to, and despite it not totally explaining the behavior, provides some good insight on her parents. I’m sure that their behavior seemed inexplicable to a lot of readers and am always very interested to hear how people respond to them. But this is how some people really live their lives.

5. Parker struggles with embracing her adult self and dealing with the decisions she must make that overwhelm her. This is noted as she frequently escapes into her home and into herself when things get tough. Did you draw on any cultural references to give Parker this coping mechanism or was this part of her character as an integral part of the character’s nature? Why?

Abby Slovin: That’s a very interesting question. I think the decision to retreat — both into herself and her home — has a lot to do with the way Parker has coped with problems before. And without her grandmother — her anchor and confidante, I think this reaction becomes even more pronounced. I would be very interested to hear your thoughts on whether there is a stronger cultural reference here. I think there could very well be.

Jillian: Well, Parker is on the cusp of Generation ME and part of that generation is the strong desire to be a boomerang kid and go back to the safety and cocoon of your parents home until the world feels safe enough that you can take it on your own when you are an adult. This age of safety keeps falling further and further back. Parker’s been on her own for a while, but never really comfortable, and she’s never had what most people would call a normal social relationship with her peer groups. Her grandmother is her one true friend and I suppose the cultural context I was looking at was “to whom do you boomerang when things get tough when your parents are emotionally and physically unavailable and you are required to step up and be an adult.” Parker initially falls apart at this concept, as most people of her generation would. She retreats into herself, breaks off contact with her one friend, turns her paramour away, stops seeing Tanya and avoids the world as much as she can. All signs of this point to depression or other mood issues, but the one luxury Parker has never had was allowing her parents to make everything all right. Her grandmother always did that. For me, I always look to a social context and I thought that perhaps you were making a point about how, generationally, there are some anomalies that are not always easily solvable.

Abby Slovin:That’s an excellent point! I think the boomerang concept is exceptionally appropriate in this context, particularly because it seems so likely that Parker’s response would be complete immobilization (and retreat) when the person “to which we boomerang” is no longer there.

Very interesting analysis, Jillian…

Jillian: I didn’t mean to super analyze your stuff, it’s something I do innately. Sorry about that.

Abby Slovin: No need to apologize at all! What you’ve brought up is fascinating.

Just curious… I would very much respect your opinion. In many ways, the story is meant to be felt in a literary sense, but I’m always interested in hearing how it compares to certain “realities”, so to speak… **NOTE: some of what Ms. Slovin asked about was removed as it was personal discussion between the author and blogger.

Jillian: I think Parker hits the first stages of it and she is in the middle of Acceptance when we leave her. The denial stage is very, very strong in her and I think that Kubler-Ross would approve as most people stay in that stage for a long, long time. Parker absolutely refused to see the truth in the diagnosis and even thought she might be able to bring her grandmother back with triggering her. Her failure was heartbreaking and painful for me to read because it’s common. I don’t think she finishes her process with us, which is perfect because it’s not a fast process. Had you tied it up in the neat bow that I normally love I probably would have felt dissatisfied with that.

I appreciate your willingness to embrace the strengths and weaknesses in your characters and in your craft to make it more dynamic. So many forget to do so.

[End of interview]

Thank you so much to Abby Slovin, Author of Letters in Cardboard Boxes for allowing me to interview her about her novel. I’ll bet you are interested in knowing more about it now, right? How about your own copy?

1 lucky blog reader will receive an audiobook version of Letters in Cardboard Boxes, courtesy of Abby Slovin.

It can be yours if you win.

Here’s how to enter:

1) Leave a comment before March 01, 2012 at 5pm CST telling me you want in!

2) You can tweet this giveaway and/or link it on facebook and/or link to it on your own blog for extra chances to win! You can do this as often as you like, but it only counts once. (1 entry each, but you must link them here SEPARATELY or they will not COUNT separately as I will be using a number randomizer to choose the winner–please do not spam your friends to win the contest as most sites frown on that)

3) You can put a blueshelled.com blog button (seen in the sidebar-along with code to add it to your blog or website) on your blog or website, or if you already have one, you qualify, for 3 extra entries. I will verify this before your entries will count. Let me know it’s there and where I can find it. It’s pretty!

