Book Review Love for Two Lifetimes

Title: Love for Two Lifetimes
Author: Martina Boone
Genre: Coming of Age / Young Adult

 Two generations, two great loves, one devastating lie . . . 

When Izzy unexpectedly loses her mother in a car accident, her world shatters. Their relationship has always been so close that Izzy can’t imagine life without her. Nor can she begin to understand when she finds a secret box of love letters that her mother wrote but never sent. The idea of her mother hiding such intense feelings for more than twenty years without so much as a hint makes Izzy question everything she thought she knew–including the identity of her father.

Following a trail of clues overseas, Izzy steps into a world of glamour and English royalty, one which years ago forced her mother to choose between her obligation to her musical gift and her lover’s obligations to his family, title, and estate. It’s a world of secrets and masquerades, of heartache and betrayal. And in the midst of this world, Izzy finds a young man who feels as broken as she does herself. The two are drawn to each other–only to find that their parents’ lies may present an insurmountable obstacle between them.

Thrown together on a coming of age journey of discovery that spans two lifetimes and takes them from a grand estate in the Cotswolds to a hospital bedside in India and ultimately to the Taj Mahal, Izzy and Malcolm try desperately not to fall in love. But some things are impossible…

And some loves are worth any sacrifice… 

Uplifting, funny, tragic, and unforgettably, luminously romantic, Love for Two Lifetimes is a tale of two generations of love, a lifetime of friendship, a history of sacrifice, and one last, heartbreaking and hopeful choice revealed in prose, texts, and love letters. Written for young adults and grown-up romantics, if you love the romance of the royal weddings or any story by Nicholas Sparks, Love for Two Lifetimes will have you turning pages late into the night.

“Heartwarming, lyrical, soulful, and with just the right amount of humor: this book sparkles with authentic, layered characters and beautiful, thoughtful prose.” — Jodi Meadows, NYT bestselling co-author of My Lady Jane and My Plain Jane

Review

This is my first time read a book by Martina Boone, but I'll definitely check out other books by the author now. This was simply amazing.

When Izzy suddenly loses her mother in a car accident, everything she ever knew changes, and Izzy can't imagine a life without her mom. But then Izzy discovers a secret box of love letters her mother wrote but never sent, all of them written to a mysterious man overseas. Could this man be Izzy's father? Why did she never tell Izzy about her feelings for this man?

Izzy goes to search for this mystery man, and the search teaches her a lot more about her mother and her family history than she could've ever imagined. But the search also leads her to find love of her own, in faraway lands she never even expected to end up in.

This is such an emotional rollercoaster of a story. I needed tissues, I'll be honest. It's just so heartbreaking, the emotional turmoil poor Izzy goes through. And Malcolm, the love interest, has so much weighing on him as well, it really made me feel for him.

This is an amazing love story but keep the tissues close!

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Read More

Book Excerpt Against the Grain

Book Excerpt

“Was he telling the truth?” Matt asked.

Ms. Pierce nods her head and rubs her temples. “He certainly thought he was, but he wasn’t using any tact. He was beating everyone over the head with a sledgehammer of truth. Most people aren’t ready for any real truth.”

“How did Jill and Dave react?”

“Jill was mortified, but she kept quiet. Her husband tried to get a word in, but Derrick called him a fascist and he told Jill how he was hitting on me earlier. Dave turned red, like a teapot ready to blow. He got up, and Dave can be kind of an intense guy, you know? He told Derrick that he’d better leave, before he kicked his ass. Then Derrick called Dave a rapist. He said something about it being immoral to imprison nonviolent offenders, where male rape is commonplace.

“It was crazy—I mean, Derrick saying this stuff to the chief of police. That’s when it got really ugly. I stood up and grabbed Derrick by the arm. I was worried that Dave was gonna hurt him. I think at that point Derrick knew he’d gone too far, and he was ready to leave. So we started to leave the table, and Victoria smacked him really hard across the face.”

“What did Derrick do?”

“He was stunned, but he ignored it and kept walking toward the door.”

“I don’t understand why Victoria would hate you for what Derrick did.”

