Tomorrow's Lullaby (Chasing Tomorrow) by Lindzee Armstrong | A Book Review

This is the sequel to Chasing Someday. I am a member of the author's ARC team so I get a copy of her new books to review. Thank you again, Lindzee Armstrong. 

As I have mentioned, this is the next book after Chasing Someday. This is two years after Sienna delivered her baby and had it adopted. She met a cute guy in college named Aaron and he hated his birth mother for giving him up for adoption. The last thing Sienna needs is a guy with baggage. She can't afford any distraction now that she is getting another shot at Juilliard--her ultimate dream. She can't afford to lose it the second time. How would she deal with Aaron and Juilliard? Who would she choose--Arron or Juilliard?

I think this story is not as heavy and emotional as the first one but it has its own moments. Sienna has finally come to terms with her experiences at such a young age. She has accepted that she has to postpone her greatest dream as consequences of her actions. But she now feels better knowing that her baby is in very good hands and she's even allowed to visit and be part of the baby's life. What more could she ask for? Now, she has to focus on her self and her studies and practice more to get to Juilliard. This time there's no way anything or anyone is stopping her. That's what she thought.

Sienna did not expect to fall in love and more so with someone who has an issue with being adopted. Just her luck! Of all the people she will meet and fall in love with, it has to be with someone who would hate her if he found out that she did the same thing. This is some kind of a sick joke, right? 

It seems that Sienna is not only going to deal with Aaron and her baggage but also with the coming back into the picture of her ex--Dane. Yes, her baby-daddy. When it rains, it really pours! Seems like Sienna just got her hands really full and the last thing she needs is again, people who would only distract her and again might lead her to lose Juilliard again. Not this time. I commend Sienna for being a responsible adult this time around and knowing her priorities. She is sticking to her priorities, even though it's not easy and she might have her heart broken again. She deserves to get in to Juilliard and she had made enough sacrifices to just let other distractions ruin her again.

I give this book 4/5 pianos. Sienna deserves a happy ending. Though the story did not exactly tell if she did get in to Juilliard, but I would want to think that she did. She had the guy and her dream. She had worked hard for it and she also had laid bare her heart out to the man she loved, asking only to be understood for the decisions she had made. She was right in saying that what happened to her and her son is not the same as Aaron's. In the end, love overruled everything and she got her very happy-ever-after. After all, Sienna did what she thought what was best for her and the baby. I don't think it should be taken against her. I am also glad that Aaron finally has seen the reason why Sienna and his mom gave up their kids for adoption. Understanding has finally dawned on Aaron and he realized what odds his mom were facing when she had him at such a very young age. Sienna and Aaron were smart enough to realize that their pasts should not get in the way of their future together. They both deserved to be happy. 

Pasts had a tendency to follow a person, no matter how much that person changed.

- Lindzee Armstrong, Tomorrow's Lullaby -  

Chasing Someday by Lindzee Armstrong | A Book Review

I read this book way back early June. I thought I posted a review already. Yes, I am buried deep in unwritten reviews. I thought I have gotten it under control but something came up that I had to spend more energy and time on. Don't worry, reading books and posting reviews is already a permanent activity in my life. I will never give it up. This is the only thing that is keeping me sane enough in this chaotic and absolutely crazy world.

 

This is a story of married women who are having a hard time getting pregnant again or unable to conceive at all. Three women--Megan, Christina and Kyra. These three met in a school book drive and found that they have something more in common. These three will help each other get through the biggest problem in their lives so far.

 

The story is very realistic. It perfectly mirrors the emotional and psychological strains a woman goes through when she finds out that she her womb can't carry or grow a baby. It depicts the toll that is weighing on the persons involved, the marriage and the people closest to those persons. It creates a ripple effect of worry, concern and emotional drain on everyone involved, especially the main woman concerned and her husband. Infertility kind of brands or marks a woman for life of being unable to perform her duties as a wife and mother or has failed in being just a woman.

 

Chasing Someday is a very fitting title to this book. It explains the whole story in these two words. The three main characters were indeed chasing someday. The what could have been, what might have been and what will be if they were able to fulfill their greatest desire--to be a mother. These three women found strength in each other in their shared struggle to be the wife and mother that they wanted to be. To have that complete family they have been dreaming for. 

