What She Left Behind

What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman 368 pages

 

For fans of Ellen Marie Wiseman’s “The Lost Girls of Willowbrook.”

 

After reading “The Lost Girls of Willowbrook.” I knew I wanted to read all of Wiseman’s novels. This was the first one of the five that preceded Lost Girls. It also centers upon do mental illness and insane asylums.

 

There are two points so view that tell the story. First is Clara Cartwright’s story from the late 1920s through the early 1930s. The other, Isabelle (Izzy) Stone’s story, is from the mid-to-late 1990s.

 

Clara is caught between two men. First, the man, James, her parents (Henry and Ruth) have chosen for her, and whom she finds dull and distasteful. They insist that she marry him, not for love, but because he is mind-boggling wealthy. The second man is an Italian immigrant with whom Clara falls madly in love, and he with her. When she becomes pregnant with Bruno’s baby, she completely rejects James, but her father sends her to a nervous asylum for girls. After the Crash, and Henry and Ruth lose everything, Clara is admitted to a public asylum that is as bad, if not worse, than the private institution.

 

Image what the living conditions were like in an overcrowded, short-staffed institution. Wiseman’s descriptions were enough to make me gag beside Clara.

 

Fast-forward to the 1990s. Izzy Stone is sent to foster care after her mother brutally murders her father with no apparent motive. Her foster parents work for a local museum and have been assigned to catalog the items that had been left behind in the now-shuttered asylum.

 

Izzy is fascinated by the things they find, but what really intrigues her is a stack of unopened letters and a journal. These items send her on a quest to determine her mother’s act of violence.

 

To me, this novel is almost as wonderful as “The Lost Girls of Willowbrook.” Comparing the two novels, “What She Left Behind” seems a little predictable. But given that “What She Left Behind,” is only Wiseman’s second novel, I will overlook that part. There were parts that me cringe, and parts where I was cheering on both young women.

 

Therefore, “What She Left Behind,” receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

Now is Not the Time to Panic

Now is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson 256 pages

 

It’s been a few weeks since I finished this novel, yet the story has stuck with him. It’s one of the books that I really wasn’t into, yet I couldn’t stop reading. I had to know how it ended.

 

The book opens in 2016. Frances Eleanor Budge---author, wife, mother, daughter---is contacted by a journalist named Mazzy. Mazzy knows that Frances is from Coalfield, Tennessee, and is doing a story on the 20^th anniversary of the Coalfield Panic of 1996. Does Frances, then known, as Frankie, recall the incident?

 

In the Summer of 1996, sixteen-year-old Frankie is dreading the long, sizzling summer in Coalfield. She is a loner, has no friends, there is nothing to do and is a budding writer. Plus her older, triplet brothers have their hearts set on irritating her.

 

Frankie bumps into Zeke, another sixteen-year-old, who is staying with his grandmother for the summer. He knows no one, and there is nothing to do. Zeke is an artist, but from the author’s descriptions, his art is rather Avant Garde. Together, they decided to create art. Zeke on image, Frankie on words. They like what they make.

 

In the garage at Frankie’s house there is an antique copier that, amazingly, still works. They print off several copies and hang them around town. As the townspeople begin to see them, popping up everywhere, they begin to wonder who is behind the poster since it is unsigned. Soon the town is obsessed with the poster. Especially since they keep popping up everywhere. Rumors circulate, people are killed, parents keep their kids indoors.

 

As the summer winds down, Frankie and Zeke go their separate ways, the furor over the poster subsides, but its impact on the town and beyond lingers on.

 

This was an okay story. It’s an interesting plot on the power of art. I wasn’t all that impressed with either Frankie or Zeke. For me it was a slow read, but I was interested to see how the author would plot the story and end it. Since Now is Not the Time to Panic was “okay,” it receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Circus of Wonders

 Circus of Wonders by Elizabeth Macneal 368 pages

 

When Jasper Jupiter (not his real last name), was a child, he dreamed of someday being an important person that others admired. One of his favorite dreams was owning a circus. Toby, his younger, slower brother, shared his dream. It was what kept them sane during their stint in the Crimea War (1853-1856).

