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To
make matters worse for her, the stress of school and extra curricular work
mounts and suddenly, shockingly, booze-fuelled tragedy strikes. Erin is now
under greater pressure as she spends all hours to produce a mural and other
work to commemorate the death of a teen friend. Bill, Jake and Shari support
her in all this...
But
more tragedy lurks nearby… until it’s time to softly say goodbye.
This book is amazing! As the mother of teenagers, I can attest to having the "drinking" discussion. You have no idea how many times I've told them about drinking and driving. Well perhaps you know since many of you are mothers as well. This book is a perfect example to give to your teenager. It is done in such a tasteful manner, but the message is loud and clear. For every action there is a counter action and in the case of drinking and driving those actions can be disastrous!
The characters in this book are strongly written. The kewl krew I can remember from my own days in high school. Luckily I wasn't a part of them nor did I ever want to be, and even luckier for me as a parent my children have no desire to be with those kids either. *thank god*
The main characters in this story are such strong characters. They stand by their beliefs even knowing that there could be consequences to their actions they still do what feels right to them. Erin Sellers is a wonderful young woman, and artist and has such a large heart. Her boyfriend Bill, Shari and Jake all take a large role in this storyline. The friendship and comradery of these teens is fabulous. Their loyalty to each other even when one of them Tiana turns away shows just how mature they are from the circumstances in their lives. Bill is a wonderful young man regardless of the absolute piece of trash father he has, in this case the Apple fell miles away from the tree.
I can't say how very much I think this book is of value on so many different levels. First of all it deals with some major topics, abuse both mental and physical, alcoholism, underage drinking, and death. This book you will not want to put down and you will most definitely need a box of tissues nearby. I highly recommend this book to mothers and fathers of teens and recommend one very big thing... GIVE IT TO YOUR TEENS TO READ!
5 Breathtaking stars for K.C. Sprayberry. I have to say I loved your take on teens and didn't show them to be these perfect little things but people with real issues and peer pressure. Thank you for a wonderful novel.
Details/Disclaimer: Review copy was provided to me in exchange for a fair and honest review. The free book held no determination on my personal review.
How
I wish for the old days, when nothing got her down. She went into a total slide
after her mom went to jail for the DUI. My crew and I want to help, but her
home life is such a bummer. Her dad smokes pot from the time he gets off work
until he passes out around ten or eleven every night. And she has to deal with
her mom's stupid remarks whenever the woman calls, and her dad's drug
addiction, but she is so cool about staying off the stuff herself.
“Does
everyone understand I won't tolerate any reason for avoiding this project?” he
asks.
His
voice warms up a little. Almost like going from minus one to zero on the
thermometer. Like me, the rest of the class sits quietly with pencils or pens
poised above notebooks. No one wants to piss him off any more than he already
is.
“Fine.”
He searches the top of his desk as a question occurs to me.
“Uh, Mr. Janks?
“Yes,
Erin.” No patience in his voice, just a lot of suppressed anger, like he thinks
I'm about to make trouble.
No
one, but no one, can accuse me of causing problems on purpose. If anything, I
go out of my way to avoid notice and trouble, except telling off any teen
drinking booze. The urge to say “it doesn’t matter” almost makes me change my
mind, but I really have to know something.
“Will
we have to get permission from the city to do this project? I mean, you used
the Rec Center as an example. We can't just go in and do what we want unless
someone approves it. Right?”
I am happily married to a man I met while in the Air Force. We recently celebrated our 18 years of marriage. Our teen, the youngest of 8, keeps us on our toes with his band activities. Writing is something I've done since I was very young. At first, it was in a diary and then I poured all my energies into English compositions, earning praise from my Advanced Composition teacher in high school for an extremely visual project. While in the Air Force, I placed second in the Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge's annual contest and from then on, was hooked. However, the reality of a military career and raising children forced me to put off attempting publication until my husband and I moved to Georgia. It was after the birth of our now teen that I began taking courses through The Institute of Children's Literature, Long Ridge Writer's Group, and Writers Digest in an effort to make my life's dream come true.
We
live in Northwest Georgia, in a small town, where I write Romance, Westerns,
Young Adult, and Middle Grade stories, both short and book length. More than a
dozen of my short stories have appeared in magazines such as Listen Magazine,
Brio, and The Pink Chameleon website. I also have short stories in anthologies,
Passionate Hearts Anthology, Mystery Times Ten, The Best of Frontier Tales,
Vol. I, and Mystery Times Nine. My western stories have garnered interest by
avid readers and appear on The Western Online and Frontier Tales.
My
work appears under the pen names of KC Sprayberry and Kathi Sprayberry. Softly
Say Goodbye, a young adult novel, was my NaNoWriMo winning project for 2010.
This story was inspired by a quote from a song and hearing of an auto wreck
involving teens and drinking.
Thank you for participating in my blog tour, and for the wonderful review.
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