“It’s not what Derrick did—it’s what I did. Derrick was a gentle person. He was troubled though. He was abused pretty badly as a kid, and he still had bouts of depression from it. It was really awful. Derrick and I were really close. I was the only one who knew what he had been through, and, when Victoria put her hands on him, I didn’t see Derrick—the man who had just insulted all these guests. I saw Derrick—the little kid who was being hit again. I lost it. I punched Victoria in the face. I used to take that Tae Bo stuff, but I had never actually punched a person before. She dropped like a sack of potatoes.”

“Wow, … Ms. Pierce,” Matt says, laughing.

“It’s really nothing to laugh at,” Ms. Pierce says. The corners of her mouth turn up just a little, then she starts to laugh. “It’s still nothing to laugh at.”

About the Book

Title: Against the Grain

Author: Phil Williams

Genre: Contemporary / Coming of Age / Political

A tyrannical high school principal.
A young anarchist with nothing left to lose.
One way or another, this place is goin’ down.

Matt Moyer is an orphaned teen growing up on a primitive farm in the Pennsylvania coal region. He’s homeschooled by his eccentric and philosophical great-uncle, who’s a stickler for logic, reason, and intellectual honesty. Despite his uncle’s reverence for veracity, inconsistencies arise regarding the old man’s shady past and the teen’s parents.

Through a harrowing sequence of events, Matt is forced to attend a public school. The feral teen finds it difficult to cope with the hypocrisy, propaganda, and misinformation that adults and children so readily accept. Faced with the possibility of expulsion, arrest, and ostracism, he must make a choice. Will he choose the easy lie or the hard truth?

Adult language and content.

Author Bio

Phil M. Williams is an author, activist, blogger, and consultant. He lives in Central Pennsylvania with his wife, Denise, where he writes and tends his permaculture farm. He is the author of Fire the Landscaper, Against the Grain, Stone Lake, and co-author of Farmer Phil’s Permaculture. His new releases can be read for free at PhilWBooks.com.

​​​

Links

Website: http://www.philwbooks.com/

Amazon

Goodreads

Facebook

Giveaway

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Read More

Book Review Just a Curtain

Title: Just a curtain

Author: J.L. Lawson

Genre: Literary Fiction, Adventure, Coming of Age

Buy: Amazon

“If you had virtually unlimited resources and a pristinely practicable imagination, and a knack for turning air into butter, what do you suppose you’d do next?”
—Tera Elphinstone, Drummond Group Director

Just A Curtain is the remarkable, fast-paced gateway to both The Elf series and the grander epic recorded in J. L. Lawson's other works: The Donkey and The Wall trilogy and The Curious Voyages of the Anna Virginia Saga.

Just A Curtain chronicles the remarkable life and achievements of Dashiel Drummond and the capable group of people he gathers around him to make a change for the better in the world in which he finds himself. A coming of age story, orphaned at sixteen, he rises through the angst of adolescence to the challenge of fulfilling the promise of his potential---from ranch hand and welder to the pre-eminent global entrepreneur and builder of starships. 

I'm happy I've given this book a chance. It was an interesting, thoughtful read about a man willing to do everything to make the world a better place, about never giving up and about intergallactic travel.

Dashiel Drummond was barely sixteen years old when his parents passed away. He had to take care of their ranch, take care of himself, and deal with his grief with the help of his childhood friends, and his parents' friends. It's always been his dream to make the world a better place, and he has more than enough potential to make it happen - if he can live up to his potential it is.

Even though his parents have passed away, he keeps on doing what they would've wanted him to do. When he gets an offer to work at the same place his parents worked, he takes the offer. He continues reading, studying, even combining two college classes at the same time. I thought that was inspiring, and also kind of heartbreaking. We don't often see Dash's sadness over losing his parents, but it's reflected in how he leads his life the way they would've wanted him to live it.

As time goes on, Dash becomes the boss of an international company. He travels the world in his private jet, accompanied by people he met while growing up, and lifelong friends who always were by his side. As owner of a company specialized, amongst other things, to build starships, he's gotten in contact with the inhabitants of another planet.

We meet several of his employees, and even some people who were original from the other planet, Rutin. There are a lot of characters, the most notable ones being Naota, Emma, Melanie, Willa, Jerry and Elliot. I could explain all of their backgrounds, and their jobs, but I'll leave that to the reader to find out.

While I enjoyed the first part about the book, the part focusing on Dash, the action really started in the second part of the book and I enjoyed it even more. There was suspense and adventure, the pacing was fast, and we got to know a lot of unique, thrilling characters.

Read More