 

After their service, each man was haunted by what they had seen and done. They were especially disturbed by the accidental death of Jasper’s best friend. The brothers began to form their circus, travelling the United Kingdom in search of, what Jasper believed would set their show apart—human oddities. Victorian England was fascinated by the bearded lady, the trapeze artists, the lions, and other wild animals.

 

As they rambled along, they set their circus up in small towns, making a decent living. One evening, they discovered a young girl, Nell, swimming in the ocean. A shy youngster, Nell’s body was splotched with brown birthmarks. Jasper wants her for his show! He purchases Nell from her father for twenty pounds.

 

Jasper re-creates Nell as Nellie, Queen of the Sun and Moon. Thanks to Toby’s engineering skills, he creates a harness that allows Nellie to soar above the crowds. The crowds cheer and applaud, and Nellie Moon becomes the toast of London, even enticing Queen Victoria to attend the show. This was quite the feat as the Queen had not attended a public event since the death of Prince Albert in 1961.

 

But nothing lasts forever, and eventually Nellie Moon is no longer a star. As Jasper continues to look for new acts, disaster awaits.

 

I really enjoyed the novel. I have only begun to scratch the surface of this richly layered novel. It is an intricate tale of exploitation, human dignity and the right to self-determination. My issue with the novel is that when flashbacks to the Crimea war occurred, they were jarring and left me slightly confused for a few minutes. Therefore, Circus of Wonders receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

 

Beyond that, the Sea

 

Beyond That, the Sea by Laura Spence-Ash 368 pages

 

The Blitz was in high gear. Nightly the German bombs rained down upon London. Most Londoners felt as if bomb shelters were their new homes. Many families were sending their children to the English countryside or to America to keep them safe. Millie and Reginald Thompson decided to do the same for their eleven-year-old daughter Beatrix.

 

I can’t remember how, or if it was even mentioned in the story, but the Thompson’s chose America and a family in Boston. The voyage was hard on the girl, traveling alone. But the ship made it across the ocean and landed. Beatrix was relieved when her new family claimed her. She was welcomed with open arms.

 

It didn’t take long for Bea, as she was called, to make herself at home and fit into her new lifestyle. Really, the only difference was the Thompsons were upper lower class while the Gregorys were wealthy. One of the things that Bea loved most living with the Gregorys, Nancy and Ethan, and their two sons, Gerald and William, was the summers spent at their cabin in Maine. Oh, what fun they had!

 

When the war ended, Bea was sent back to London. While she had been gone, her father had died, her mother had remarried, and London was still in ruins. As she tried to pick up the pieces, her memories of the Gregorys lingered in the back of her mind. She had grown close to both boys. Nor did the Gregorys forget Bea.

 

What I really like about this story is the way it is told---in short vignettes told from seven viewpoints (those of the seven characters.) What I didn’t like was that the vignette style also allowed the author to gloss over some key moments. Regardless, I would recommend this book to others, and Beyond That, the Sea received 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Audrey Hepburn Estate

The Audrey Hepburn Estate by Brenda Janowitz 368 pages

 

One of my favorite movies of all-time is from 1954. Sabrina, starring Audrey Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart and William Holden. It is an important film, so much so that it “was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.’”

Author Brenda Janowitz, in her eighth novel, has taken the essence of the movie and of Hepburn to craft a warm and surprisingly twisty work. The story is told with two narratives, “Now” and “Then.” 

“Now” is current time. Emma, Henry and Leo grew up on Henry’s grandparents’ Long Island estate, known as Rolling Hill.  The grand mansion has fallen into such disrepair that it is beyond saving. Or so says Leo, who has recently purchased the estate and plans to raze it. Emma has not seen Leo in almost seven years. It had been even longer since she had seen Henry. “Then” fills in the backstory, giving the reader insight into the characters as children and young adults.

Since Emma was eight years old, she knew that Henry was the one for her. They were childhood sweethearts. Janowitz reverses male roles. Think Henry in the Linus/Bogart role. Leo, the driver’s son, had been in love with Emma since they played together as children. Leo has the William Holden role. Since Leo first met Emma, he knew that she was the one for him. Who will Emma cling to in the turmoil that lies ahead.?

