Blog Book Tour | “Her Sister’s Shoes” by Ashley Farley

Posted Friday, 17 July, 2015 by jorielov , , , , 2 Comments

Ruminations & Impressions Book Review Banner created by Jorie in Canva. Photo Credit: Unsplash Public Domain Photographer Sergey Zolkin.

Acquired Book By: I was selected to be a part of the blog tour for “Her Sister’s Shoes” hosted by iRead Book Tours. I received a complimentary copy of “Her Sister’s Shoes” direct from the author Ashley Farley in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Reflecting on a film by a similar name:

In Her Shoes was an emotionally gutting film about two sisters who were attempting to sort their way through their lives. One of them had the indecency to run her personal life into the path of the other; where nothing was sacred not even the boyfriends they were dating. A quick transition to their grandmother’s led one sister towards a new beginning and the other one towards an attempt to understand why her sister felt flight towards a retirement community was necessary to seek self-renewing identity. It was a film that touched on all your emotions at once and a sisterly bond portrayed excellently by the lead actresses in the roles.

When I first saw this blog tour being announced I had a sense of knowing that this novel might paint a story quite as humbling true as the film; even though they are separate of each other, it’s the way in which the story felt to be told that struck an accord with me. Sisters have a bond that is difficult to understand when their at odds with each other, but it’s a bond that runs deeper than blood and hearty enough to survive just about anything that seeks to divide them. Writers who can tap into that relationship and honour a story with characters who live their truth interdependent to each other have a story worth being discovered. They evoke a further clarity on the human spirit and on the journey families take to find both redemption and acceptance through forgiveness.

Blog Book Tour | “Her Sister’s Shoes” by Ashley FarleyHer Sister's Shoes
by Ashley Farley
Source: Author via iRead Book Tours

Set in the South Carolina Lowcountry and packed with Southern charm and memorable characters, Her Sister’s Shoes is the story of three sisters—Samantha, Jackie, and Faith—who struggle to balance the demands of career and family while remaining true to themselves.

Samantha Sweeney has always been the glue that holds her family together, their go-to girl for love and support. When an ATV accident leaves her teenage son in a wheelchair, she loses her carefully constructed self-control.

In the after-gloom of her dreaded fiftieth birthday and the discovery of her husband’s infidelity, Jackie realizes she must reconnect with her former self to find the happiness she needs to move forward.

Faith lacks the courage to stand up to her abusive husband. She turns to her sisters for help, placing all their lives at risk.

In the midst of their individual challenges, the Sweeney sisters must cope with their mother’s mental decline. Is Lovie in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, or is her odd behavior normal for a woman her age? No one, including Lovie, understands her obsession with a rusty key she wears around her neck.

For fans of Elin Hildebrand, Her Sister’s Shoes is a contemporary women’s novel that explores and proves the healing power of family.

Genres: Women's Fiction



Places to find the book:

Add to LibraryThing

Published by Leisure Time Books

on 24th June, 2015

Format: Paperback Edition

Pages: 380

Published by: Leisure Time Book, an imprint of AHF Publishing

(Self Published Author)

Available Formats: Paperback, Ebook

Converse via: #womensfiction | #suspense

Read an Excerpt of the Novel:

Her Sister’s Shoes by Smashwords

About Ashley Farley

Ashley Farley

Ashley Farley is a wife and mother of two college-aged children. She grew up in the salty marshes of South Carolina, but now lives in Richmond, Virginia, a city she loves for its history and traditions.

After her brother died in 1999 of an accidental overdose, she turned to writing as a way of releasing her pent-up emotions. She wrote SAVING BEN in honor of Neal, the boy she worshipped, the man she could not save. SAVING BEN is not a memoir, but a story about the special bond between siblings.

Notation on the differences in Cover Art Design:

I personally truly loved the simplicity of the cover design by damonza.com which is shown here on Page 2 of their Portfolio, second row on the right. I truly felt a connection to this ambiance of being near the water at twilight or early morn (depending on your interpretation) with cast aside canvas shoes on an older wooden dock. It just spoke to me when I saw it initially and then, as I re-read over the synopsis it felt natural and organic to be a part of the story held within it’s pages. For me, cover art is the direct link of connection to the heart of a story, and to me, this cover reflected a visage of the Low Country. It gave me a resonance of the novel’s setting rather than focusing on one woman and her pair of shoes.

My Review of Her Sister’s Shoes:

Straight from the first moment you meet them, the trio of sisters Faith, Sam, and Jackie stand on their own accords as each of them has their own personality and sense of self. Jackie is a bit caught up on herself and doesn’t flinch from reminding her sisters that she is making different choices than they are in raising her sons; whereas Faith and Sam appear to take life in stride, whilst appreciating the path they walked on their journey. Their mother is aging and with the worries that come with having an elderly parent, the sisters are transitioning into a new stage of their mother-daughters relationships. The small touch of irony is how proud Sam is of keeping the honour of the family business alive with a revamped edition of the former seafood market whereas I gathered from Jackie’s stance on the subject, she’d wished her family’s lineage was attached to a more posh industry.

Sam is short for Samantha whose son is limited to being in a wheelchair after a sudden accident that led to a spinal injury, yet his recovery is hindered due to his emotional anguish about the incident itself; thereby affecting his transition from recovery to stepping back inside his shoes to live as he had before it all happened. Sam feels deeply about her sisterly bond, but she has a hesitation when it comes to confrontations, and in owning a promise to allow others to reveal the secrets that can crush souls.

