** this giveaway is closed **

We had a guest post from the author earlier today, and now here is the book review and giveaway!

Synopsis: Thirteen-year-old Serena is torn from everything that’s familiar on her island home. She leaves her beloved grandmother, her father, and two of her siblings to move with her mother and older sister to Florida and then to California.

“Everything will be better in America,” her mother tells her. They arrive in the US to find nothing as they expected. Speaking fluent Dutch, Spanish, and Papiamentu (the language of her home Caribean island of Curacao), but limited English, Serena learns to pretend that everything’s fine while struggling to live up to her mother’s impossibly high expectations; always afraid to send her mother into another downward spiral of depression. She juggles responsibility for her mother’s well-being with school, a secret boyfriend, and a growing desire for independence, in a foreign land: Hollywood.

The wisdom of her grandmother, a mixed-race mystic, gives her solace, which she clings to tenaciously despite the thousands of miles between them. Coming of age in a foreign land, faced with enormous obstacles, Serena finds her own feet and the acceptance that sets her free.

About the Author: Patricia Selbert is an experienced lecturer and multicultural novelist. With a BA in communications Patricia speaks Dutch, Spanish, Papiamentu and English.

Review: Having moved ALOT as a child (thanks to the US Navy), there was alot I could relate to with Serena. Moving somewhere new and trying to fit in is never easy, but Serena the change is more profound as she has to deal with not only culture shock and homesickness, but the escalating mental illness of her mother.

The book takes you back to the 70s and 80s, and encloses it's story within the social norms of the time. Selbert gives us an inspiring story about the steadfastness of family, the hope of a new country, the disappointment of failure and the hope that perseverance can bring. It is an universal story and an unique glimpse into the cultures of the Caribbean, and the process of assimilation.

Giveaway:

Winner will receive this review copy of House of Six Doors!

Entries:

Make sure I have an email address, with your comment, so I can contact you, if you win!
If I don't have a way to contact you, you will forfeit your win!

USA only

Please post each entry separately, i.e. 2 comments for Subscribing:

Some entries have been combined on one line, check carefully

Follow this blog on Google Friend Connect (1 entry)

Follow me on Twitter, Facebook or Networked Blogs (1 entry for EACH)

Fun entry! Go to our Blog Rolls and select a blog that starts with the same letter as

your email. let me know the title of one of their posts on their main page! (2 entries)

Subscribe to this blog (2 entries)

Share this giveaway on Facebook or Twitter (please use BTHM1 in your Tweet!) -you can use the new SHARE and RETWEET buttons below this post!) (2 entries EACH, per DAY)

Stumble this post/giveaway (2 entries) (use the new SHARE button below!)

Have / Put the "Bless Their Hearts Mom Blog" Button on your blog or website (3 entries)

Enter this post link in a Giveaway Linky on another site (4 entries)** MUST provide link to the Giveaway Linky!

Blog about this giveaway (5 entries)

Contest will end on February 28th, at midnight. Winner will be picked by Random Number (random.org) on March 1st, and emailed. As soon as winner's info is received, I will mail their book to them the following week!

Disclosure / Disclaimer: I received this book, free of charge, from BooksparkPR. No other compensation, monetary or in kind, has been received or implied for this post. Nor was I told how to post about it either.