Friday, February 26, 2016

The Charm Bracelet: Book Review and Giveaway


Books. One of the best ways to cope with winter.

Yes, in typical Midwestern fashion, I'm getting through February with a combination of grim determination, Walking Dead binging, and lots and lots of reading. So much reading, in fact, that I'm running out of books, as well as the money required to buy said books.

Because of this literary poverty, I was pleasantly surprised to be contacted by the publicity team of Viola Shipman to review an advance copy of the author's debut novel, The Charm Bracelet. Viola Shipman is actually the pseudonym of one of my long-time favorite writers, Wade Rouse, who chose the name as well as the book's title as an homage to his late grandmothers, avid fans of charm bracelets. Rouse has authored several great non-fiction books, including It's All Relative and I'm Not the Biggest Bitch in This Relationship, both of which of I reviewed here.

The Charm Bracelet arrived at my house last week, and the winter air seemed to lift as I opened the package and turned the pages of this warm novel, the multi-generational story of artsy Lauren, driven Arden, and their aging matriarch, the irrepressible Lolly.

As its title suggests, the book tells the tales of the characters' lives and ancestry via the charms of a bracelet. From the hot air balloon charm, ("to a life filled with adventure"), to the tiara charm ("to a life in which you get to feel like a queen, even for a day"), Rouse weaves the three interlocked stories wonderfully, dipping in and out of each woman's life with ease and grace.

The effortless pace of this novel impressed me the most. I found myself midway through *The Charm Bracelet before I realized it, filled with hope that Lauren would find her passion, Arden would find some peace, and Lolly would once again find her family.

I'm always in awe of non-fiction writers who cross over into fiction. It's difficult enough to compose stories from real life, but the writing is made easier simply because the events really happened, and the characters actually existed.

The fiction author's job, however, is to craft a believable story out of thin air, hundreds of pages of plot, setting and characters pulled from the far reaches of the imagination, or in this case, the charms of a bracelet.

Now, I write only non-fiction for specific reasons, and those are: A) I'm lazy; and B) the act of creating fiction -- an entire world from nothing -- seems impossible to me. But Rouse (a.k.a. Shipman) writes his first novel masterfully, with his finger on the pulse of three very different women who reconnect thanks to some links of chain, bits of metal and the tenacity of the buoyant, unforgettable Lolly.

Warm up your spring with this wonderful, utterly charming (see what I did there?) book, on sale March 22.

One reader will win a copy of The Charm Bracelet, courtesy of Thomas Dunne Books, a division of St. Martin's Press. Comment below to enter, then check back in the comments next weekend to see the lucky winner.
Winner: please contact me with your snail mail address at webs672002@gmail.com.

19 comments:

  1. I can barely get a paragraph together and have no such aspirations to write a book. Unless a hard blow to the skull changes my cognitive ability for the better. It rarely gets better, though.
    Books help me get through the long cold winters up here, too. I appreciate the crafting of a good story and would have to probably watch mind numbing television even more if it weren't for books. I was also running out of money and rediscovered the library. Thank goodness.

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    1. I feel your pain, Jono. I know your winters are worse than mine! Ditto on the library love. And I've since discovered the Overdrive app, for library books, which I love.

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  2. I'm not a big reader but in the past few years I have been trying to read more. I choose a couple books to read during my summer vacations on the beach. This sounds like a book I'd love to add to this summers reading. Thanks!
    Lisa

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    1. It would make a great beach rad, Lisa. Thanks so much for stopping by, and for following!

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  3. We are both avid readers here - the only problem is we are running out of places to put them (and, well, money to buy them); my husband is a book hoarder extraordinaire. And I might have a titch of that disease myself ... er ...

    I've often wondered how people write lengthy fiction, too. It seems more doable to write short stories but only just.

    Thank you for the chance to win this book!

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    1. Book hoarding is not a bad affliction to have, Jenny-o! Totally agree about fiction, and especially the lengthy fiction you describe. The imagination involved in creating something like that!

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  4. Sounds like a great book! I'm always looking for a new read.

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  5. Here in the sweaty season (which I hope is finally drawing to a close) I have been reading too. And grateful for the teachers who gave me this gift.
    I am in awe at writers - and grateful to them too.
    Thank you for putting temptation in my weak-willed way again.

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    1. I do what I can, Elephant! :)
      The sweaty season. I'm stealing that!

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  6. I'd like to write a book but I just never do and I don't know what I would do with it once I wrote it. So I too admire those who can pull stories from thin air, or the density of their brain matter's imagination. Sun today here, but rain to return, of course of course.

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    1. I know, Strayer. I did write a (as-yet unpublished) book. But to write fiction - wow, I can't even wrap my head around it.

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  7. Hello, folks! The lucky winner is *drum roll* commenter number 3! That's Jenny-o! Please email me, Jenny-o, at webs672002@gmail.com with your snail mail address, and I will send you this lovely book. Thanks to all!

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    1. Way to go Jenny-O! Congrats on your win.

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    2. Oh, thank you! Looking forward to reading this!

      I'll email you right now.

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  8. Dawn, I tried to email you but got notice of a delivery error as follows:
    ________________

    Delivery to the following recipient failed permanently:

    webs672002@yahoo.com

    Technical details of permanent failure:
    Google tried to deliver your message, but it was rejected by the server for the recipient domain yahoo.com by mta6.am0.yahoodns.net. [98.138.112.34].

    The error that the other server returned was:
    554 delivery error: dd This user doesn't have a yahoo.com account (webs672002@yahoo.com) [0] - mta1283.mail.ne1.yahoo.com
    _____________________

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    1. Hi Jenny - it's gmail. So it's webs672002@gmail.com. Shoot me an email - Congrats!

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  9. I'm warming my winter with a bottle of wheat whiskey from the local distillery. Hey, I also moved to Illinois.

    Audubon Ron

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  10. i would love to win Pandora sounds great

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