Emma returns to Rolling Hill for a trip down memory lane. What she didn’t know was that the house held more than one secret. She tried to get to Leo not to raze the house, but she was talking to deaf ears. She goes so far as to join the local historical society in the hopes of obtaining an injunction against Leo and his company.  Along the way, Janowitz throws in a few twists that turned the story in a different, yet same, direction.

Be sure to read the Appendix, “Finding Audrey Hepburn in ‘The Audrey Hepburn Estate.’”

The Audrey Hepburn Estate receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

 

 

 

The Lost Girls of Willowbrook

 The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman 304 Pages 

Author Ellen Marie Wiseman’s new novel opens with one of the best first sentences I have come across in a long time: “People still search the woods for the remains of lost children.” WOW! That sentence grabbed me by the throat and didn’t let go until I got to the end. And as I read, Wiseman’s story became more and more horrifying. Stephen King doesn’t write stories as scary as this one. 

The novel is set in the real-life Willowbrook State School, a state-supported institution for children with intellectual disabilities located in the Willowbrook neighborhood on Staten Island in New York City from 1947 until 1987. The school was designed for 4,000, but by 1965 it had a population of 6,000. When the novel takes place, it is 1971 with a population of 8,000. Many New York parents threatened to send their misbehaving children there.

“State School” is a misnomer. There was no teaching going on in the forty-building campus; It was a dumping ground for mental, physical, and emotionally disabled children. Every scary story you have ever heard about these places comes out in this novel: beatings drugs, sexual abuses, starvations.  

The novel opens with sixteen-year-old Sage Winters on her way to Willowbrook. She has recently learned that not only her twin sister, Rosemary, whom she thought was dead, is still alive, but she has spent the last six years there, plus she is now missing. Sage doesn’t know much about Willowbrook, but she knows she cannot rest until her sister is found. 

Sage is headed there to form a search party, or whatever needs to be done to find Rosemary. But when she arrives, the staff believe that she is her sister and treat her as such. She is sedated and thrown into Rosemary’s routine. It was an easy way to get inside, true, but the place is a nightmare.  The book’s publisher, Kensington Books, says that is “conjures “Girl, Interrupted” meets “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”  

There is, however, one bright spot: Eddie, one of the janitors, can tell the girls apart. He vows to help her get out of there. The trip to the tunnels that beneath the building is as terrifying as what goes on above them. 

This is not a beach read. It's a hard read, but one that I could not put down. Some of the descriptions of the conditions there made me gag.  “The Lost Girls of Willowbrook” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

 

The Good Son

“The Good Son” by Jacquelyn Mitchard 352 pages

When Stefan Demetriou was seventeen years old, he got hooked on drugs. For each new drug he tried, he became addicted to it. One night, the drugs fueled a deeply hidden rage in Stefan that caused him to brutally murder his girlfriend, Belinda. However, Stefan has no memory of his actions. 

Sentenced to prison as an adult, the novel opens, three years later, when Stefan is released. To quote the back cover, “he’s released to a world that refuses to let him move on” and a world he does not recognize. Life on the outside is hard for Stefan. He wants to make amends for what he’s done, but the community doesn’t seem to want to help him. 

I have never read a novel that focused on the hardships convicted felons endure after their release. Stefan fails at first in his new venture, but I thought he succeeded too quickly. It was almost too easy. I don’t think it would be easy to do what he wanted to, even if he hadn’t been an ex-con. 

His mother, Thea, is also struggling. For the last three years, Belinda’s mother continues to lead a group who protests in front of Thea’s home who won’t let Belinda’s death be forgotten. It’s a daily reminder of what happened to her son. Thea isn’t so sure that what happened the night Belinda died is the truth. She teams up with the detective who initially investigated the murder in order to learn the facts.

 “The Good Son” receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix

So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix by Bethany C. Morrow 304 pages

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I requested this book from Bookishfirst.com. Like most everyone else in the world, I adored Louisa May Alcott’s “Little Women” and was excited to see what author Morrow would do with it.  Well, the cover gives part of it away, but, still, I was curious as so what Morrow would do with the story.