Things to know:
**Comments posted after the deadline won’t be included in the drawing.
**You must have a valid way of contacting you in your entry (which means you must leave your email address on the entry so I can send you a notice saying “YOU WON!”)
**If your email address bounces back to me, I will leave a post on my blog for 5 days and you will have the option to contact me for your prize. If you do not, I will re-draw for the prize. I am not responsible for anything that happens once this stuff leaves my hands. If it gets lost, doesn’t work, etc., I’ll feel really bad, but I can’t replace it.
**I will be using a randomizer to choose the winner of the giveaway. As long as your entries fit the criteria, you are eligible.

AJ has always had a tender heart. We have also always included AJ in the Valentine’s celebration. He’s not a fan of giving valentines to everyone, but when it comes to celebrating those he loves? It’s on. This year, we were looking forward to truly spending time together. He’d asked for flowers because, “I’ve never gotten flowers from anyone, Mama.” So, instead of flowers, he got a bamboo plant that he could grow on his own. He looks at it and whispers to it the way I do my daisy plant. I know. It’s odd. But I’m telling you, it’s the only plant I’ve kept alive and that little bit of daily encouragement helps it grow.

He also got a new baseball helmet with his name airbrushed on it. I had no idea this was such a big deal, but my little cousin Lola did it, too! I expected a gift from my husband, but I didn’t expect anything but a hug from my sweet little guy. Or maybe a card. Some years he’s done a card. At 6:07am, on Valentine’s Day (probably lucky he waited that long), I felt a little hand shaking my shoulder and flowers were thrust in my face along with a huge box of chocolates. “Happy Valentine’s Day, Mama! I love you!”

I still haven’t stopped smiling. I took pictures of my flowers. We devoured chocolates together as a family. I told everyone I knew that my son thought of me. I found out, later, that he’d spent the money he’d gotten as a gift from his NeeNee to buy my presents. They were ever so much sweeter.

If you want to know how to get to someone’s heart, show pure love and no motivation for anything in return. AJ waits all year long to buy me flowers. Leon said that almost every time they go to the store that AJ asks to get me some. I’m a lucky mom.

I get Valentine’s Day every single minute of every single day that I get to spend with my son.

Cinder doesn’t disappoint on any level. The narrator has a solid, pleasant voice and does a stellar job of distinguishing different characters and accents. With an intriguing plot (Cinderella meets Black plague meets desperate future world), I was captivated from start to finish. I frequently found myself sitting in my car after arriving home for “just 3 more minutes.” When the ten hours of audio finished, I was blown away by the ending. Cinder is the first book of a set and it left me craving more. Throughout the book I kept asking myself the following questions: Would Cinder find happiness? Would Kai figure out what happened in time? What was the cure for the disease? Is the doctor good or bad? Will Cinder save her sister? There are plenty of questions in this book to keep you jumping from start to finish, but the book is so well written that I stayed on the edge of my steering wheel for the entire ride.

Marissa Meyer noted on her twitter feed that the next book is not due out until next January and, frankly, I don’t know if I can wait that long. Cinder has brought me into this future world and the audiobook held me in it like a child being read a fairytale at night before bed. I found myself thinking about the book during the day and it allowed that escape that few novels do anymore. Cinder is an excellent young adult novel with no foul language, that I heard, and no real adult themes unless you count a cyborg almost short circuiting when in close contact with a handsome prince or an android giggling about picture a human prince in the nude as a real adult theme. I found them charming and like the things that young teenagers giggle about at slumber parties.

Cinder is a beautiful, sweet-natured, refreshing change of pace and I appreciate MacMillon Audio for allowing me a free copy to review. If you don’t believe me, have a listen for yourself to a short clip from Cinder by Marissa Meyer.

1 lucky blog reader will receive an audiobook version of Cinder by Marissa Meyer thanks to MacMillion Audio.

It can be yours if you win.

