Category: Divorce & Martial Strife

+Blog Book Tour+ The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar *Release Day!* #literary fiction

Posted Tuesday, 19 August, 2014 by jorielov , , 2 Comments

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The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar

Published by: HarperCollins Publishers (@HarperCollins), 19 August, 2014

Available Formats:Hardback, Ebook
Page Count:336

Official Author WebsitesSite@ThrityUmrigar  | Facebook

Converse via: #ThirtyUmrigar

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Acquried Book By:

I was selected to be a tour stop on the “The Story Hour” virtual book tour through TLC Book Tours. I received a complimentary ARC copy of the book direct from the publisher HarperCollins Publishers, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

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Book Synopsis:

The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar

From the critically acclaimed, bestselling author of The World We Found and The Space Between Uscomes a profound, heartbreakingly honest novel about friendship, love, and second chances.

An experienced psychologist, Maggie carefully maintains emotional distance from her patients. But when she agrees to treat a young Indian woman who tried to kill herself, her professional detachment disintegrates. Cut off from her family in India, and trapped in a loveless marriage to a domineering man who limits her world to their small restaurant and grocery store, Lakshmi is desperately lonely.

Moved by Lakshmi’s plight, Maggie offers to see her as an outpatient for free. In the course of their first sessions in Maggie’s home office, she quickly realizes that what Lakshmi really needs is not a shrink but a friend. Determined to empower Lakshmi as a woman who feels valued in her own right, Maggie abandons protocol, and soon doctor and patient become close. Even though they seemingly have nothing in common, both women are haunted by loss and truths that they are afraid to reveal.

However, crossing professional boundaries has its price. As Maggie and Lakshmi’s relationship deepens, long-buried secrets come to light that shake their faith in each other and force them to confront painful choices in their own lives.

With Thrity Umrigar’s remarkable sensitivity and singular gift for an absorbing narrative,The Story Hour explores the bonds of friendship and the margins of forgiveness.

Author Biography:Thrity Umrigar

Thrity Umrigar is the author of five other novels—The World We Found, The Weight of Heaven, The Space Between Us, If Today Be Sweet, and Bombay Time—and the memoir First Darling of the Morning. An award-winning journalist, she has been a contributor to the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and the Huffington Post, among other publications. She is the winner of the Nieman Fellowship to Harvard, the 2009 Cleveland Arts Prize, and the Seth Rosenberg Prize. A professor of English at Case Western Reserve University, she lives in Cleveland, Ohio.

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My Review of The Story Hour:

The voice of whom greets you as Chapter One opens is a woman whose English is not second nature, as she struggles a bit to fuse words to match her thoughts and emotions. Yet even in the manner of which she voices her innermost concerns, her voice has depth of awareness; of sensing her place as it is in the world and of where she is in her life. We are greeting Lakshmi at the very moment she is attempting to take her own life. Everything is planned and laid out within the opening page, except for getting to the root of what has caused her such a deeply felt psychological anguish as to effectively want to exit her life. The details of ‘why’ she is choosing what she is doing will surely come forward lateron, but in this heightened moment we are witnessing her actions without a way to decrease the tension of the moment. As she starts to move towards completing her task to remove herself from this world, her mind flickers back through memories of how unfair and unjust her situation has become whilst living in America.

We start to see how she has a torrent of psychological abuse stemming from her husband and how even the kind favour of a gift of gratitude will be interpreted with disfavour by others. She is struggling to make sense of her self-worth and her position in life now that she is no longer with her family back in India, where she even kept an elephant as a pet. Whilst her voice draws quieter through her ordeal, the next person to step into focus is her soon-to-be psychologist Maggie who is an African-American married to an Indian; her marriage is the leaverage her boss is hoping will open a door of dialogue with Lakshmi. I could understand Maggie’s instinctive reaction of disgust realising that the merits of her work ethic and capabilities as a psychologist were only second to being a woman of colour and living in a multicultural home. She tabled her own restless thoughts as she knew they were stemming out of anger ‘in the moment’ rather than out of experience with being around her boss. In this one scene, very early-on in the novel, Umrigar humbles her psychologist by allowing the reader to visually see her own flaws, misgivings, and humanistic reactions.

