Weekly Reviews and Recommendations: Week 24 Part 1
Hello, everyone! It's been a crazy couple of days, but I'm so glad I was able to keep bringing you posts through all of it. Writing (and reading) has been a great distraction. Yesterday, I posted my review of Sunshine Is Forever by Kyle T. Cowan which also had a book birthday yesterday! Look down below to find a link to this article in case you missed it along with a few other exciting announcements. And don't forget to follow us on Twitter and Instagram to get a first look at the articles coming to you for the week!
This week, since the blog grows so much every week, I'm sharing a review I posted a little while back for Dream Things True by Marie Marquardt. As much as I love brining you all fresh content, and I won't be reposting again for a long time, I thought that now would be a good time to share this so if you missed it the first time around you can enjoy it now, and if you did see it, perhaps you've read it since the last post and can now compare your thoughts to mine. It really is a phenomenal book.
Also, my posting schedule has been a little crazy, and this weeks posts came out a bit lopsided with a lot at the start of the week, but I've ironed out many of the kinks for the future, so thanks for sticking with me as I learn and grow too!
Dream Things True by Marie Marquardt
Overview: This is a story that transcends anything a summary or details about plots or themes could say. There is no way to truly understand the magic of this book without having read it yourself. It achieves the full meaning of what a powerful book is supposed to do by crafting a beautiful story that breeds empathy in anyone who reads it. It is the story of Alma, an intelligent, promising young woman who was brought to the United States as a young child from Mexico, and Evan a wealthy country club, preppy southern boy who are thrown together by random circumstances one day. Held together by a love for each other, Evan and Alma work together to fight the horrible immigration issues that comes to threaten Alma's family and friends. As Evan's eyes are opened to the harsh realities that Alma faces, so are the readers. This is a powerful story that humanizes an issue so prevalent in the news today. Overall: 5 (Is there a higher score?)
Characters: 5 Each character has a purpose and is unique. Alma represents the underprivileged immigrant community on one side of town while Evan represents the other, blissfully wrapped up in their country club life only brought together at the local public school. When their worlds mesh, they both grow to understand each other and the very different backgrounds they come from. In Alma's family, there is her father who brought them to America for a better life and runs a lawn service that works on Evan's lawn and her brother, star soccer player and Evan's teammate who was working toward college before getting caught up in the immigration issues. On Evan's side there's Whit his cousin and son of Georgia's conservative senator who struggles with addiction to cope with his family's strict, closed door policy.
Plot: 5 The path this story takes is quite compelling and entertaining. There were interesting twists that I didn't see coming, and the plot kept its integrity the entire time.
Writing: 5 I was blown away by the writing. The execution of using a duel POV in third person was amazing, a tool that is rarely successful. I was also blown away by how unique each POV was, and how accurate the portrayal of the two separate worlds were. This is definitely a book everyone needs to read as it carries such substance and importance to breeding empathy about an issue that is often desensitized.
This book is spotlighted in my article "The Ultimate Summer Reading List (For Summer or Whenever)" If you want to see others that made that list you can check it out here: http://www.readingwritingandme.com/2017/07/the-ultimate-reading-list-for-summer-or.html
Here is the link for yesterday's first Spotlight New Release post, Sunshine Is Forever. If you missed it yesterday, you can check it out now. I'm so happy to say that this is only the first of many! There are currently four planned right now over the next few weeks with many more in the works! If you would like your upcoming book featured here, please don't hesitate to email me at readingwritingandme@gmail.com. http://www.readingwritingandme.com/2017/08/spotlight-new-releases-sunshine-is.html
This week, since the blog grows so much every week, I'm sharing a review I posted a little while back for Dream Things True by Marie Marquardt. As much as I love brining you all fresh content, and I won't be reposting again for a long time, I thought that now would be a good time to share this so if you missed it the first time around you can enjoy it now, and if you did see it, perhaps you've read it since the last post and can now compare your thoughts to mine. It really is a phenomenal book.
Also, my posting schedule has been a little crazy, and this weeks posts came out a bit lopsided with a lot at the start of the week, but I've ironed out many of the kinks for the future, so thanks for sticking with me as I learn and grow too!
Dream Things True by Marie Marquardt
Overview: This is a story that transcends anything a summary or details about plots or themes could say. There is no way to truly understand the magic of this book without having read it yourself. It achieves the full meaning of what a powerful book is supposed to do by crafting a beautiful story that breeds empathy in anyone who reads it. It is the story of Alma, an intelligent, promising young woman who was brought to the United States as a young child from Mexico, and Evan a wealthy country club, preppy southern boy who are thrown together by random circumstances one day. Held together by a love for each other, Evan and Alma work together to fight the horrible immigration issues that comes to threaten Alma's family and friends. As Evan's eyes are opened to the harsh realities that Alma faces, so are the readers. This is a powerful story that humanizes an issue so prevalent in the news today. Overall: 5 (Is there a higher score?)
Characters: 5 Each character has a purpose and is unique. Alma represents the underprivileged immigrant community on one side of town while Evan represents the other, blissfully wrapped up in their country club life only brought together at the local public school. When their worlds mesh, they both grow to understand each other and the very different backgrounds they come from. In Alma's family, there is her father who brought them to America for a better life and runs a lawn service that works on Evan's lawn and her brother, star soccer player and Evan's teammate who was working toward college before getting caught up in the immigration issues. On Evan's side there's Whit his cousin and son of Georgia's conservative senator who struggles with addiction to cope with his family's strict, closed door policy.
Plot: 5 The path this story takes is quite compelling and entertaining. There were interesting twists that I didn't see coming, and the plot kept its integrity the entire time.
Writing: 5 I was blown away by the writing. The execution of using a duel POV in third person was amazing, a tool that is rarely successful. I was also blown away by how unique each POV was, and how accurate the portrayal of the two separate worlds were. This is definitely a book everyone needs to read as it carries such substance and importance to breeding empathy about an issue that is often desensitized.
This book is spotlighted in my article "The Ultimate Summer Reading List (For Summer or Whenever)" If you want to see others that made that list you can check it out here: http://www.readingwritingandme.com/2017/07/the-ultimate-reading-list-for-summer-or.html
Here is the link for yesterday's first Spotlight New Release post, Sunshine Is Forever. If you missed it yesterday, you can check it out now. I'm so happy to say that this is only the first of many! There are currently four planned right now over the next few weeks with many more in the works! If you would like your upcoming book featured here, please don't hesitate to email me at readingwritingandme@gmail.com. http://www.readingwritingandme.com/2017/08/spotlight-new-releases-sunshine-is.html
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