The timeframe was consistent, the American Civil War (1863-1866). But instead of a poor Northern family with their father serving as a chaplain in the Union Army, the March family is living in North Carolina in the Freedpeople’s Colony of Roanoke Island. As a history nerd, I was confused. Every time I read Roanoke, I immediately thought of the attempt by the English to establish a colony on the island in 1587. I had no idea that after the English settlers disappeared, the island became a haven for freedpeople of color. Some background would have been nice, but the story structure really didn't lend itself to a backstory of this nature.

Another thing that confused, and somewhat irritated me, was the title the sisters used to refer to their mother. In the Alcott version, it was Marmee, but in this version, it was Mammy. The first time I read it I was offended, but then quickly realized the timeframe of the story. However, the etymology of “Mammy” is “black woman having the care of white children.” That didn’t fit the story to me at all, but in hindsight, maybe that was what Mammy did before they escaped to the Freedpeople’s Colony, but it’s unclear to me.

The girls seemed both different and alike to Alcott’s version. However, there was something about them that didn’t allow me to care much about them. There was a lack of tension throughout the book, no compelling reason to turn the page---and that is what prompts me to say that “So Many Beginnings: ‘A Little Women Remix’” receives 1 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world. 

 

Moon Water

Moon Water by Pam Webber 280 pages

I didn’t know this novel was a follow-up to author Webber’s “The Wiregrass,” until I looked up the page count. Doesn’t matter, while it may be a follow-up novel, this is a true stand-alone.

It’s the summer of ’69 in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. Lots of changes are happening in the country, but they don’t seem to touch these small mountain towns. Sixteen-year-old best friends Nettie and Win have a “project” to complete. Win’s grandmother, Nibi, is a Monacan Indian medicine woman. She knows “the darkness” is coming, hard times, but she cannot put her finger on what will happen. In order to prepare the girls for the event, she teaches them how to build a dreamcatcher. Nibi warns them that it won’t be easy—it will be journey that will shape the girls’ lives.

It wasn’t easy mining for the amethyst for the middle of the dreamcatcher, killing a dear in order to get the sinew, searching for golden eagle and white owl feathers and digging for arrowheads. These scenes bring in the setting as a character, which becomes important in the last third of the novel.

Other than the dreamcatcher, Nettie’s summer plans include trying to figure out her relationship with her longtime boyfriend Andy, even though they have broken up. Andy seems to be dating by her arch-nemesis, Anne.  And more than anything, Nettie wants to get baptized in the local Baptist church, but her doubts, and the fact that she voices them, stops the local preacher from baptizing her. The preacher has turned Nettie’s doubts over to the assistant preacher, which creates a “darkness” of its own.

Then the darkness arrives, seemingly out of the blue. The only ones prepared are Nibi and, somewhat, the girls, and Again, setting place an important part of the story in the tragedy that unfolds. I would love to say more, but I don’t want to give it away.

I really enjoyed learning about Nibi’s life as a medicine woman and life in the mountains. “Moon Water ” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

Later

 Later by Stephen King 264 pages

Summary from Goodreads: The son of a struggling single mother, Jamie Conklin just wants an ordinary childhood. But Jamie is no ordinary child. Born with an unnatural ability his mom urges him to keep secret, Jamie can see what no one else can see and learn what no one else can learn. But the cost of using this ability is higher than Jamie can imagine - as he discovers when an NYPD detective draws him into the pursuit of a killer who has threatened to strike from beyond the grave.

And here's what I thought: This is another story from King that follows a pulp classic style. With a smooth pace, King builds a story that keeps the tension throughout the story. The main character is sympathetic and well-written, and it's easy to get immersed in the story. And of course, there are some elements of horror, as you would expect. If you like your coming-of-age stories with some dark twists, this is your story. 

How To Build a Girl

How To Build a Girl: A Novel by Caitlin Moran   368 pages

An excellent book!      WHile it is very much a coming of age book for a 14 year old girl through her 17th birthday year,  the things Johanna Morrigan/Dolly WIlde get up to during those 3 hot years would make Lolita blush.   It is funny and bawdy and I kept thinking how lucky this young girl was she was never in a situation she couldn't talk her way out of because she puts herself out there in so many ways - YIKES!!!  It is a wonderful story, though,  Johanna Morrigan reinvents herself as Dolly WIlde and lives up to name.  She embraces the sexual knowledge she gleans from the library books she reads and puts her learning to good use as a sexual adventurer.   She keeps such a good attitude the whole way through with everything a new learning experience.   I applaud her.   Now I must go check out the film with Jonah Hill's little sister, Beanie Feldstein playing the lead character.   I am not sure I would recommend this one for even mature teens because I wouldn't want their impressionable minds thinking of copying Dolly, who led a charmed life given her circumstances.   This is definitely adult behavior being discussed disguised as a 14 year old.    I do recommend this book, o.k. very mature teens, like 18 year olds  on up.   I think everyone who enjoyed a liberal upbringing will enjoy this book..