I felt myself distracted a bit by the pacing inside the novel, and the shifting points of time — as it was not always easily known if we were reading the present circumstances or withdrawing back into a flashback sequence of memories. What I did enjoy was seeing how the psychologist was starting to spiral a bit from the pressure of everything she had to endure internally as she listened to other people’s stories. It is rare when it is mentioned that psychologists have a weight placed on them that nearly expects them to be inhuman. To be more than they are, as they are not able to be shielded nor numb to what they listen to during their sessions. They still have to internalise the words, the horrific stories, and find some semblance of hope to share with their patients. This is a story that honours the psychologists who for whichever reason, have reached a point in their careers where carrying on as usual is not as easy as it once were.

Although Lakshmi’s voice is a strong undercurrent of the story, I nearly felt as though it was her personal plight in life and cross to bear that gave the freedom for Maggie to heal herself. Maggie was just as much in need as counsel and consolation as Lakshmi. Their paths crossed at a critical point in both of their lives, to where the sessions Lakshmi needed to talk out her life’s experiences and the emotional vaccum that had encased her past the point of wellness; gave Maggie a chance to re-examine her own difficult past. Both women share turbulance and domestic abuse to a certain extent, and both women never could be open and honest about who they each faced inside the mirror.

Yet the danger of allowing yourself to erase the distance needed to be a psychologist and effectively help your patient grow through healing is that the side effect could be devasting to your own affairs. The closer Lakshmi came to growing wings to fly on her own accord and stand on her own two feet, the closer Maggie came to watching her life spiral competely down the drain. The threads which connected them were a double-edge sword, as where on one hand a doctor is meant to heal and do no harm; the opposite is making yourself vulnerable to where the lines are too blurred to see who the patient is. The Story Hour is a domestic drama about two women from different walks of life whose path brings them into the forefront of each other’s awakening hour.

Fly in the Ointment: 

Although the randomness of the stronger words used in the novel are idly placed and randomly inclusive to the story, they are the little nettles of disappointment for me. I did not feel the words enhanced the storyline, nor the continuance of the character’s thoughts, if anything they felt like a simple way to express their emotions. I also felt a bit disconjointed from the dialogue and narrative passages, as one moment we are in the present and a second later we are in the middle of a flashback. I believe the effect was to be a continuing stream of conscienceness, but for some aspects of it, I felt muddled. As I wasn’t sure if I was still in the present, learning about the recent past, or ‘somewhere’ neither here nor there completely. There is a fair bit of crudeness as well, not as much as in crude humour but simply in crude ways of expressing certain things that the characters are attempting to reflect about themselves.

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This blog tour stop was courtesy of TLC Book Tours:

The Story Hour
by Thrity Umrigar
Source: Publisher via TLC Book Tours

Genres: Literary Fiction



Places to find the book:

Borrow from a Public Library

Published by HarperCollins Publishers

on 19th August, 2015

Pages: 336

click-through to follow the blogosphere tour.TLC Book Tours | Tour Host

Earlier today, I hosted an Author Interview with Thrity Umrigar.

Previously I enjoyed the story Losing Touch by Sandra Hunter.

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See what I am hosting next:

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Comments make me smile! Let’s start a conversation! I appreciate your visit & look forward to your return! I do moderate the comment threads; do not worry if the comment is delayed in being seen! Drop back soon!

Reader Interactive Question:

What are your own thoughts about the connection between the books we read, the authors who pen them, and the unique bridge of connective thoughts which unite all of us together!?

{SOURCES: Cover art of “The Story Hour”, author photograph, book synopsis and the tour badge were all provided by TLC Book Tours and used with permission. Author Interview badge provided by Parajunkee to give book bloggers definition on their blogs. Bookish Events badge created by Jorie in Canva. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination.}

Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2014.

