BOOK REVIEW: The Beautiful Daughters - Nicole Baart

The Beautiful Daughters by Nicole Baart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

You can run from your past for only so long. For every five steps forward you take, your past takes six, until the distance between tomorrow, today and yesterday is no more than the space between heartbeats.

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Harper has a secret.

One that only three people in the whole world know. One of those three can't reveal Harper's secret... at least not any longer. Another won't reveal Harper's secret because to do so would reveal his own secret, and he will go to any lengths to prevent that. And the third person...?

She doesn't know yet that the secret she possesses is not the secret she is hiding.

She doesn't know yet that time and distance cannot stop the power of a secret.

She doesn't know yet that no amount of penance can still the power of a secret.

But she is about to find out. And when she does, the carefully-crafted life that she has now will be irrevocably changed.

Harper has a secret.

But she is not the only one.

************

Adri has a secret.

One that only three people in the whole world know. One of those three can't reveal Adri's secret... at least not any longer. Another won't reveal Adri's secret because to do so would reveal her own, something she is determined to prevent the disclosure of. And the third person...?

She doesn't know yet that the secret she possesses is not the secret she is hiding.

She doesn't know yet that time and distance cannot stop the power of a secret.

She doesn't know yet that no amount of penance can still the power of a secret.

She is about to find out. And when she does, the carefully-crafted life that she has painstakingly built will be changed, and there is no turning back.

Adri has a secret.

But she is not the only one.

************
In The Beautiful Daughters, the hugely talented writer Nicole Baart combines her gift for rich, textured prose with her gift of compassion and empathy for the human condition to weave a tale that is both as old as time itself and as new and fresh as this morning's sunrise.

The Beautiful Daughters is the story of two daughters... daughters not by blood, but by a bond as strong as blood. It is a story of secrets. It is a story of penance. Of redemption. And second chances.

The Beautiful Daughters is the poignantly moving and powerful story of two young women and their journey through present and past to find their future.

With her keen understanding of the human condition and a seemingly bottomless well of compassion for humanity in all its shades, Nicole tackles a subject that – sorry, no spoilers here! – will make some people uncomfortable. But, as Nicole knows all too well, fiction is a reflection of reality… one that is sometimes sharper and more defined… and writers are more than just storytellers. We are chroniclers of humanity.

I recommend The Beautiful Daughters without reservation. This is a story that will stay with you long after the last page has been turned.

Thank you,

Veronica Marie Lewis-Shaw
16 August 2015
(Writing under a large mushroom somewhere in the Pacific Northwest)




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OUT OF THE CLUTTER OF A WRITER'S MIND - Perspective... It Is What It Is... Or Is It?

© 2015 – Veronica Marie Lewis-Shaw

“Nobody sees the world the way you do.” – Nicole Baart

That is probably a writer’s greatest truth.  Or at least right up there near the top of the truth list.  I like what writer and author, Nicole Baart says in her blog about how each of us brings our own perspective to the world - As You See It - Nicole Baart | Author.  We do… we all have stories to tell and each one of us brings with our stories the colorings and shadings of our own unique perspective on and of the world.

So why then are we often hesitant to share?  Why do we think our story isn’t “good enough”? 

This isn’t something that plagues only the debut writer; accomplished and much-published authors suffer the same ‘affliction’ on occasion.  Once we accept our ‘uniqueness’ and what that can bring to a story, we should want, as Nicole wrote, to “shout it from the rooftops!”.

I think it is often more than just a belief that our story isn’t ‘good enough’.  

I believe for many of us, it is the sudden and certain knowledge that we are revealing more of ourselves than we are comfortable with.  Writers, like actors, musicians and other artists, have a fairly healthy, if slightly-inflated, ego and a desire to be seen and heard… to share our craft… our vision of a part of the world that has captured our attention.

But are we ready to share a part of our soul?  A glimpse inside of us that we have, until now, revealed only to a lover?  Are we ready to reveal, even obliquely, a dark part of our past that until now we’ve kept hidden away in an old wooden cigar box way back in the corner of a seldom used closet, up on the top shelf under a pile of out of fashion cardigans?

