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 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.
Bles started her career in the arts very early. As a college freshmen at 18, her poem At Dusk in Paradise, won first place in a contest sponsored by the editorial staff of the Santa Isabel University's newsletter, The Isabelina, after which she became a regular contributor. She wrote her first sonnet at 12 after her English teacher had inspired her. Bles also writes prose and short stories.
Bles has long been recognized for her talent in music and performing arts. She has years of training in classical singing and was awarded a scholarship in music, major in vocal performance by the New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida.
After losing her first husband to cancer, Bles passionately sought refuge and has found healing in her artistic pursuits while raising three teenagers as a single parent.
Bles currently lives with her husband with whom she travels to different cities all over the world to find the perfect home.
Reviewed by Romuald Dzemo for Readers' Favorite
Without Rhyme: A Poet's Story by Bles Chavez-Bernstein is a collection of free-flowing verses, poems that capture some of the important moments in the author’s life. Inspirational in nature and intimate, it is brimming with strong imagery, capturing the author’s life as a young girl, the elements of a rural setting, moving to another land, embracing new cultures, and more. In these poems, readers are treated to both melancholy and the nostalgia of someone looking introspectively into her life, the thrill of love, the raw sentiments of joy, dealing with tragedy, the power of hope, and a lot more.
This collection of 100 poems captures the seasons of the poet’s life with brilliance, and each is short in length, condensed, and poignant. The book opens with War Within that looks at the world through the eyes of a three-year-old girl and then to Oasis for a Child, with images of the traditional animal used for farming in the Philippines, the carabao, trudging through the muddy waters, fettered piglets, fowls picking endlessly on fertile grounds, brooks murmuring secrets. The author introduces readers to human encounters, her perception of the world as a child, the warmth of friendship, and more. The diction is rich and the verses are rhythmic, always with insights sprinkled here and there and expressions that are symbolic in nature. The tone is personal and the voice lively, and it allows the emotions of the personae to come across powerfully through the different situations and encounters. Whether she writes about the silent stranger in her house, the old woman who calls her Nisnak, the poetic experience of the writer, or whether exploring themes of trauma, there is beauty in the lines and a song that strikes powerful chords in readers. Without Rhyme: A Poet's Story is well-illustrated poetry that will resonate with fans and inspire them to remember their own unique journeys.