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Posted Tuesday, 19 August, 2014 by jorielov in Adulterous Affair, ARC | Galley Copy, Blog Tour Host, BlogTalkRadio, Bookish Discussions, Bout of Books, Disillusionment in Marriage, Divorce & Martial Strife, Family Drama, Flashbacks & Recollective Memories, Fly in the Ointment, Grief & Anguish of Guilt, Hindi Words & Phrases, Library Find, Life Shift, Literary Fiction, Literature of India, Medicated Against Will, Mental Health, Mental Illness, Modern Day, Psychiatric Facilities, Psychological Abuse, Realistic Fiction, Self-Harm Practices, Social Services, TLC Book Tours, Trauma | Abuse & Recovery, Vulgarity in Literature

+Book Review+ Flight to Coorah Creek by Janet Gover #ChocLitSaturdays

Posted Saturday, 16 August, 2014 by jorielov , , , , 0 Comments

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Flight to Coorah Creek by Janet GoverFlight to Coorah Creek by Janet Gover

Author Connections:

Personal Site | @janet_gover | Facebook

Converse via: #ChocLit & #FlightToCoorahCreek

Illustrated By: Berni Stevens

 @circleoflebanon | Writer | Illustrator

Genre(s): Fiction | Romance | Adventure

the Australian Outback | Second Chances

Published by: ChocLitUK, 7 March, 2014

Available Formats: Paperback, E-Book

Page Count: 306

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Acquired Book By:

I am a ChocLit reviewer who receives books of my choice in exchange for honest reviews! I received a complimentary copy of “Flight to Coorah Creek” from ChocLit via IPM (International Publisher’s Marketing) in exchange for an honest review! I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein. 

Inspired to Read:

Mind you, the mere fact that this story is set inside an area of a far-off continent that has both intrigued me and enchanted me since I was a young child was only partially the reason for my selection of receiving this particular book for review! I will go into my appreciation for the Outback in a moment, but part of what I wanted to relay is that I always loved stories of medical practice until I reached my mid-twenties where a lot of what I was either watching through tv serials, motion pictures, or reading in novels was becoming a bit much for me emotionally. I even attempted to watch a Canadian tv serial (via HuLu): Combat Hospital except I had to bow out after two or three episodes as clearly the series was wrecking my emotional heart.

I’m the girl who dreams of obtaining the first five years of ER (my beloved medical drama of my teenage years) and the ‘Martini’s & Medicine’ special boxed set of M* A* S* H (my beloved medical drama of my twenties) yet being able to re-alight inside medical narratives has been a bit of a difficulty I had not felt I would ever experience. The only solace I had is that perhaps I OD’d on the stories themselves and had to step away in order to return. This is why as I learnt of the inclusion of the air ambulance story thread for Flight to Coorah Creek, internally the wheels of curiosity started to click together and unite. Back in late Spring, whilst hosting the #ChocLitSaturdays chat which is the sister companion to this blog feature, I knew I had made the right choice as Ms. Gover happily gave out tidbits of her research and writing process to stitch the story together. Ever since that lovely conversation I have been attempting to dig back into the heart of the novel and attach myself into the world therein.

Dear hearts, kindly forgive my lack of focus and attention, as the time between late Spring and late Summer were a bit consuming for me personally. I wanted to soak into the story when my heart and spirit could allow me the grace of full attention and focus. I never want to rush a ChocLit novel, and it is a grace for me as a book blogger the publisher has such a kind heart understanding how life can intercede on a blogger’s reading life. Their authors are equally accepting in this regard, which has not only encouraged me but taken away the guilt I’ve had for the lost hours between then and now. Coincidentally, we’re not even going to acknowledge I’m posting this a week later than intended as the previous Saturday was a mixture of computer technical issues and a myriad sea of stress. Notwithstanding all the lightning storms occurring at such a fast clip over the past fortnight or so, to boggle this book blogger’s mind with a fierce vexation!

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Book Synopsis: 

What happens when you can fly, but you just can’t hide?

Only Jessica Pearson knows the truth when the press portray her as the woman who betrayed her lover to escape prosecution. But will her new job flying an outback air ambulance help her sleep at night or atone for a lost life?

