Book Review and Giveaway: Shelter by Frances Greenslade

And now for something a little different....


Synopsis: For sisters Maggie and Jenny growing up in the Pacific mountains in the early 1970s, life felt nearly perfect. Seasons in their tiny rustic home were peppered with wilderness hikes, building shelters from pine boughs and telling stories by the fire with their doting father and beautiful, adventurous mother. But at night, Maggie—a born worrier—would count the freckles on her father’s weathered arms, listening for the peal of her mother’s laughter in the kitchen, and never stop praying to keep them all safe from harm. Then her worst fears come true: Not long after Maggie’s tenth birthday, their father is killed in a logging accident, and a few months later, their mother abruptly drops the girls at a neighbor’s house, promising to return. She never does.

With deep compassion and sparkling prose, Frances Greenslade’s mesmerizing debut takes us inside the devastation and extraordinary strength of these two girls as they are propelled from the quiet, natural freedom in which they were raised to a world they can’t begin to fathom. Even as the sisters struggle to understand how their mother could abandon them, they keep alive the hope that she is fighting her way back to the daughters who adore her and who need her so desperately.

Review: This was an interesting book to read while on vacation with your best friend! The book celebrates the bond between sisters and between friends, both of which can be very fragile and complicated at the same time. The book gives you a rare look at how families in 'the last frontier' struggle and adapt to the nature around them. The book si 2 halves- before and after the father's death. All makes sense at the end, but when you're reading the first part, you might miss clues to things in the second half, as you don't realize them for clues! This is one of those books that you finish and go 'huh'. Then you think back and see how the pieces fit together and you can see how they were cleverly interwoven. You may love or hate the characters, but you will have a response to them, as Greenslade brings them each to life in their own unique ways. This is bound to be a book that gets talked about and made into a movie, so read it before everybody catches on!


About the Author: Frances Greenslade is the author of two memoirs and is the winner of the Saskatchewan Book Award for Non-Fiction. She teaches English in Penticton, British Columbia.


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Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book for review purposes, free of charge, from Simon and Schuster, via BookBlogs.ning! No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it.