As adults, there is an intimacy in our writing that is sometimes not as easily shared as when we regaled our fifth grade class with stories of our family camping trip in the Tetons.

And that gives us pause.

As it should. 

Reflection isn’t just what one sees in a mirror or the still water of a cold mountain lake before the sun rises too high and turns the vibrant colors of morning to midday pastels.

It reminds us why we write.  Why we took up this craft that has the potential for fame or infamy… for wealth or penury… for celebrity or solitude.

There are probably as many reasons why we write as there are stars in the sky.  Each of us has our own particular reason or reasons.  For some it is to share the blessings in and of their lives.  For others, writing is a penance… a tether to a past that won’t let go.

Writing is our raison d'etre.

We write to be remembered. 

We write to be remembered for our stories.

 

Our stories may have bits and bits of ourselves, our past and our present, but the stories themselves are not about us.  They are stories of a female police detective with a past… a New York City private eye bringing his own justice to an unjust world…  a young woman who finds her own grace through the ones that love her unconditionally.

Hmm... I seem to have drifted a bit from the topic at hand.  Let me close with this...

We will always see ourselves as less ‘interesting’ than others see us.

And a little humility is not a bad thing for a writer.

It helps keep things in perspective.

~

© 2015 – Veronica Marie Lewis-Shaw

(writing under a large mushroom somewhere in the Pacific Northwest)

BOOK REVIEW - NICOLE BAART: SLEEPING IN EDEN

Sleeping in Eden: A Novel by Nicole Baart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

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(Reviewer’s note – I am an independent writer.  In addition to reviewing books that I myself have purchased, I am also a freelance reviewer for Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster.  My reviews are based solely on the merits of the book, and I receive no remuneration from the publisher or author, other than a copy of the book, in exchange for posting a review on my blogs, GoodReads and Amazon.  The following is my review of Nicole Baart’s SLEEPING IN EDEN; purchased on Amazon.  Thank you – vmls)

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Sleeping in Eden is told in alternating chapters… present and past drawing nearer with each turn of the page of this story of life and of death… and all the paths between the two.

*

The discovery of a body just beneath the hard-pack floor of a disused barn - the scene of an apparent suicide Dr. Lucas Hudson has been called out on, to act as coroner on the case, is the beginning of the unraveling of a lie that has chained three families to a past not entirely of their choosing and has now brought a fourth family into a mystery almost a decade old.

*

Oh what a tangled web we weave.  When Lucas holds back what will later turn out to be a crucial piece of evidence, the ‘good doctor’ takes that first step into the web.  Why did he do it?  Leverage in a failing relationship?  A desperate attempt to plug the leak in his marriage before it sinks completely?  Will what started out for Lucas as a little lie, end up destroying him and what little chance left to his marriage?  Even as Lucas questions his own motives behind this fresh deceit, he is unable to understand his wife Jenna’s continued grieving over a loss years before; a loss Lucas seems unwilling or unable to understand or share.  The river of denial runs deep in some.

*

Fifteen year-old Meg Painter doesn’t ‘play safe’ like most girls.  She isn’t afraid of scrapes, bruises and torn nails.  She also doesn’t ‘play it safe’ when it comes to boys, as is soon evidenced in how hard she falls for the new kid on the block, Dylan Reid.

Dylan is a bit of a mystery… a troubled boy, some instinctively sense and try to warn Meg about… a mystery with a past, who at times seems oblivious to Meg’s feelings, or perhaps he does but his young heart, already battle-scarred, isn’t ready to go back in to the fray just yet.

So, where does that leave Meg?  Meg finds out that, as the author so eloquently puts it, “… death by devotion is a slow, aching bleed.”

Jess Langbroek, the third side in this teenage love triangle, loves Meg with a intensity almost as fierce as Meg’s own independence.  Jess is the ‘safe choice’… every girl’s parent’s ‘dream’.

But…

Meg is torn.  Meg doesn’t want to play safe.  Meg doesn’t want what it seems everyone else wants for her.  Meg desperately wants to “step out of her perfect, pre-planned life” and make her own choices… live her own life.