Doctor Adam Gilmore touches the lives of his patients, but his own scars mean he can never let a woman touch his heart.

Runaway Ellen Parkes wants to build a safe future for her two children. Without a man – not even one as gentle as Jack North.

In Coorah Creek, a town on the edge of nowhere, you’re judged by what you do, not what people say about you. But when the harshest judge is the one you see in the mirror, there’s nowhere left to hide.

Author Biography:Janet Gover

Janet lives in Surrey with her English husband but grew up in the Australian outback surrounded by books. She solved mysteries with Sherlock Holmes, explored jungles with Edgar Rice Burroughs and shot to the stars with Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury. After studying journalism at Queensland University she became a television journalist, first in Australia, then in Asia and Europe. During her career Janet saw and did a lot of unusual things. She met one Pope, at least three Prime Ministers, a few movie stars and a dolphin. Janet now works in television production and travels extensively with her job.

Janet’s first short story, The Last Dragon, was published in 2002. Since then she has published numerous short stories, one of which won the Elizabeth Goudge Award from the Romantic Novelists’ Association. She has previously published three novels with Little Black Dress, Flight to Coorah Creek is her debut with Choc Lit and Bring Me Sunshine her first Choc Lit Lite ebook novella.

Fun Stuff for Your Blog via pureimaginationblog.comThe Bush | Outback as a setting from Australia:

I suppose you could say that I am not unlike most Americans who are deeply curious about the Australian Outback and life ‘Down Under’ as it was regularly referred to in my youth. I grew up on hearty Australian classics such as “Crocodile Dundee” and my beloved horse dramas “The Man from Snowy River” and “Return to Snowy River”; all of which left a deep impression on a young girl’s heart. I always wanted to seek out more Australian Literature, and despite a few start/stops to unearthing authors who penned stories set there and/or were Australian authors outright, I never did get the proper chance to read their stories! One of the goals I had set out for myself as a book blogger was to sort out a way to read all the lovely stories in fiction that had excited my heart and lit a fire inside my imagination. The best gift whilst being a reviewer for ChocLit, is that they have writers submitting stories from different regions of the world. This particular story is a case-in-point as much as my previous readings of The Reluctant Bride (by an Australian author) and Close to the Wind (by an New Zealand author).

The stark and ominous setting of the story is the Outback itself — a holds no bar locale, where even the strongest bloke and gal might find a bit beguiling to encroach a living out of. The Outback is a lot like the American West, a land who never fully gave itself into being civilised anymore than it stopped being wild. The animals and natural make-up of the land has survived without hardly any interference from man nor man’s pursuit of his own endeavours which led him to go there. For myself, I especially love how the Outback was left to it’s natural graces and natural inclinations of evolving into what it was destined to be without the touch of man to muddle it. There are so many beautiful places that we have the tendency to wreck simply by overtaking what is not meant to be conquered that the few places which can shine as their naturally allowed is a celebration to me. I always had a conservation mind-set, and a determined passion for preservation, which is why soaking into this novel was such a leap of joy; to read the passages in the opening sequences where Jess and Adam are flying further into the remote bits of the Outback to save a life.

Visually Gover does a stunning job of descriptive narrative and lends an eye for sight for those of us who have not yet been blessed to visit Australia. She pulls the setting of the locale forward through her story and creates a tangible vortex of an experience for the reader to directly integrate into ‘where’ Flight to Coorah Creek takes them. The reddening of the soil, however, flickered back inside my own memory to the soil I found in Alabama. An enriched red clay that was never beloved by locals but was quite the curious discovery for a girl who grew up on sandy beaches within the breath of the Gulf States!

