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review 2016-07-04 06:09
What We Leave Behind

By: Rochelle B. Weinstein 

ASIN: B01F2EOCX4

Publisher: Audible Studios

Publication Date: 6/14/2016 

Format: Audible

My Rating: 5 Stars

 

Having had the pleasure of reading talented Rochelle B. Weinstein’s latest (2016) Where We Fall landing on my Top Books of 2016 List, an instant fan of this South Florida author.

I found myself quickly searching for her previous books, discovering her debut, WHAT WE LEAVE BEHIND, now available in audio (6/14/16) narrated by Casey Turner and also available in e-book, and paperback. The paperback and audio make a nice combo; you will want to bookmark many quotes.

Powerful, and emotional, a poignant portrayal of love in its many forms, this heart wrenching novel will resonate with any woman who has questioned her past and wondered what could have been. Broken out in three parts we follow Jessica's life journey.

Part One 1972-1988 “The heart that truly loves never forgets.” - Proverb

Weinstein takes readers on an incredible journey of Jessica Parker, a young fifteen year old girl (almost sixteen) to adulthood. From first love, powerful emotions, grief, tragedy, love, and loss. The what ifs. The moments which change our lives, and the things we leave behind, but not forgotten.

Jessica resides with her single mom, after the death of her father. Her mom works at the hospital and she sets out to try and find her mom a doctor. She is still grieving for her father; however, pretends to be strong.

While visiting the hospital Jessica meets 22-yr-old Harvard medical student, Jonas Levy. She is infatuated. Jonas’ father, Adam is dying of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. He is a big name in the music and film business. An impressive man and she becomes close with the family.

She learns so much from Jonas; however, nothing prepares her for the splattering of emotions he left her, to sort out. Good things would soon end, when Emily was returning from Italy and he would return to Boston. First loves. Painful and heart-breaking.

“And the good-bye makes the journey harder still.”—Cat Stevens “O Very Young”

She falls for him, even though Jonas has a girlfriend. However, once Adam dies, Jonas abruptly tells her not to come to the funeral, and they cannot see one another again. She is devastated.

Can she free herself from the past in order to move forward?

Part Two 1994-2011 “In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit." —Albert Schweitzer

Life moves on and she makes her way to film school and a job as a music supervisor with the famous Hollywood producer Marty Tauber at SixthSense, in Los Angeles. She is shocked by the connection to Adam. A protégé?

She struggles to allow anyone get close. She wanted to love again and be happy. It had been six years since her first love. Now her boss, Marty.

Finally, they start dating and marry. SixthSense was plastered across most every entertainment trade magazine. She was an expert in the field of music—the authority to hit songs and doors opened. She was finding fulfillment with her career, husband and child.

She finds it difficult to rely on others. If she needed them, she fears they will leave. Then a tragedy. A loss.

Her mother once told her that decisions were difficult because by making a choice, we’re forced to give up something. But it is also about re-embracing the things you gave up. And it’s learning that there are some things, and some people, you can’t live without. Or can you?

Part Three 2001-2002 “All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind is part of ourselves; we must die to one life, before we can enter into another.” — Anatole France

Jessica fears of getting close, and having them leave. Even though lost, there is a spirit that moves and encircles and leads to a clearer path. Who had stolen her strength and dignity? The man who would make it impossible for love to be uncomplicated.

Soon she begins questioning her life, as a wife, companion, mother. Not trusting enough. Her husband seemed to want more, and she wanted less. It was easier to pretend that everything would be OK. No one wants to see something that they do not want to believe is there.

Then another shocker phone call. An explosive secret forces her to reconnect with Jonas. She had given herself to Marty, and trust does not come easy to her, from losing her father at a young age and then Jonas. The what ifs?

Haunted by the past and the guilt she still feels of her dad’s death. Then more guilt from her other hidden secret. Why couldn’t she be more like her mother who had overcome great adversity in her life. Her strength overshadowed any sign of weakness.

A simple memory could take her back. Thrust into a modern day moral and ethical dilemma, Jessica must face the pain of her past, or lose everything she holds dear.

She and her husband are separated by lies and miles that buried them from view. Now she has to choose between her husband and the man she always considered the love of her life. Will she make the right decision? 

“Sometimes you can’t always see love. You have to trust it is there. Learning the difference between real love and fairy tales.”

What a debut! Ongoing themes, thought-provoking, and beautiful metaphors! With Weinstein’s vast music background from LA to Miami, as well as her gift of prose, well-developed characters, and human insights, makes for a gripping and absorbing tale.

In addition to being a talented author, a genuine person, she definitely shares my love of nature-and familiar places-Inspiring! Love her book covers. I think she has a hidden degree in psychology.

“What makes a great song and great film? That passion, that marriage between the melody and the story? Words tell a story. As in filmmaking, a tremendous undertaking from conception to premier. All parts are critical and as long as every person is as ardent and industrious with their craft to equal stellar.”

