This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.
I love books, plain and simple.
After devouring them for decades and telling stories to myself for years, I decided to take up the NaNoWriMo challenge in 2006 to try my hand at actually writing things down.
Dave, my cousin/best friend/partner in crime for the last 36 years, then spent our two-week vacation to the Grand Canyon reading it.
Fast forward to 2012. I still love books and thanks to NaNoWriMo, I have written six more (so far).
I’m a children’s librarian by day (and some evenings) but by night (and lunch hour), I am a writer. It’s totally the most perfect thing in the world: deadlines, writer’s block and all, including Dave’s hounding to change a paragraph, chapter or whole character personality because it’s crap.
I wouldn’t change a second of it and hope that you’ll read my book over and over again, so, like many of my own books, it needs liberal amounts of duct tape to hold the cover on and the pages in.
Reviewed by Paul F. Murray for Readers' Favorite
Crumbling Walls by Laura Strandt, Book One of the Jack and Emily Series, explores a darker side of growing up during the teenage years. Jack Callaghan, the second of six sons, is in high school and has a crush on a neighborhood girl, Emily. However, as Jack gets to know Emily better and the two become boyfriend/girlfriend, Jack discovers some very disquieting aspects of Emily’s life. Emily has had to pretend that she has a mother living with her, but all the while she has been living alone for three years.
Jack’s parents, Elizabeth and Will, become major characters as the story progresses, and Emily confides to Elizabeth that she, Emily, has been the victim of a physically abusive father who allowed his friends to use her for their sexual pleasure in exchange for the illegal drugs which he craves. Jack has a confrontation with Emily’s father when he returns after three years, and the result leaves Jack feeling guilty and haunted by the event. Together, Jack and Emily must work through their emotions not only for each other, but also for the events shaping their lives.
Crumbling Walls by Laura Strandt is a good novel and will have a strong appeal to older teens and young adults who are seeking to move beyond Disney-esque plots involving the high school queen versus the girl on the outside struggling for acceptance. This novel goes way beyond that formulaic type of plot, and it represents a good transition from teen fluff novels and television shows to more adult level drama. Some parents of younger age teens may object to the sexual content, and thus parental discretion is advised.