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Posted Saturday, 16 August, 2014 by jorielov in 20th Century, Action & Adventure Fiction, Australia, Australian Literature, Blog Tour Host, ChocLitSaturdays, ChocLitUK, Cookery, Death, Sorrow, and Loss, Debut Novel, Divorce & Martial Strife, Domestic Violence, Family Drama, Family Life, Flashbacks & Recollective Memories, Indie Author, Life Shift, Medical Fiction, Modern British Literature, Nun, Passionate Researcher, Psychological Abuse, Religious Orders, Romance Fiction, Romantic Suspense, Second Chance Love, Single Mothers, Singletons & Commitment, Small Towne Fiction, Writing Style & Voice

+Book Review+ Lemongrass Hope by Amy Impellizzeri #IndieNovel #MagicalRealism

Posted Sunday, 3 August, 2014 by jorielov , , , , , , , , , , 0 Comments

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Lemongrass Hope by Amy Impellizzeri

Lemongrass Hope by Amy Impellizzeri

Published By: Wyatt-MacKenzie Publishing (@wymac), 8 October, 2014
Official Author Websites:
Site | @AmyImpellizzeri | Blog | Facebook | Author Page on WMP
Available Formats: Trade Paperback Page Count: 304

Genre(s): Fiction | Romance | Magical Realism | Time Travel | Literary Fiction

Converse via: #LemongrassHope

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Acquired Book By: I crossed paths with the author of “Lemongrass Hope” on Twitter, as she contacted me in regards to receiving an ARC copy of her debut novel which publishes this Autumn. This was in late May and I was hoping to review the book in mid to late June. However, due to different personal reasons I had to extend my post until July. I received a complimentary ARC copy of the book direct from the author Amy Impellizzeri, in exchange for an honest review. I did not receive compensation for my opinions or thoughts shared herein.

Inspired to Read:  

What originally captivated me by Lemongrass Hope was the premise of the story itself – a mirror into a life which would have a unique style of delivery. At least I murmured a hope that this novel would carry with it a unique craft of story and one that not only could be a mirth of joy to read but would encourage me to draw a pensive eye once the story concluded. I love stories which engage my mind as readily as my heart — stories which drive me to think about the dimensions of the story as it slowly tumbles through and out of my memory. To carry with me a bit further than the reading itself and impart a lasting impression of what was conveyed through the pen of the author. I felt such a strong pull to reading Lemongrass Hope; I was over the moon in gratitude for the author to have expressed an interest in giving it to me to read.

I have had a building interest in reading this novel as due to various personal reasons, I have wanted to read a story that has a central theme of ‘hope’ building inside its central heart of narrative. I wanted to read something inspiring and something a bit magical at the same time — a story to take me outside the realm of the everyday and transition into this beautiful place that exists between this world and the next. I love reading Magical Realism stories and watching them on television as I mentioned on my review for The Silent Touch of Shadows for this very reason. I was meant to start reading Lemongrass Hope on Tuesday, the 22nd of July — however a severe allergic reaction cut my plans short! Thankfully, due to homeopathic medicine I was able to come down from the fog of my initial medicine and soak into the story! A day where disappearing from the angst of allergies and reactions therein, this particular story alighted itself into the forefront of my mind and heart. Stories are like that,… they tend to arrive in our lives of a timing that cannot be measured by conventional means but felt by our hearts.

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Book Synopsis:

Set in the past, and present, Lemongrass Hope is a captivating and unpredictable love story, with a dose of magical realism and time travel, that fans of authors such as Audrey Niffenegger, Alice Hoffman, and Toni Morrison will appreciate and embrace. Like Liane Moriarty’s The Husband’s Secret, Lemongrass Hope weaves together ordinary lives and events to tell an extraordinary tale of connection, loss, renewal, and of course, hope. As Kate Sutton’s decade-long marriage to Rob erodes and unravels, Kate fears that the secrets she guards from the world, including Rob’s emergency room proposal, and a whirlwind love affair from her past, have always doomed her fate.

When she unwittingly receives a glimpse at what her life could have been like had she made different choices all those years ago, it is indeed all she could have ever wanted. A confirmation of her greatest hope, and her greatest fears.

Lemongrass Hope will draw you in with characters so relatable and real, you will cheer for them one moment and flinch the next. A tale that invites you to suspend disbelief—or perhaps decide to believe once and for all— in the potent power of love and connection over time and choice.

Oh, and the dress. There’s this lemongrass dress . . .