 

This is a very hopeful story yet you have to go through a very emotional state first before getting to the most amazing part. Just like the saying, it gets worst before it gets better. These three women went through the worst before they saw the silver lining in all the emotional turmoil and grief they have to go through. The waiting itself was almost killing them but like always, it's always worth the wait. Things seemed to have worked out for each of them with each other's help. Never giving up even when the odds were all against them. 

Aside from the three women in the story, there is another one mentioned here. She is Megan's piano student who got pregnant in her teens and the boyfriend did not want her to keep the baby. Her story posed a great contradiction to the three women's problems because here she is, in her youth and prime, with endless possibilities ahead of her. Yet, all her dreams and hopes seemed to have vanished because of a baby, while the three woman had been wanting and dreaming of one. This is kind of one of life's jokes, right? But no one's laughing.

I give this book 4/5 negative pregnancy tests. This s a very emotional story that will wring your heart out. I am in my mid-thirties and single and I pray that I wouldn't have to go through what all of these three women have when the time for me to want a child/children of my own. I know of a friend who also had a hard time conceiving and she was so frustrated that she somehow want to also make everyone around her feel that. She was so full of negativity that I had to distance myself from her because I don't have enough strength to battle her negativity. I too was going through some problems of my own during that time. For those who are fortunate to not have to go these very trying experience, be the best mother you can be and love your kids with all you have because some do not the privilege to have that gift. And for the rest of us, these women like the three in the story need our empathy and understanding. I don't think it's their fault if there's something wrong with their uterus or any feminine parts. If they have any control over those, they would have done everything to make them work right and get that bouncing beautiful baby they have been praying and dying for.

I never realized how much I want children until I was told it might not be possible.

- Lindzee Armstrong, Chasing Someday - 

Thank you again, Lindzee Armstrong for the copy. 

 

 

 

Situation Momedy: A Very Special Episode in Toddlerdom by Jenna Van Oy | A Book Review

I got this book from Library Thing.  I signed up for this because the word "Momedy" got me at first glance. I wanted to read something hilarious.

This book is about Jenna Van Oy's real life experiences raising two toddlers. Her story is a riot. I am not a mom yet, but I can relate to her stories because I have three nephews and one niece and I have seen them grow up. I used to live with my two nephews so I have first-hand experiences to some or most of the author's adventures and misadventures with manipulating yet cute toddlers. What I specially remember was how sweet, funny and cute they were. Especially Kuya, the eldest of my nephews. He would pick flowers growing outside the church and give them to us girls--my mom, his mom, me and another lady who happens to sit on the same row with us. The lady was so surprised when she got the flower. We explained to her that he gives flowers to all girls. Isn't he the sweetest?

I really enjoyed this book and has learned a lot from it. I am confident that I would be able to use the advice from the author on how to raise kids, especially toddlers in a way as to help them discover things on their own yet guide them to become persons of good character. What I like about this book is it's not claiming to be an absolute or the correct way to raise kids. In fact, the author encourages every parent to raise their kids the best way they know they can.What this book aims is to help parents realize that they are not alone in their struggle in raising their kids to be good and productive future citizens. The author also reminds every parent to find humor in all the unlikely situations with their little devils. Treasure these moments for time flies fast and then they will soon be on their own. Toddlerdom is the best of the formative years of these young ones. The best time to inculcate values and shape their characters. The best time to be involved in their growth.

I give this book 4/5 diapers. This is the funniest and most engrossing self-help book I have ever read and I am not even the direct market for this book as I don't have kids yet. I am looking forward to reading the rest of Jenna Van Oy's books. Her humor is just so natural and putting them into writing just translates smoothly. The humor was not lost in translation.  

My kids tend to be the problem and the solution to my rough days. They're the cause of my chaos as well as the cure. Isn't that wonderfully oxymoronic?

- Jenna Van Oy, Situation Momedy: A Very Special Episode in Toddlerdom - 

The Nearness of You by Amanda Eyre Ward | A Book Review

I received a good news yesterday but it wasn't exactly what I wanted. I am grateful but I just wished it was more. Well, beggars can't be choosers but I have waited for this news to come for so long. It felt like forever and I was shocked and a bit sad when it came. I was dumbfounded and couldn't believe it. It was like almost but not quite. Long story short, I said yes. I took it hoping there is a reason why this is what was given to me. Hopefully, far greater things than I ever imagined will come from it. Nothing is finalized yet and maybe, if I keep praying hard for it, it will be just as I have terribly wanted. I actually wish I could have a do-over. Rewind the events that happened yesterday and I will handle the situation differently so the outcome would be exactly as I have longed for. Life...oftentimes you will have to make lemonade out of lemons not the margaritas you crave.