The ‘echoes’ of Meg’s choices will one day haunt a man already haunted by ghosts of the past.

*

And that’s probably a good place to stop.  I don’t want to give too much away.

~*~

I love the structure of this story… it really could not have been written any other way.  Nicole has crafted an absorbing and spell-binding tale that fans of mystery and of contemporary fiction alike will ‘devour’, and then ask for more.

Suspenseful, fast-paced, impossible to put down… Nicole Baart’s latest novel, Sleeping in Eden, is all this and more.  Having already proven her gift of finely-crafted prose in previous novels, Sleeping in Eden more than satisfies readers’ expectations from this extremely talented author.  Nicole’s skill in setting a scene and creating mood with ‘pitch-perfect’ pacing and compelling narrative style will have readers talking about Sleeping in Eden for a very long time to come.

Nicole writes with passion and compassion, drawing on her own experiences and understanding of the unique nature of the family of man.  One of the most satisfying things about her novels is the characters she draws… real, vulnerable, redemptive… complicated and unpredictable at times... there is a dimensionality to the people in Nicole’s writing that has become a trademark and one of the reasons she consistently brings out best-seller caliber novels.  They are drawn in such a way that the reader can’t help but connect at some level.  There is a relatability… I think that’s the word I want to use… that pulls the reader into the story.

And un-stereotypical characters… let’s not forget that.  In Lucas Hudson, Nicole has written a truly rich character… a chimera of the two male stereotypes most often identified with.  Normally a safe, ethical and reliable man, a faithful and responsible man… the deepening mystery in the barn brings out in Lucas, the ‘bad boy’… questionable motives and ethics, setting aside his own accountability and becoming tangled up in sins of omission and unwelcome desires he can’t quite seem to vanquish.

*

Teen angst… unrequited love… a mystery that demands to be solved… coming of age… we’ve all read books before that had at least one of those elements as the main plot.  In Sleeping in Eden, Nicole takes these elements and weaves an indelibly sharp and poignant story of lives crossing time… innocence lost…love lost… and love found… of forgiveness and second chances… of seeing beyond one’s own self… of ‘waking up’.

Beautiful and bittersweet, Sleeping in Eden is at once a mystery… a love story… a cautionary tale of walking through life with eyes half-shut, unaware of the life around us, our impact on others and theirs on us.

It is a reminder that faith, fate, destiny, karma - whatever you want to call it - brings one back to the grace they had once lost and the true path of their journey.

~*~

I recommend Sleeping in Eden without reservation.  This may just be Nicole’s best yet; written with verve and authority, and a unique understanding of the human condition.  Beautiful prose, engaging characters and a plot that will keep you engaged to the very end… make Sleeping in Eden a ‘must-read’.



Thank you.

Veronica Marie Lewis-Shaw
29 June 2013
(Writing under a large mushroom, somewhere in the Pacific Northwest)
veronicathepajamathief@hotmail.com



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BOOK REVIEW - NICOLE BAART: FAR FROM HERE

Far From Here by Nicole Baart

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Reviewer’s note – I am an independent writer.  I am also a freelance reviewer for Howard Books, a division of Simon & Schuster.  What this basically means is that I am on an email list, and the publisher notifies me of new releases.  If I see a book that I like, they will send me a copy. In other words, I choose the book that I wish to read and I write a review and post it on my websites.  My reviews are based solely on the merits of the book, and I receive no remuneration from the publisher or author, other than a copy of the book, in exchange for posting a review on my blogs.  I also post my reviews on GoodReads.  The following is my review of Nicole Baart’s Far From Here.  Thank you – vmls)

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Nicole Baart has written an inspiring story of hope and human frailty, weaving a rich tapestry with the finely crafted, beautiful prose we have come to expect from this immensely talented writer, and the all too realistically drawn characters that can only come from someone with the unique and compassionate understanding of the human condition that Nicole has.   If we at times are made to feel a bit uncomfortable at something one of her characters says or does, it is only a tribute to Nicole’s incredible skill as both writer and storyteller.