Author Biography:

Amy ImpellizzeriA reformed corporate litigator with a background of survival and renewal, Amy Impellizzeri has been writing since childhood, but ended a long hiatus from personal writing after a plane crashed in her residential neighborhood in 2001, killing everyone on board and five of her neighbors, as she started on a journey of guilt and healing, detailed in her essay, Unscathed. After 13 years in the cutthroat world of corporate law, including a decade at a top Manhattan law firm, Impellizzeri left to write and advocate for entrepreneurial women, eventually landing at the investor-backed start-up company, Hybrid Her, named by ForbesWoman as a Top Website for Women in 2010 and 2011 (and recently rebranded as ShopFunder, LLC) while working on her first novel, Lemongrass Hope, and her first non-fiction book, Lawyer Interrupted, scheduled to be published by the American Bar Association in 2015.

Her essays and articles have appeared in The Huffington Post, The Glass Hammer, Divine Caroline, and ABA’s Law Practice Today, among more.

 

Time as a vortex of transportation:

Time is in the background of Lemongrass Hope, as Kate has a propensity for shifting time forward and backwards with the ease of her mind’s ability to draw forth the memories she both wants to forget and hope she’s overcome. Her path is to seek a bit of redemptive hope out of going back over her choices and of recollecting where those choices led her on her lifepath. Time for all its measurements is both elusive and transcending as the chapters drift between your fingers, as you lose yourself in the timescape of where Kate is leading the story to go forward. She tempts you with a rhythm that is of her choosing and a realisation that time cannot always be undone.

My Review of Lemongrass Hope:

Stories alight in our hands at a timing of their own reckoning, and this particular story has a rhythmic tone as individual as the author’s path who penned the tale. Lemongrass Hope has a unique narrative voice which curls inside your mind’s eye as you soak in the grace of the writer’s prose. Etched into the gracefulness of her turns of phrase and of placing us inside Botswana as we enter into the story’s setting, is a subtle nudge towards nibbling into the human condition and the emotional arc of how healing involves an acknowledge of thought, feeling, and evoking ruminations. The stage is set quite nicely for a complex story filled with characters who are already in-progress on a journey – towards an enlightenment driven out of their choice of purpose and the textural landscape of where their path will lead them.

The story starts off in segmented pieces of scenes depicting certain moments within the lives of the characters which is imperative and important to take stock of, yet their meaning and definitions come into meaning lateron. The Prologue presents a thesis of direction, of a willingness to rewind time and of accepting our destiny as a walkway which can be walked and followed, yet given the murmurings of free will is not always a visible line. The first three chapters are time shifts between 1997, 2011, and 2009 — little seedlings of where Kate and Ian were at distinctive snapshots of ‘time’ within the sphere of their living hours. Their innermost thoughts are woven into the fabric of the narrative which gives us an intrapersonal connection to them rather instinctively.

The mind is a curious portal: emotions, memories, the elasticity of hope, and a renewing sense of place & time. Impellizzeri’s unique style of telling this story is not jolting but encouraging, the transitions of the years which might appear to be disjointed are actually a telling sense of reason behind the fury of emotional anguish in Kate. The pattern of the novel is one that I found pleasing because it encourages a new sense of how a story can be set, told, and presented. Kate is in desperate need of a respite from her life, to take a step back from motherhood and marriage; both of which have consumed her with a vacuuming effect of loss of self. The internal struggle for order and any sense of logic to have arrived at a point of place in her marriage where infidelity and an absence of love had shattered the tethering of her spirit. Her mind was a minefield of emotional turmoil plaguing her with ruminative flashbacks and haunting memories of each decisive choice she made to arrive where she was on her path. To be the Mum of Michael and David, wedded to Ian and wistfully hopeful there was a way ‘out’ of where she currently was living to a life that made a heap more sense.