Faith has a harder road to walk as her husband is indifferent to family and working inasmuch as his lack of fatherly joy in having a daughter couldn’t be more apparent if he spoke openly about missing a son. Faith’s attempt to keep her daughter Bitsy a bit out of the loop about her father speaks to the protectiveness a mother’s love can provide a barrier for her child but truly what saddened me the most about her story is how much she dearly wanted a child only to have a husband who was less than supportive of them both.

Jackie’s birthday party is slightly anti-climatic in regards to her personal growth unless you consider the fact her husband is itching to ask for a divorce and she’s ready to chuck him to the curb! His infidelity was not the best kept secret, even though one of her sister’s had feared it might have been. Ever the efficient hostess, Jackie puts on an act of a carefree birthday girl whose internally gutted to know how how to proceed when you reach the age where you felt life would not yield too many shocking surprises.

Each of the sisters are harbouring secrets from each other that could prove to be life alternating if the truth will not let out soon enough to make a difference in each of their lives. The further I dug inside the novel, the more I realised the title was as much of a metaphor for how they lived their lives as it was for asserting that each of them could exchange a pair of their shoes and still not be any better off than the pair they were walking inside themselves. Their shoes and their souls were entwined to walk a path determined by a grit of fate and a strength of their parents etching into their veins a willingness to fight when flight demanded they take the moments they were given to evoke necessary changes.

How Ashley Farley writes realistic women’s fiction:

Farley etches into her novel realistic transitions of family who are on the linchpin of a evolving drama and transformations of their human experience at the cusp of when the reader enters their lives. She sets the background firm and light, to be reflective not only of the Low Country but grounds the reader to pick up the nuances of where the action is taking place. She roots her stories in the ambiance of their setting yet doesn’t flinch to reveal the harder truths of the human spirit and heart. She evokes an awareness for her character’s quandary of circumstances yet gives them the freedom to choose how to reveal those moments of truth to each other. She’s guiding you through her narrative and allowing the focus of the story to be character driven and humbled by what is intersecting through their lives.

The only bit that surprised me was how many times cancer had affected the lives of the sisters; either through direct family members taken terminally ill or by close friends who had known someone who had been struck down by one cancer or another. I relay being surprised because I do have the tendency to avoid narratives involving terminal illnesses as I have a sensitive heart when it comes to guttingly realistic medical dramas, however, I credit Farley for allowing me the grace to read the novel without feeling it was overly focused on the medical bits that normally leave me feeling overtaxed and spent. I appreciated her grace in giving out the pertinent details without making her reader feel dearly consumed by the facts nor the anguish of the emotional keel that can tip over any character who is facing the uncertainty of cancer; either directly or indirectly.

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I look forward to hearing your reactions if you’ve read this novel too and/or if your curiosity had become piqued to read it after reading my own ruminations!

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{SOURCES: Cover art of “Her Sister’s Shoes”, book synopsis, author photograph of Ashley Farley, author biography and the tour badge were all provided by iRead Book Tours and used with permission. Ruminations & Impressions Book Review Banner created by Jorie in Canva. Photo Credit: Unsplash Public Domain Photographer Sergey Zolkin. Comment Box Banner made by Jorie in Canva. Tweets embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Buy links on Scribd excerpt are not affiliated with Jorie Loves A Story. Book Excerpt was able to be embedded due to codes provided by Scribd.}

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About jorielov

I am self-educated through local libraries and alternative education opportunities. I am a writer by trade and I cured a ten-year writer’s block by the discovery of Nanowrimo in November 2008. The event changed my life by re-establishing my muse and solidifying my path. Five years later whilst exploring the bookish blogosphere I decided to become a book blogger. I am a champion of wordsmiths who evoke a visceral experience in narrative. I write comprehensive book showcases electing to get into the heart of my reading observations. I dance through genres seeking literary enlightenment and enchantment. Starting in Autumn 2013 I became a blog book tour hostess featuring books and authors. I joined The Classics Club in January 2014 to seek out appreciators of the timeless works of literature whose breadth of scope and voice resonate with us all.

"I write my heart out and own my writing after it has spilt out of the pen." - self quote (Jorie of Jorie Loves A Story)

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Posted Friday, 17 July, 2015 by jorielov in #JorieLovesIndies, 21st Century, Adulterous Affair, Blog Tour Host, Book | Novel Extract, Book Cover | Notation on Design, Breast Cancer, Debilitating Diagnosis & Illness, Disabilities & Medical Afflictions, Disillusionment in Marriage, Divorce & Martial Strife, Domestic Violence, Drugs & Alcohol, Equality In Literature, Family Drama, Grief & Anguish of Guilt, Indie Author, iRead Book Tours, Life Shift, Low Country South Carolina, Mental Health, Modern Day, Mother-Daughter Relationships, Mother-Son Relationships, Realistic Fiction, Scribd, Self-Published Author, Siblings, Sisterhood friendships, Small Towne USA, Suspense, Teenage Relationships & Friendships, Terminal Illness &/or Cancer, Trauma | Abuse & Recovery, Vulgarity in Literature, Women's Fiction, Women's Health




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2 responses to “Blog Book Tour | “Her Sister’s Shoes” by Ashley Farley

    • Hallo, Kimberly!

      I have seen your blog showing up on blog tours I’ve been visiting or wanting to visit lately; how nice to see you dropping by tonight! :) I appreciated your visit, and I loved the strength of Jackie, Faith, and Sam. She wrote them so very clearly and palatable that they felt like they could live off the page.

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