This book is quite similar to what I have experienced yesterday. Sorry for the outburst. I just want to take that out of my chest. I can actually fill the whole post of my ramblings. Anyway, this book is about some decisions or events that we have no control of. Events that just went out of our hands and we are watching them unfold with our eyes open, too shocked and paralyzed to do anything about it. Exactly what I lived through yesterday. This book is about women. The pains and the strength needed to withstand the pains only women experience. This is also about motherhood. The pains and joy of motherhood. Of the hardships of trying to fulfill that calling.

The Nearness of You is a story of three women --Suzette, Dorothy and Eloise. Suzette a successful heart surgeon who doesn't want to have a baby because she doesn't want to pass on the mental illness her mother had to her children. Dorothy, the surrogate mother who volunteered to carry Suzette's and Hyland's fertilized embryo. Eloise, Suzette and Hyland's daughter who was delivered by Dorothy. These three women's lives are more entangled than they thought they were. Dorothy's connection to Suzette and Eloise did not stop until she gave birth and give up the kid, it went farther and deeper than that which what this whole story is. 

Stepping into the shoes of each of the three characters, I found that each person's convictions are valid and very reasonable. Suzette's fears are not unfounded and baseless. Being a medical practitioner and a brilliant one at that, she doubtlessly knows that her fears could very likely happen. She needed to put an end to the cycle of mental illness in her family by bearing the sacrifice. Dorothy, out of her desperation and the need to escape her current life, signed up to be a surrogate mother. Little did she know that she signed up way far more than she was paid for. And Eloise, the tie that binds between the two other women that could never be severed. It was Eloise that will eventually bring healing and closure to all the unresolved business between Suzette and Dorothy. All these women and the rest of the lives involved in their circle will finally live the rest of their good lives with a better understanding of what happened and will move onward to the future with large smiles.

I really love women's literature. Stories of strong and invincible women. Strong and resilient women who follow their hearts and come out greater for the heartbreaking decisions they had to face in their lives. I too want to be inspired by these women. That maybe I could gain wisdom from their difficult experiences. I too have my own struggles, like every other person in this planet and we all could use all the help we can get. 

This story will hit you right at your core. This will turn your heart into a melting puddle, aching and disintegrating into liquid goo. What these three women have gone through could very well happen in real life. It might be that some woman in some city or small town is living through the same scenario as we speak. Like Suzette, juggling her successful career with taking care of a kid, attending parent-teacher conferences, recitals, soccer games or cheer leading competitions, etc. Trying with her every breath to be a mother, a wife and a surgeon, along with some other roles demanded of her. Dorothy, keeping a low profile and not draw attention to herself and her family. Making the most out of a very hard and poor past to care for the people she value most. Trying to make good of the present to pay for the shortcomings she had made in the past. And Eloise, a teenager in the threshold of great possibilities yet unable to face them because something is holding her back. Something is niggling her to do something. To find answers to questions that she's scared to ask. To find the person who brought her into the light of the world. To find that connection that keeps her restless until she has rekindled it. 

And then, there was also Jayne, the little girl Dorothy crossed path with who was far mature and stronger than her measly young age. She also had a difficult and sad life. She and Dorothy found friendship, strength and family in each other. 

I love this story. I give this 4.5/5 hearts. All these strong women are worthy of emulation. They had been through a lot and they came out of the dark holes of their past with courage and strength they thought they never had. My only wish was that there should have been more in the ending. I wished it showed how the rest of the characters were after the meeting and the revelation. I wanted to see Eloise reconnected with one of the important persons in her life. I wanted to know how it turned out knowing there's another part of her that is alive and living. 

After this story, I want to know more of Amanda Eyre Ward. I want to know what other stories she has to tell. I will have to start hunting her books. Nice meeting you Miss Ward. What a great story.

Don't be the change, be the dollar.

- Amanda Eyre Ward, The Nearness of You -  

Thanks again, Netgalley for the copy of this book.