The story is a mind map of the central character’s life; etched out of emotions & the curious speculative heart for a confluence of logical explanation for why her life took the course it had. Benton is the unexpected best friend who inadvertently introduced Kate to Rob and Ian; the two blokes who are central to the distress of Kate’s fevered mind. Rob is the bloke who drifted past Kate’s orb, whilst Ian settled into her heart and therefore stole her passion. Ian enraptured a sense of adventure bolstered by a theory of time travel through a drink native to Botswana; a country where he worked inside as a journalist. Rob had the unfortunate timing of being just a shy step short of entering her life at a moment in which she was ready for falling in love.

I need to sort out how to properly make homemade curry, as this novel and others in its wake have encouraged me to the pursuit! I fear my favourite Indian restaurant closed shoppe without another to take its place. Curry is the meal that speaks to the soul, and the heart is always mindful of the warmth this cosy-comfort food encourages you to savour whilst the naan you consume adds the nosh to become a heightened joy of culinary delight! I admit, I felt a bit envious of Kate & Ian! Their entire relationship was centered around curry and the serendipitous nature of two souls crossing paths within the hours one does not expect to find romance and the mirth of soul-connected relationship. 

Ian’s path took him forward into a lively professional traveller position as a writer whereas Kate staid true to her course as a college Professor. She opted for the original bloke she was set-up to date on a blind lark suggestion by Benton. The friend Kate abandons out of the truth her heart is acknowledging about which bloke her soul feels mated and of which bloke she is merely sharing space and time. To dissolve a friendship out of the ashes of a lost love and relationship is not logical but then again, neither is love. Love is a leap of trust as much as faith. You have to jump with a measure of belief that you’re following where your heart leads and the path will ring true for you.

The ending will leave you lost in your thoughts about hope, life, love, and the daring reality of changing your stars on your own accord of how your living truth can set you free. Kate’s story has a pace and rhythm uniquely it’s own; a bit how it would be to tell a stranger in a confluence of conversations your own’s life story. It would come out a bit out of order, a bit out of focus from time of the original events, but the beauty would be in the telling of the story itself. In how the lessons you learnt along the corridor of your life not only strengthened you but graced your life with a bounty of blessings you had not fully seen or understood until the day arrived where the last piece of your tapestry’s puzzle fit together quite perfectly. 

Fair warning: You will forsake sleep to finish this novel, as the story attaches to your spirit and the heart of your soul. And, once it it is put down, you will wish for ‘another chapter’, another moment within this world. I had such a personal reaction to this novel, I can only hope the words I’ve left upon concluding it will honour the legacy it will give to the next reader who consumes it’s message. My throat was emotionally choked, tears not yet having left my eyes, and a gratitude I felt as deep as a well for being given the blessing of reading this story,… right here, and ‘now’.

Marriage, Relationships, and the In-Between Moments of Reconciliation:

Impellizzeri has a rather eloquent approach to the craft of story-telling, as she draws you further into her narrative voice with each paragraph you read, as her choices of how a story is told is quite receptively keen on the introspection of her characters;  allowing you the full advantage of listening, hearing, and sensing their emotional state of being. She captures the bits and bobbles of a life in the staging bits of transition and the anxiety of finding yourself in a relationship that is either about to dissolve or repair itself through a bridge in communication. She cleverly has Kate referencing the appeal of reading Eat Pray Love in an effort to connect another women’s marital plight to her own. As I read those passages I thought back on two motion pictures of equal merit and value: Must Love Dogs and Under the Tuscan Sun.

As an aside, being a singleton myself I appear to have an kinetic attraction to stories of divorce as more oft than naught, I am nestled inside either a motion picture or a story in fiction that evolves through the catalyst of relationships. I believe this has to do with my attraction and appreciation of a sociological viewing on humanity, as the lens in which these stories reside is an intimate voicing of the human heart and soul. To expand on the fragility of our personal experiences as much as the process of how we think and access what we are going through as we live our lives. I like the internal analysis these particular stories provide as much as the forethought of the writers to temper what we might conventionally surmise; as found inside the passages which eclipse clarity and distinctive individualism as well.

