It's a bit unbelievable to me still, how books can sometimes completely blindside you. You'll be going about your daily life, a book will fall into your lap, and suddenly it's the exact story that you need to read at that exact moment. It's like the author knew just who you were, and what was missing, and came along to fill that void. The Odds of You and Me was exactly that. I wasn't expecting this book, it simply showed up for review. I'm honestly so glad that it did. I can't believe I almost missed the opportunity to fall in love with this book.

Bird's story is one of so many layers that it's almost impossible to really touch on them all in this short review. What I can say is that Cecilia Galante isn't afraid to peel back each one of those layers, down to the deepest part of the soul. She allows the reader not even just to crawl into Bird's head, but almost to become her. I felt her pain, her love, her elation, her hate, her confusion, and each bit of it filled in a part of my own soul. I was able to pick her apart, to the point that I was so invested in this story that I sobbed while reading it. My life might not be a mirror to Bird's, lord knows she has it much harder than I do, but just seeing someone else at a place where they still don't feel like they have their footing yet made me whole somehow.

See, Galante doesn't shy away from the parts of life that we all hide from the outside world. Bird has made mistakes, she's grown from them, but she also shows us that there is always growing to do. Her character is one that questions things, examines her feelings, and shuts things away. She's basically any one of us at any given moment. I've never seen such pure emotion laid out on a page, to be honest. As an example, Bird's love for her son Angus is so bright that it's blinding. Yet at the same time she admits that most of the time she struggles to even feel like she mildly knows what she's doing as a parent. Learning, growing, fighting, it's all there in vivid color as Bird simply tries to exist in a world that doesn't always feel hospitable. Nothing here is black and white, everything is up for debate, and I loved that more than I can say.

There are discussions of love here, and the tense relationships that we might have with others. So delicate that they can crack at any moment. There are insights about caring for others, despite their past decisions, and possibly stepping over the boundaries set by society to do good for someone else. As I mentioned above, there is even a discussion on being a parent and feeling like you're constantly floundering. Bird's raw commentary on raising her son, as a single mother, and feeling utterly helpless at times will speak to a lot of readers out there. Or, if you're like me, her battle with religion as an upbringing versus religion as an adult will hit home too. Like I said, there's so much wrapped up here that I can't touch on it all fairly. It simply exists together, in this beautiful web of a story, that will catch you up and likely evoke feelings that you weren't even expecting.

To sum it all up, The Odds of You and Me is absolutely beautiful. It's a raw, emotional, story that isn't afraid to dig deep into the emotions of a woman who is simply trying to navigate life. I recommend you have a box of tissues handy for this book. I really do.

This book is just so.... raw. I already knew that Cecilia Galante excelled at allowing people to crawl into the heads of her characters, but being in Bird's head is so tough. Which is how I feel it would probably be if anyone crawled into mine. Her love for her son, her guilt over her past, her relationship with her mother, her deep need to break away and be her own person... it's just all so much. Galante just dropped a major bomb, regarding how Angus (Bird's son) came about, and I'm speechless.

I don't know how the hell I'm going to review this book when I'm done.

This story just jumps right into the friendships of the four girls: Monica, Nora, Grace & Ozzie.  We read mostly about Nora and where she is later, after the others have gone on.  She suddenly hears from the group of girls wanting to get together.

Nora is just trying to live her life in her own way.  Now with the girls asking to get back together after so long - and with no warning - since none of them have been in touch in so many years.  Should she give them a chance?

If a reunion in Chicago is a way to face the past...can these 4 women put to bed the old pain and fears?  Can Nora forgive and move on?  Will it tear them all apart?

I was kind of humbled by the simple and yet profound way the author approached the topic.  Highly unusual for a story to take this direction and it works, somehow.

***This ARC was given by Edelweiss and its publisher for an honest review.

Turning Winds Home for Girls takes in troubled and orphaned girls.  This is where four teenage friends meet and form a strong bond over their unique status of having no parents present in their lives, no visits, no contact, and no phone calls.  Nora, Ozzie, Monica and Grace form The Invisibles, a family of their own, at least until graduation.  Self-proclaimed ring leader of the group, Ozzie, decides that they should all forget and move on after tragic events after graduation.  Ozzie, Monica and Grace move out of town and on to bigger and better, or so it seems; meanwhile Nora stays in town with the Shadow of the Turning Winds Home.  Nora has a job at the library, her dog Alice Walker, her collection of favorite first lines from books, and all the pain of the secrets she has kept from her childhood.  Nora desperately wishes her friends would reunite again, and with one phone call from Ozzie fifteen years later, The Invisibles rise again. 



This is a heartwarming story of friendship, pain, redeeming yourself and moving on.  Each of the four girls carries around an amazing load of baggage from their childhood.  I loved The Invisibles group, they form as a wonderful therapy.  The rules are amazing and what the girls try to do for one another shows true companionship, but as children they can only make themselves feel better at the moment and not actually solve any of the deep-rooted issues in their lives.  Each of the girls was very interesting and with their own personalities, Nora was my favorite of the group quiet, reserved, observant and I loved her first line collection.  It was interesting to see how each woman’s baggage and personality affected them as adults and how they came to eventually deal with it.  The emotions were real and raw with issues that many women might face, abusive relationships, body insecurities, sex, postpartum depression, money and abortion. 




This book was received for free in return for an honest review. 

Whose spirit was it? Was it grandmas or someone else’s, because if it was grandmas, she sure was a wicked woman? I loved the cover of this novel and that is why I grabbed it while volunteering one Friday morning at the library. There was some creepiness inside the pages but not what I was initially hoping for, I wanted more! I wanted more horror and less drama, hold off on the drama people and give me the willies, the OMG, I can’t read the words on this page fast enough willies. There were times when the character Cassie was talking about her experience in the closet and it was intense. Marin was listening closely, not believing what he was hearing and I swear I was hovering over my Kindle like it was a bowl of Orange Leaf yogurt. There were times it reminded me of The Exorcist and those images floated into my mind, but hey, that’s okay, the author added her own twists and it was all good. What really grabbed me and made me ponder was the premise of the main character’s gift. Her gift was the ability to see pain/discomfort in others. She sees this in orbs/blots of color around people usually the area of their pain/discomfort. How amazing is that? She wears sunglasses most of the time as the colors can be overwhelming but imagine seeing people with orbs floating on them showing where their pains/discomforts are (tooth, cancer, stomachache, sprains, etc). I know it could be overwhelming to have such a gift but just this ability excites me. Anyway, the activity that happens in this book occurs in the closet. This closet only a select few individuals know about and now that the story has been told, something has to be done and done now! The real question is: can it be undone? I wish the story went deeper into the magical and immoral aspect of the story but the story became more dramatic with the characters lives. The characters had their own drama outside this malicious event and it slowed down the pace of the story, I wasn’t ready for that.