No spoilers here… I promise (well, maybe just a tiny bit.).  Far From Here is more than just a book of roughly 340 pages… it is an experience one cannot fully appreciate through the eyes or words of another.   I do not use the phrase ‘must-read’ lightly, but never has it been more apt than with Far From Here.  Nicole Baart’s latest novel will take you on a journey of joy, pain, happiness and sorrow… a journey of discovery… of revelation… that will leave you healed and renewed… with new hope and promise.

Okay, maybe I will ‘spoil’ it a little… this story is going to make you cry, so grab a big box of Kleenex!

~~**~~

What do you do when your whole world turns on one person, and one day that person is gone?

What do you do when your happy little, perfect world is tilted on its axis… and the life that you knew shatters into a thousand pieces… and you watch helplessly as all those pieces slide away.

Far From Here is a story of love and loss… the journey between the two and the journey through the aftermath… a search for truth… for redemption… a search for ‘self’, not the person we thought we were or the person [we let] someone else define us as.

Redemption is a journey for which the only road map is our heart. It is not always an easy journey, navigating around and through the scars and fissures the life lost has left behind.  And as Danica will come to realize… you can’t find redemption in an ‘echo’ of the past.

But… I’m getting ahead of the story…

~~**~~

Danica Reese meets the ‘boy of her dreams’, the one who makes her soul take flight, when she is sixteen.   Etsell Greene is a young man with an imperfect, through no fault of his own, past… not unlike Danica’s in some respects.  But, broken families don’t always leave broken children… just imperfect children.  Ell and Dani aren’t perfect, but in each other they come as close as two people can.  Or, so Danica comes to believe.

The two seem oddly suited for each other, given Ell’s deep love for flying and Dani’s almost pathological hatred of flying.  But… as some of us know all too well… the heart wants what the heart wants, and it won’t be denied.

Danica and Etsell are married three years later and for the next seven years build a life for themselves, settling into the ‘routine’ of married life. It’s not a perfect life, but love smoothes over the little bumps and detours.

Love is also at times, painfully blind.

One of those ‘bumps’ the two must work through is Ell’s decision to go to Alaska for a period of weeks to help out a pilot friend.  The decision is a unilateral one, but not the first one in their relationship, and the two find a way to work through it.

Little do either realize that their little ‘Xanadu’ is about to be turned inside out.

Ell’s last flight turns into one of ‘no return’ and Danica’s life suddenly stalls, falling into a tailspin.

Over the next several weeks, Dani is forced to re-examine her marriage and try to come to terms with the almost unbearable questions her husband’s disappearance has raised.  And when she learns that Ell was not alone on that last flight, Dani’s carefully crafted life is revealed to be little more than a house of sand, and the ‘wind’ of Ell’s disappearance scatters it… possibly irrevocably.

Out of the wreckage and all the emotions that come with loss – the loss of trust, fidelity, companionship, self - Danica slowly begins to rebuild her life, and in doing so reconnects with her mother and sisters, gaining new insight into herself and her family.  Nicole narrates this in an incredibly profound and moving telling… the resilience of mother and daughters… sisters… the love that was always there and is now made stronger through their shared adversities.

One evening, with [almost] all of the women in Danica’s life gathered around her, a knock comes at the front door…

Who is at the door? Do they bring news… good or bad, it doesn’t matter… do they bring new hope, or only fresh pain?

~~**~~

You’re going to hate me, but I am stopping here.   As I mentioned earlier, Far From Here is a ‘must-read’.   Go buy the book, borrow it from a friend… write me and I will loan you my copy…

But… read this book!

Far From Here is about more than just the relationship between two people… much, much more.

I will close with this…

I met my [now] wife, Christina, on my 21st birthday… five and a half years ago.  When we first met, my life was in tatters… I had no expectation of celebrating a 22nd birthday.   But Tina didn’t see it that way. She was the gravity that pulled the torn pieces of my life back together and made me whole again.

Will Danica find her gravity?



Thank you.

Veronica Marie Lewis-Shaw
11 February 2012
Cannon Beach, Oregon
veronicathepajamathief@hotmail.com


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