*note to self: must read the other novels in order to offer further insight on my reflections

*note to readers and visitors: ironically or not, I was not aware the films were based on books whilst seeing them

Marriages of convenience hold within them hidden evidences of romance built around indecision and fear of loneliness. The heart tugs the truth into our minds but truth, like faith is not always something we want to swallow nor accept. To be humble enough to recognise the wrong choice before we take the course we’re walking along would be a beautiful experience in foresight but humans are oft blinded and muddled by our emotional hearts and our souls are bled dry from wrestling with our logical whispers of the unknown. We walk boldly onto the path we choose, even if the future proves to lead to a deep felt sea of remorse.

Impellizzeri found a footing for yielding a story through the myriad labyrinth of a woman’s mind, especially in the manner in which Lemongrass Hope spilts out onto the page. Her words encourage a pensive awareness whilst you read her novel and carry yourself along the emotional memories of Kate as a sense of one soul’s journey towards acceptance and understanding.

On the unique writing style of Amy Impellizzeri:

I appreciated Impellizzeri knitting into her story the elements of what a thirty-something would contemplate, especially from a strong point-of-view of both lead characters. Memories of Baby Boom floated to mind, even though the circumstances towards motherhood differed, Kate had found in Rob the same indifference as Diane Keaton had found inside the character Harold Ramis had portrayed. Professional women who never viewed themselves outside the professional track of their trade, yet observant of other women and the choices they made within their own lives all the same. It is curious timing my reading of Lemongrass Hope to the reading of Love’s Promises (although I oft speak of the serendipitous nature of my reading life and how I oft realise that books alight in my hand to read at a timing that is right in the moment for me to greet them): two separate novelists writing about a thematic I have always appreciated seeing explored. (you’ll also denote my appreciation for stories set in ‘motion’ or in ‘written’ mediums are equally favoured; hence my cross-references for motion pictures and books in print tend to blur into each other) Outside the scope of motherhood, yet focused on marriage both of these novels I’ve recently had the pleasure of reading paint a portrait of honestly real women exploring their personal stances on faith, love, children, marriage, and the singleton life they always felt deeply attached too. Working Girl always left a strong impression (and oh so very quotatable!) next to Baby Boom, and lest I forget to mention Three Men & a Baby which opens the door from a completely turn of face point-of-view! And, who did not rally for Steve Martin’s character in A Simple Twist of Fate?!

One author I want to encourage myself to read next is Jane Porter, who writes Contemporary Romances of equal thought-provoking narratives, where the vein of questioning one’s path and deciding on what is one’s true path to follow is as unique as the characters who bring those lifepaths to life. It is such a strong appeal to read about characters experiencing an arc of a life shift and in full choice of where their futures lie if they are willing to wrestle out their emotional heart and allow themselves the ability to lead a truer life forward on a path that will enrich as much as it will stabilise their needs. I recently crossed paths with Mari Passananti and her novel ‘The Hazards of Hunting While Heartbroken’ spoke to me at ‘hallo’ as well. How lovely then, that August is the ‘Read A Romance Month? (#ReadARomanceMonth – perhaps you saw the badge in my lower sidebar winking at you?) My forthcoming thoughts intertwined into this online bookish event are forthcoming next on Jorie Loves A Story!

On a singular personal level:

full gratitude for this not being a traditional story with a heart-wrecking cancer sideline.

Instead, it was inspiring and full of hope. 

Hope is a big part of this story.

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Reading this book contributed to these challenges:

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Posted Sunday, 3 August, 2014 by jorielov in 21st Century, Agnostic (Questioning & Searching or Unsure), ARC | Galley Copy, Author Found me On Twitter, Bits & Bobbles of Jorie, Book Review (non-blog tour), Book Trailer, Bookish Discussions, Botswana, Death, Sorrow, and Loss, Debut Author, Debut Novel, Divorce & Martial Strife, Family Drama, Fantasy Fiction, Flashbacks & Recollective Memories, Genre-bender, Grief & Anguish of Guilt, Historical Fiction, Indie Author, Life Shift, Literary Fiction, Magical Realism, Modern Day, New York City, Romance Fiction, Second Chance Love, Sociological Behavior, The Bermuda Triangle, Time Shift, Time Travel, Time Travel Romance