Here’s how to enter:

1) Leave a comment before March 23, 2012 at 5pm CST telling me what your favorite childrens book was when you were a child. (1 entry)

2) You can tweet this giveaway and/or link it on facebook and/or link to it on your own blog for extra chances to win! You can do this as often as you like, but it only counts once. (1 entry each, but you must link them here SEPARATELY or they will not COUNT separately as I will be using a number randomizer to choose the winner–please do not spam your friends to win the contest as most sites frown on that)

3) You can put a blueshelled.com blog button (seen in the sidebar-along with code to add it to your blog or website) on your blog or website, or if you already have one, you qualify, for 3 extra entries. I will verify this before your entries will count. Let me know it’s there and where I can find it. It’s pretty!

Things to know:
**Comments posted after the deadline won’t be included in the drawing.
**You must have a valid way of contacting you in your entry (which means you must leave your email address on the entry so I can send you a notice saying “YOU WON!”)
**If your email address bounces back to me, I will leave a post on my blog for 5 days and you will have the option to contact me for your prize. If you do not, I will re-draw for the prize. I am not responsible for anything that happens once this stuff leaves my hands. If it gets lost, doesn’t work, etc., I’ll feel really bad, but I can’t replace it.
**I will be using a randomizer to choose the winner of the giveaway. As long as your entries fit the criteria, you are eligible.

She came and is wonderful and beautiful, sugar and spice and everything nice and just a little bit of spicy tortilla, because she wouldn’t be part of the group if she weren’t a little feisty, right? It’s easy to adore her and, for the most part, April’s pregnancy and labor went beautifully. Mom and baby are fine, Daddy is beaming and everything is happy. They are adjusting well to their new situation and those of us who waited for them to become a family can feel the love and watch them glow as they grow in their new life together.

However, sometimes challenges arise that threaten the happiness. They often do and they often will when you have a child. Some of them are under your control and some are not. Something has come up that April and Chris prepared for, but due to negligence, has fallen out of their hands. I want to draw your attention to Chris’s post where he explains this fully, but Baptist Hospital in Nashville, where they gave birth, is trying to steal from them. Yes, those are harsh words. This is a harsh situation. See, a deal is a deal and April and Chris made a deal with the hospital to pay them money for the labor and delivery up front. The hospital kept their money for 2 months prior to the birth of their child and then the hospital was supposed to offer them a discount on that labor and delivery. It is to ensure the hospital is paid in a timely manner and that if something were to happen to April and the baby prior to that date that they would still get some of their fees.

Again, this was a deal that they make with perspective parents as an incentive to give birth in their hospital and birthing babies is a lucrative practice. In a city like Nashville where there are 2 or 3 hospitals in a ten mile radius, where you give birth is important. You go to the place that you trust to take care of not only your child, but also mama and daddy. My understanding is that the care Chris, April and sweetpea received was wonderful while they were in the hospital. It is the shoddy way they are being treated now that is unfair and wrong.

The gist of the story is that April had false labor and instead of applying the money she had already paid to her labor and delivery and giving her the discount on that, which was the DEAL, which is what she had ALREADY PAID FOR, they put the money paid onto her bill for that evening. Now, the way I see it, the bill for the labor and delivery should already have been generated and marked PAID with that money and anything extra should have been billed later. If something happened and April did not give birth, then they would need to refund the money. It’s that simple. What is happening now is that Baptist is seeing a way to milk two young parents out of much needed funds and this is not just wrong, it’s bad business.

What I am asking from all of you is for your support for these two as well as what can they do in this situation? Can they report them to the better business bureau? Who should they talk to regarding this? Do they need a lawyer? What are their options? Any support you can offer would be greatly appreciated. If you have time to go read Chris’s blog and offer him support there, I know he and April would appreciate it so much.

What Baptist Hospital in Nashville is doing is not ok. A deal is a deal and you get what you PAY for, not what someone else decides you get. What awful customer service!

Edit: Well done, Baptist! Baptist has decided to fix this oversight and do the right thing! It’s nice to see someone step up to the plate!

