This is a week full of book reviews, lucky for you! Lol : ) I think it's important to write books to help not only the authors but fellow readers as well. The good, the bad, the inspirational....what brings tears, laughter, and leaves you grinning as you put down the book. What makes a good book? Why, so many things! I bring you another book today that I thoroughly enjoyed and it brings me great, great pleasure to get to review this book for my dear friend, Kellie Coates Gilbert.
About the book: Barrie Graeber has two great kids, a loving husband, and a respected job as a high school counselor in her close-knit community. Without warning, everything unravels when her teenage daughter, Pearl, is betrayed by friends and lashes out.
Nothing prepares this mother for the helplessness that follows when her attempts to steer her daughter back on course fail and Pearl shuts her out . . . or when she discovers the unthinkable about her nemesis, the football coach.
Emotionally riveting and profoundly moving, MOTHER OF PEARL brings us into the heart of a mother bound by an incredible burden, who ultimately finds she must recognize her own vulnerability and learn to trust in something much bigger.
And in Kellie's words...
Review: How to put into words the emotions this heartfelt tale evokes, I don't know....but I'm certainly going to try. Barrie has it all going for her....married to the man of her dreams, stable job counseling high school students, supportive friends, and two wonderful children. Her oldest, Pearl, stole part of her heart when she was born that would never be returned to Barrie. The deep bond between a mother and daughter is imminent from page one of Mother of Pearl. Slowly Barrie's seemingly perfect world begins to unravel, leaving her to somehow pick up the pieces.
Barrie's character is stupid, hard-headed, and self-involved, but she is also caring, courageous, and confident in her daughter. The bond her and Pearl share is tremendously strong, nothing could ever break it. However, hope begins to slip away as well as faith and trust in Pearl. After a life changing event, that literally made me gasp, Barrie has no choice but to foster faith in her daughter. She repeatedly risks everything she has just to serve justice to Pearl.
I was nervous upon hearing more about the main points of the book because though I'm a daughter, I'm not a mother. My mom and I have a fairly good relationship, but it's nothing to the extent of this mother-daughter duo. So I worried that I would not have the emotional ties to fully connect with what Miss Kellie was trying to convey to her reader, but boy was I wrong! I admit there were parts in the beginning (the first 50 pages or so probably) where I struggled a bit. However, as soon as Barrie was forced to justify, grieve, and feel the strain of loss.....there was an instant connection. Anyone who has felt loss will understand the feelings within the book. This book had me weeping for Barrie, yet I was so proud of her by the final page. God gave Kellie Coates Gilbert a wonderful gift that the rest of us just so happen to get to enjoy as well! FANTASTIC job!! I look forward to reviewing many, many more books of yours to come!
~ This book was furnished to me by Glass Road Publications for my honest opinion. ~
Meet Kellie: Kellie Coates Gilbert is a former legal investigator and trial paralegal who writes with a sympathetic, intimate knowledge of how people react under pressure. Kellie's books tell emotionally poignant stories about women in life-changing circumstances. She writes about messy lives . . . and eternal hope. Kellie currently makes her home in Dallas, Texas with her husband and a very spoiled 2.7 lb. Yorkie named Ava.
And in Kellie's words...
I barely remember a time when I didn’t have a book in my hand. My tiny hometown of Carey, Idaho had no library, no bookstore. The bi-weekly bookmobile provided the only avenue to books . . . that, and my Gram, who spent a lot of her Social Security checks on books for her granddaughter with an insatiable appetite for stories.I grew up on a sheep ranch in southern Idaho, a business my family had been in for generations, never dreaming I’d ever see my own name on a novel. I left home to attend Boise State University and spent most of my adult years pursuing a sensible legal career, raising two boys, and learning to be happily married.
But God heard the quiet prayers of a woman who dared to dream big and ask her Lord for the outrageous. In early 2011, I signed my first book contract. Today, I am living my fantasy. I live in Dallas with my husband. I work from home, writing novels. Often by the pool.
Can life get any better?
Check out Kellie at....Her Website
Goodreads
I'm extremely excited to announce that Miss Kellie will be joining us for the 3rd Annual Christmas Blogfest!!! So if this book sounds good to you, there will probably be a giveaway *hint, hint* ; ) I just know that you all will love her just as much as I do! We have two more book reviews coming your way this week probably. Until then,
Xoxo ~ Hannah
I had not heard of this book or author before, so thanks for letting me know about it.
ReplyDeleteHi Dale!
ReplyDeleteYou're very welcome! Kellie is actually coming onto the blog for an interview a little later on in December. She'll be giving away a copy of Mother of Pearl, so please stop by again and try your hand at winning a copy!! There will be other giveaways as well. I hope you'll join us this month!
Hannah