Women's Fiction
Date Published: 8/15/12
Evolved Publishing
Synopsis:
From her cheating boyfriend to her dead father and cold, judgmental mother, Daly knows she can’t trust others to be there when it counts. This cynicism begins to melt away when she meets Kashi, a light-hearted charmer from India, who decides he cares too much to let her fade into the background of her own life. After a series of false starts, their quirky romance carries them to India, where Daly must win the approval of Kashi’s family in order to seal their “forever.”
Meanwhile, Laine struggles to cope with the pain of early widowhood, fleeing into the pages of her well-worn library and emerging only to perform her duties as a social worker at the crisis pregnancy center. Although her daughter wants nothing more than to work as an artist, Laine doesn’t know how to redirect Daly to a more suitable profession without further damaging their tenuous relationship.
Can Laine look past her pain to learn from an unlikely mentor? Has Daly finally found someone whom she can trust? Will the women recognize their common bonds before the relationship is broken beyond repair?
Torn Together by Emlyn ChandMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
This is one of those books that definitely has its highs and lows. In fact, reviewing a book like this is more of a challenge than reading it. It is a young adult romance with a twist, and it will remind you of what is truly important in life. And this book even has an international flair. Read on to discover if this is a book you may like or not.
First of all, the profanity is extremely minimal, but it is there. The sex scenes are not overly graphic, but they are there. I don't enjoy the fact that sex before marriage is considered normal, but at least it doesn't happen much. Marriage still appears to be the ideal.
I hate to say it, but I did not like Kashi. From the beginning, I did not want to trust him. Then he appeared to be too good to be true. Maybe I'm wrong, but this is just from my perspective. At first, I enjoyed the romance between him and Daly, but before long, I found this to be another sappy romance. I know many readers like that kind of thing, but it does seem to turn me off.
I will give the author kudos for the wrench that was thrown into the story--I actually became interested again for a while. This was more than halfway through the book, and then I finally understood the title of the book. I will admit that this portion of the book was a brilliant move on the author's part, but I still wasn't sold.
One interesting aspect of the book was the religious aspect. God was mentioned, and one of the characters appears to be a Christian. I was impressed with the fact that God was painted in a positive light, and the characters wrestled with the age-old question of why bad things happen to good people. It did seem that the author may have a view which espoused the idea that there are many ways to God, but at least God was talked about in a positive way in this book.
This book had me on the kind of roller coaster I don't really like. There were moments in the book where my emotions truly became wrapped up with the characters, but this high did not last long. I would have loved to have connected with this book more, but maybe it was just not meant to be--at least for me. I am sure there would be many who would enjoy this book, so check it out, if you like.
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Emlyn Chand
Author Bio:
Emlyn Chand emerged from the womb with a fountain pen clutched in her left hand (true story). When she's not writing, she runs a large book club in Ann Arbor and is the president of author PR firm Novel Publicity. Best known for her Young Adult novels, she is also developing a small, but devoted, following to her children's book series and is beginning to dapple in other genres as well. Emlyn enjoys connecting with readers and is available via almost every social media site in existence. Visit EmlynChand.com for more info. Don't forget to say "hi" to her sun conure Ducky!
Emlyn Chand
Author Bio:
Emlyn Chand emerged from the womb with a fountain pen clutched in her left hand (true story). When she's not writing, she runs a large book club in Ann Arbor and is the president of author PR firm Novel Publicity. Best known for her Young Adult novels, she is also developing a small, but devoted, following to her children's book series and is beginning to dapple in other genres as well. Emlyn enjoys connecting with readers and is available via almost every social media site in existence. Visit EmlynChand.com for more info. Don't forget to say "hi" to her sun conure Ducky!
Thank you for your review, Ruth! I'm actually glad to hear someone doesn't like Kashi, since he's based on my ex-husband. A lot of readers have loved him, and I just scratch my head at that. I'm also glad you liked Meghann. She's my favorite character and the one I relate to most as a person. If you have time to cross-post your review to Amazon and GoodReads, I'd really appreciate it!
ReplyDeleteEmlyn :-D
Thanks for the review and the giveaway!
ReplyDeletemorales_y at yahoo dot com