As our personal relationships: Trust, life, marriage. Everyone has to do their part to make a success. A mix of domestic suspense, contemporary, psychological, and romance.

For fans of Liane Moriarty, T. Greenwood, Lisa Genova, Amy Hatvany, Catherine Ryan Hyde, Paula Treick DeBoard, Karen White and Diane Chamberlain.

Since I have read the third book, currently reading her second book, The Mourning After . Looking forward to her fourth book, Somebody's Daughter, plus hear rumors she is working on her fifth novel, a love story based in the Florida Keys (always my familiar favorite settings-can't wait). An author to follow!

 

  

Source: www.judithdcollinsconsulting.com/#!What-We-Leave-Behind/cmoa/5779de430cf23a71a1610f1d
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review 2014-07-15 09:14
Arousing Love (Review)
Arousing Love, a teen novel - M. H. Strom

What did I read? Seriously, I’m partially convinced that this whole experience was one bad dream.

 

I have to admit, I picked it out because it looked like it would be terrible. (You just can’t trust free books.) But one of my best friends from college and I wanted to read something together, and for a while, it was actually kind of fun and funny. But when I moved back home for the summer and had to finish the book on my own…it was significantly less enjoyable. Significantly. I reached a point where it seemed like stabbing myself in the eye with my mascara wand over and over and over again for a straight twenty-four hours would be more bearable—and more enjoyable.

 

I’m not exactly sure what genre this is supposed to be either. It’s some kind of Christian-also-trying-to-be-semi-erotic? I don’t understand. It’s like the author didn’t realize that, generally speaking, people who want to read strongly Christian-themed books don’t want to read anything remotely near erotica. And those who are in the mood for erotica probably aren’t looking to have religion shoved down their throats. And yet, my friend and I found ourselves fielding ridiculously long religious explanations between occasional page skips—some things we are simply too dignified to read aloud.

 

Anyway, this book completely bombed. Nobody ever talked about the fact that Zach and Joanna seeing each other (sexually), especially since her parents explicitly disapproved of their relationship, was technically illegal, given the age difference. Joanna’s dad was the most sexist and prejudiced man I’ve encountered in modern fiction in a long, long time. And the whole thing was terribly written, terribly executed, and just downright terrible.

 

What I Liked: Spoilers!

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text 2014-06-16 00:13
Finished!
Arousing Love, a teen novel - M. H. Strom

Since I last posted here, I finished three books. Ugh, either I've been reading quickly, or I've been seriously neglecting my updates...and considering I just moved from Hawaii to Oregon and finished finals and have been doing pretty much nothing except play Final Fantasy X HD since I got home on Monday, it's probably the latter.

 

Anyway! We put this one off for awhile, because I was buddy reading it with my friend, Sadie, and we both had finals and projects to worry about. Now that I'm in Oregon and she's in California, I went ahead and finished the book on my own (though I'll be going back to read the end again with her). 

 

And just...yeesh. This book was only entertaining because I read it with Sadie. That last twenty-five percent on my own was a nightmare. I have no idea what genre this is supposed to be. I hated all the characters. The plot was ridiculous. The instalove was the stuff that horror movies are made of. I was sick to death of everything and everyone. Any thoughts I had entertained about giving this book two stars for entertainment value went right out the window. Ugh. Just...ugh. Noooooooo.

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text 2014-05-10 08:32
75%
Arousing Love, a teen novel - M. H. Strom

Joanna is on her way back home to Colorado, where they shall all patiently wait for Zach to either get it or not get in to art school there.

 

So what the heckkk is the last quarter of this book going to be? Weeping and moaning that Joanna is gone? Can it just be over yet?

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text 2014-05-09 01:20
64%
Arousing Love, a teen novel - M. H. Strom

This is a little slow-going, because I only read it with my friend. But it's gotten uh...interesting.

 

So...Zach and Joanna's dad have come to an "arrangement". They settled on a "bride price" for Joanna (who is STILL FIFTEEN, btw), and decided that since apparently waiting until she's eighteen would take waaaaaay too much time and effort, they've decided that Zach and go ahead and marry her when she turns seventeen, on the agreement that they won't do any sexual until they legally get married. 

 

Can I just reiterate that Joanna and Zach have known each other LESS THAN TWO WEEKS? And her dad is settling on a "bride price"?? Okay, I don't care that Jacob had to work seven years before he was allowed to marry Rachel, this is the modern era and you can't just betroth your fifteen-year-old daughter to an eighteen-year-old dude she met last week because she swears she's in love with him. Please, for the love of all things good, I hope that nobody who isn't Christian reads this and thinks that this is the crap we actually do. We do not betroth our children. We do not marry them before they're of a legal age. (I mean, yeah, us Mormons are known for marrying young, but we do show more discrepancy than this bullcrap!) 

 

AND WE'RE ONLY SIXTY-FOUR PERCENT DONE, FOR THE LOVE, WHEN DOES IT END.

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