Book Blurb:
Lilac in Winter by Susan Pogorzelski
Publication Date: May 26, 2019
Publisher: Brown Beagle Books
Lilac Sophia Carpenter is sixteen years old. She’s going to be sixteen years old for the rest of her life.
Confined to her bed as her health declines, Lilac lives her life in daydreams, imagining her love story to her former best friend, Nathan Emery. But Lilac and Nathan haven’t talked since that fateful night—the night of her sister’s wedding, when her health worsened and his life unraveled and the already-fractured pieces of their friendship became irreparable.
With the comfort of her daydreams becoming more and more elusive, Lilac must decide if reality can be greater than her own imagination when there’s little time left for living.
Goodreads | Amazon | BAM | B&N | Kobo | TBD
My Review:
4 Out Of 5 Stars
Genre: Heart-Wrenching, Teen--
Lilac spends her time day dreaming her life at different ages, ages she will never be since she will not live past age 16. In her dreams she imagines hardships and happiness equally, but the one constant is that she always imagines her ex-best friend Nathan by her side. But Nathan and she have not been friends for years, one event ruined their friendship in a way that could not be fixed. And while Lilac fights a losing battle for more time, Nathan struggles with the unraveling of his family.
I am still not 100% sure what the plot of the book was but I am sure of the way it made me feel. I spent a good chunk of the second half of the story ugly crying over what I was reading but I could not stop reading. There was a big message of acceptance and forgiveness that ran under everything else, but there was no real plot-plot, just sad grief over the loss of a life (for unknown reasons) of a teen girl who dreams so much bigger than her opportunities allow for. I found it interesting how we never knew what Lilac suffered from, yet Susan was able to make the reader suffer and empathize right along with Lilac- her feelings became my feelings. I was sucked into the story, reading it in one sitting, it was a really fast read even while it was hard subject matter.
I loved how while Lilac is making up her elaborate fantasy stories she would drop a tidbit of real life along the way so the reader had to pay attention and put together the puzzles pieces of what was really happening between her family members and her relationship with Nathan. At first I thought there was nothing real life in them and started to realize that she had so many truths buried in her tales. I will say it completely broke my heart when she imagined herself as an old woman and how much she looked forward to the wrinkles and the creaking bones that only age gives- that she will never experience. Excuse me while I go sniffle in the corner...
I am such a sucker for "sick books" as my friends like to call them and this is a prime example of one. The story was equally compelling and heart-wrenching, and I highly recommend that you make sure you have some tissues near by- you will need them!(and maybe don't read the second half of the book in public, it might get messy.) I can't wait to pick up another tear jerker from Susan in the future.
I reviewed a complementary copy of this title.
Author Bio:
Susan Pogorzelski is the award-winning author of Gold in the Days of Summer: A Novella.Her first full-length novel, The Last Letter, is a semi-autobiographical account of her experiences living with Chronic Lyme Disease and was an Honorable Mention in the 25th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards. When she's not writing her own stories of nostalgia and the magic of everyday life, she works as a consultant, editor, and creative coach at Brown Beagle Books and is the founder of LymeBrave Foundation, Inc. She lives in South-Central Pennsylvania with her family and two dogs.
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Pinterest | Instagram | Tumblr | Goodreads
a Rafflecopter giveaway
You can follow the Lilac in Winter Schedule HERE
Blog Tour provided by Chapter by Chapter Blog Tours
No comments:
Post a Comment