What Happened to Hannah by Mary Kay McComas is the story of what can happen when we allow ourselves to let our guard down and try to move beyond our past hurts. More so, it is a story of what happens when we forgive ourselves and allow ourselves the understanding of the people around us and why they make the choices they do. What Hannah discovers about mercy, compassion and love will fill your spirit as well.

As a character, Hannah is endlessly complex and completely frustrating. The entire book is spent talking her down from a ledge of her own making. But isn’t this what we all do? We spend so much time making up drama in our heads and then dealing with the upset from that that the real life issues we have are minuscule in comparison. Hannah moves through the story keeping secrets not only from the other characters, but from us, the readers. It was frustrating to have a clear understanding of why she was doing what she was doing until the end of the book, but the tension was not altogether unpleasant.

Other characters in the novel were pleasantly involved, but I found Grady to be a little too supportive. He showed so little emotion and the end felt inauthentic. I wanted more of Grady’s story and to know what Grady was doing when he was going home at night. Or what he was thinking, feeling or doing at work. How was Hannah’s pulling away really affecting him? There is a little of this in there, but I could have used more insight into both him and Anna.

Out of all of the characters, Biscuit was probably my favorite and I can’t tell you why without giving away some key details of the novel. If you read it, just know that I appreciate his wisdom beyond his age and his ability to truly see people as they are. I enjoyed the addition of Biscuit to the novel.

What Happened to Hannah is not a difficult read, though it may be for those that have abuse in their histories. The story is an interesting one, though there were some turns that I would have expected to be explored more fully (Jim). Either way, this is one that is a take it or leave it, but if I had the choice again, I’d probably take it.

Note: I was given a free copy of this novel in order to review it. Thank you for allowing me to share my opinion.

It is in the midst of this joy that we find Ella. She has been through one bad marriage and has found her way to Joe and the children she could never have. They have settled in Elbow, in Northern California, surrounded by the forests and water. Joe has a hobby of photography and chooses to go out and take pictures of the waves one particularly windy morning. He does not return. The aftermath of his loss is where we find The Underside of Joy by Sere Prince Halverson.

On the day of Joe’s funeral, his ex-wife, long gone, has returned. Ella has already lost Joe and now she is faced with the possibility of losing everything she has left. The business he ran is failing, his children are learning to appreciate his ex-wife (and their biological mother) and Ella is slowly estranging from Joe’s family. Will she have anything left as her own when it is finished? What will she learn about herself and the nature of all encompassing love? Will she be able to forgive Joe his trespasses against all of them as he kept his secrets and his weaknesses from her to keep them in their own personal romance?

The Underside of Joy is, at heart, a love story. However, it in non-traditional in the sense that we already know that Ella and Joe found each other. What happens when they lose each other is where the real learning and bonding takes place. Did Ella ever really love Joe? Did she ever really know Joe? And can she learn to be alright with herself and who she is without him? The story is melded beautifully with some lovely twists and turns. Ella is completely fallible and she recognizes this in herself and strives to change it. So frequently authors make their heroines unaware of their weaknesses and Halverson allows Ella to grow through hers in many ways and cling to them without letting go, as well. She is a fragile heroine, at best, and a conflicted one, at worst. In other words, she is like most of us.

Plot-wise, the story was solid. I appreciated the polished setting and the author’s ability to move me in and out of the small town of Elbow and keep me feeling like I was a true part of this story without Hemingwaying me to sleep. It is a rare occasion that I feel like I am a part of the book, sitting on the edge of the page looking at the characters and silent like a ghost. I was truly there in many instances. When Ella found out about Joe, I reeled with her, though I already knew what was happening. When Paige steps in to take her children back, I fought with Ella, and yet I yearned for Paige to have what she lost. The true test of a story is whether or not it can make you believe even when you know something different. This novel passed the test.

It is a thoughtful read and I enjoyed taking my time with this one, though it is a feasible one sitting novel if you have a rainy day, a cup of tea, and some fresh cookies. I can absolutely see settling down on the couch and devouring this novel in a day and enjoying it greatly. I hope you can, too.

Note: I received this book for free in order to review it. Thank you for allowing me to share my opinions, good or bad.