In accordance to the FTC guidelines, I must state that I make no monetary gains from my reviews or endorsements here on Confessions of a Literary Persuasion. All books I review are either borrowed, purchased by me, given as a gift, won, or received in exchange for my honest review of the book in question.

26 October, 2012

Book Review:Veil of Roses by Laura Fitzgerald

Publisher: Bantam
Publication Date: December 26, 2006

Tamil Soroush is depressed. Living in Iran as a teacher at a girls school, she becomes depressed. The regime ruling the country and it's anti women laws are smothering her dreams. Her parents, who have had their passports confiscated and cannot leave the country manage to get her a passport, and a visitor's visa to go visit her older sister in the United States. The unspoken wish is for her to be able to find a husband who is a citizen so that she does not have to continue to live in her home country.

When she steps off the plane in Tuscon, she is overwhelmed with the differences between the countries. She enrolls in an English language class, and starts to really explore the freedoms that she sees as taken for granted here in America. As she documents her experiences through photographs that explore these "little freedoms" and makes friends she id followed by the threat of "if I don't get married I have to go back home and may never get a chance to come here again."

Her culture is one that follows the custom of arranged marriages. She is resigned to the fact that she will get married and then grow to know her husband. This is challenged when she meets and falls in love with Ike, an American barista at Starbucks who is not Persian, not financially stable, but who loves her for herself. When the man she is arranged to marry presents her with a prenuptial agreement that includes a clause that states that if there is a divorce Iranian laws concerning custody would be followed, Tamil knows she can not get married. The threat of losing her future children and not being allowed contact if divorced is one that she will not have hanging over her marriage.

With the date of her return to Iran as an unmarried woman looms closer, Tamil wonders if her life will include the happiness that she dreams of.

This chick-lit book was one that I absolutely loved. I was drawn into Tamil's conflicts between the way she was raised in Iran and the freedoms she experiences as she starts her travels in the United States. While the book does gloss over the way women are treated in Iran under it's very religious rule, it humanized the struggles experienced there in a very engaging way. This story, like most chick lit books had a happy ending but what amazed me was the fact that it was one that was not just "The main character falls in love and gets married." Instead it focused on Tamil embracing her dreams and learning to live life for herself as well as the man she loves. I loved the fact that while her family expected her to follow tradition and marry a man from her culture in order to stay in America, they stood by her when she falls in love with someone who is not what they expected.

This was a sweet and thought provoking story that I could not put down.(less)

02 October, 2012

Books Wild Released in September 2012

Books wild released in September 2012
1.) Rich in Love by Josephine Humphreys on 9/5/2012
2.) Don't Sit Under The Grits Tree With Anyone Else But Me by Lewis Grizzardon 9/5/2012
3.) Over the Horizon (Harlequin Superromance No. 479) by Kaye Waltonon 9/5/2012
4.) The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carteron 9/5/2012
5.) Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton on 9/5/2012
6.) Vegetable Soup (Sesame Street Book Club) by Judy Freudberg, Tony Geiss on 9/7/2012
7.) Joined By Marriage by Carole Mortimerv on 9/10/2012
8.) Of Love and Intrigue by Virginia Coffman on 9/10/2012
9.) A Quiver Full of Arrows by Jeffrey Archer on 9/11/2012
10.) Licence to Kill by Michael G. Wilson, Richard Maibaum on 9/17/2012
11.) Rat Race by Dick Francis on 9/17/2012
12.) The Different Drum: Community Making and Peace by M. SCOTT PECK on 9/17/2012
13.) A Time for Love (Harlequin Presents, No. 1566) by Amanda Browning on 9/24/2012
14.) Murder at the Feast of Rejoicing (Lord Meren Mysteries) by Lynda S. Robinson on 9/24/2012
15.) Centaur Aisle (The Magic of Xanth, No. 4) by Piers Anthony on 9/24/2012

01 October, 2012

Books Read in September 2012

Audiobooks:

1.) Naamah's Kiss by Jacqueline Carey
2.) Cinder by Marissa Meyer
3.) The Emerald Atlas by John Stephens
4.) The Eleventh Plague by Jeff Hirsch

e-books:

1.) A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
2.) All about Emily by Connie Willis, J.K. Potter (Illustrator) (novella)
3.) All Seated on the Ground by Connie Willis (novella)
4.) And Other Stories by Emma Bull, Will Shetterly

Print Copies:

1.) Port Eternity by C.J. Cherryh
2.) The Black Mountains by Fred Saberhagen
3.) Wolf Pack by Robert N. Charrette
4.) Joined By Marriage by Carole Mortimer
5.) Of Love and Intrigue by Virginia Coffman
6.) Virginia Coffman by Jeffrey Archer
7.) Dragon Wing by Margaret Weis, & Tracy Hickman
8.) The Rat-Catcher's Daughter by Laurance Houusman, Julia Nooman (Illustrator)
9.) After You've Gone by Jeffrey Lent