East Coast Girls

 East Coast Girls by Kerry Kletter  368 pages

 There is nothing new in the plot of “East Coast Girls”: Four best friends are traumatized from an event that happened when they graduated from high school, twelve years ago. HOWEVER, what makes this one different is the lyrical, literary writing and the event that happened was shocking, totally catching me off guard.

Best friends Hannah, Blue, Renee and Maya spent their summers at Montauk, Long Island, at Blue’s nana’s cabin. Since their last summer there, twelve years ago, they have barely spoken or seen each other. That night destroyed the family bond that they had created and left each of them adrift, all their dreams

Hannah has no life other than sitting at the bedside of her high school boyfriend, Henry, hoping and praying that his brain will begin to work again. She is a neurotic mess, barely able to function without Xanax and is a total germaphobe.

Maya drifts from job to job, never keeping one for very long and watches her bills pile up. If she doesn’t get it together soon, she will become homeless.

Blue lives in Manhattan and is the most successful of the four. But she, too has paid a price. She’s a workaholic, but I was never really sure exactly what she did—real estate? Wall Street?  Whatever it was, she is a wealthy woman. Lonely as hell, but wealthy. She does stay touch with Maya, but only because Maya needs money---all the time.

Renee, well, only Maya seems to know about her. She and Blue had a huge falling out, but no knows what it concerned.

Now, as the girls are celebrating their thirtieth birthday’s, Maya is getting the gang back together at Nana’s cabin in Montauk.  Will they ever be able to re-capture their dependence on each other?  Can they ever let the past go?

I LOVED this book. I was hooked from Page One until the very end. I really like that author Kletter didn’t give away the shocking event until almost the end. That way I had had time to conjure up images of what I believe happened, but nothing prepared me for the shock.  “East Coast Girls” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Girls with No Names

 The Girls with No Names by Serena Burdick  336 pages

 It never fails to surprise me when I read about atrocities that humans commit upon each other.  At the heart of this novel is the House of Mercy. A historical reality in New York that many families threatened unruly daughters and wives with unless they conformed to societal rules.

 

It is 1913. Sisters Effie and Luella are spoiled, wealthy young ladies, in their early teens I believe, who do their best to be like all the other girls their ages. Their father isn’t around much and their mother is cold and distant and almost obsessively religious.  I found this surprising considering Effie’s heart defect. She hasn’t been expected to live as long as she has. I thought she’d be more coddled and fussed over.

 

While out exploring the nearby woods, the girls wander upon a gypsy camp. Luella is mesmerized. Night after night, the girls sneak out of the house to the woods’ fringes and eventually into the company of these mesmerizing free spirits. Luella feels that they know the secrets of her soul.

 

Then, unexpectedly and shockingly to the sisters, their father begins to take them to lunch at Delmonico’s. At first, they are excited and stunned. Stunned by Father’s actions. In time, Luella figures it out: Father is using them as a cover to be seen publicly with his mistress.

 

When Luella runs away from home, Effie is certain that Father has sent her up the hill to the House of Mercy. Although her heart slows her down, Effie is convinced that she can save her sister.  Effie manages to run away from home and get herself taken up to the House.

 

Once Effie realizes that her sister isn’t there, no one believes her story---that she doesn’t belong there, that all the staff has to do is contact her parents.  After a while, a heart wrenching while, Effie makes friend with one of the other girls, Mabel.

 

I found the structure of this novel perplexing.  It’s told from three points of view: Effie’s, her mother’s and Mabel’s.  Why didn’t we hear from Luella?  Another point of contention that I have is that there is no real suspense in the story. Once the author let me know what each chapter’s story was, I knew what was going to happen.  Based on these points “The Girls with No Names” receives 3 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

The Myth of Perpetual Summer

The Myth of Perpetual Summer by Susan Crandall  368 pages

Not long ago I wrote a review for Joanne Bischof’s Sons of Blackbird Mountain. I call it the first “must read” of 2018. Well, I just found the second “must read” of the year, The Myth of Perpetual Summer, and probably the best beach read I’ve ever come across. To quote the back cover, “A struggling girl uncovers her family’s history and sees how the lies of the past echo throughout their dysfunctional lives today.”

It sounds cliché to say that this novel about family and the secrets they harbor is haunting, powerful and beautifully writer, but those are the best words to describe this story. It’s Southern gothic at it’s finest.

The story starts in August 1972 in San Francisco. Tallulah James has just learned that her brother, Walden, had been arrested for murder in New Orleans. Readers may think this is going to be about Walden, but it’s really about Tallulah. All she knows is that she must get home to him, a home that she left nine years ago and has not been in contact with her family since.

The story revolves around Tallaluah’s growing up in Lamoyne, Mississippi with her two brothers, sister, parents, and grandmother. Chapter Two shifts back to 1958 Lamoyne. Her parents are largely absent, and she feels the weight of raising her twin younger siblings, not to mention making sure the family’s reputation doesn’t get any more smeared than it already is. Her dad is a professor at the local college, and her mother is more interested in “causes” than in child-rearing. Their explosive relationship plays havoc on the entire family. The matriarch of the family, is the Southern-to-the-bone grandmother, who does her best to guard the family’s secrets and.

There is some beautiful writing in this novel, and here are a few lines that I just adored:

            “…everyone knows that is brains were leather, Grayson wouldn’t have enough to saddle a June bug.)”

            “He knows more hiding places in this town than a stray cat.”

            “I will the storm to take is time as the grumbling sky argues for a faster arrival.”

            “The anew quickly spread to Margo, a forest fire hopping from tree to tree.”

But then betrayal and death shake Tallaluah to the core.

I have never read Crandall before, but I’m sure gonna get some of her books. The Myth of Perpetual Summer receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

motorcycle ride on the sea of tranquility

motorcycle ride on the sea of tranquility by Patricia Santana   276 pages

I remember reading this book years ago and loving it.  Since I can’t remember exactly when, I checked the copyright page, a first edition from 2002. I checked Amazon and it says 2004.  I just remember loving it.  I’ve had its follow up, ghosts of el grullo, on my shelf for years. I wanted to read that, so I knew that I had to go back and read this one so the story would be fresh.

The time is 1969. Vietnam is raging. Chuy Sahagun is coming home from the war, and one of his sisters (there are five) is so excited. Chuy is fourteen-year-old Yolanda’s favorite of her four brothers. The story opens as the family is preparing for Chuy to arrive at their San Diego suburb home. The decorations are going up, the food is being prepared, and the music is being selected. No one know for sure when Chuy will arrive, but they want to be ready.

When he does arrive, it is obvious that he is not the same person. He hardly speaks, and stands at attention. The family feels the strangeness, yet don’t push him. After only a few days at home, he takes off on a motorcycle, without a word to anyone, which he has just acquired.

The Sahagun family is quite worried, but life goes on. We see Yoli struggle to grow up in a three-bedroom home where eleven people (well, now that Chuy is gone, ten) people live.

After four months away with barely any contact, Chuy arrives home on July 20, the day Neil Armstrong walks on the moon. Chuy pulls up just as the event is about to happen and the family misses it. Chuy still hasn’t returned to his former self, and winds up being diagnosed with PTSD and in and out of the VA hospital.

Yoli is the narrator or this first-person tale about life growing up in the summer of ‘69, when America was changing faster than a teenager’s body. Chuy and his struggle to adapt once he’s back home is the catalyst that propels this novel.

 I didn’t like care for motorcycle ride on the sea of tranquility as much as I did when I first read it. It’s a great read, but the Spanish words that weren’t translated made it seem a little choppy. Still, I found that old fondness for Yoli’s wonderful voice, which prompts motorcycle ride on the sea of tranquility to receive 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.