***POSSIBLE SPOILERS PRESENT WITHIN
REVIEW***
3/2/15 – What an amazing story! I loved it! Finished reading it
around 2:30 this morning. Just couldn’t put it down! I had to know how
everything played out in the end! Mia Sheridan strikes again with one powerful
couple...
3/4/15 - Wow! What did I just read? That was just Mia Sheridan
putting beautiful words down on paper, sucking me into her story, and playing
with my emotions magnificently. Again, the author just blows me away with her
ability to create characters that are so brave and confident. Both main
characters within this book were passionately honest about leaving their dirt-poor
broken lives behind. Both Kyland Barrett and Tenleigh Falyn have lived their
entire lives in a small mining town in the Appalachian Mountains. There’s not
much within their town other than the mine that employs men from the
surrounding area. So, when they become seniors in high school, their idea of
winning the Tyton Coal Scholarship is their only hope to leave the desolent
town behind.
Tenleigh pretty
much keeps to herself walking six miles to and from school where her small
trailer sits on the mountain. And, Kyland really has no friends to speak of as
he resides in a meager house along that same mountain. They soon begin to
strike up conversations as they encounter each other every now and then.
Neither one wants to form any long-lasting attachment, but as their friendship
deepens and they begin to form a more intimate relationship, what will happen
when there can only be one possible winner
for the scholarship that will take them away from their painful and destitute
life? Now, when I say that they were dirt-poor, I really mean these people didn’t
know if they were going to be eating a meal from one day to the next. It was
beyond sad. So heartbreaking that these people were that desperate just to
survive. Kyland and Tenleigh were two caring and compassionate people that just
wanted to make a better life for themselves and the ones they loved. They were
a super warm-hearted couple that were so attracted to each other. When their
intimacy progresses, Kyland is more than patient and tender with Tenleigh. He’s
just such beautiful guy. Tenleigh knows what his ultimate plan for the future
is, but she still falls head-over-heels for him entirely. What transpires eventually, though, when one
of them destroys the other with a betrayal so despicable that the other is
devastated to the extreme, just can’t be denied or understood whatsoever. Oh,
man, it was such a slap in the face. Just so deplorable! Damn, I cried!! I knew
that something dire was going to happen, but I was not prepared for it to be so
unbearably wretched. Will they ever get their “happily ever after” as a
couple?? I just couldn’t say. Not every book has to end with a HEA – right?
My God, this
book really did me in. It was so uplifting that two people could really put
each other before themselves. To sacrifice their happiness to save one another
was nothing less than commendable. Two unselfish and caring individuals that
were each other’s half to their whole. Such a great couple that I kept rooting
for them every step of the way towards getting out of their current reality of
hell. Ms. Sheridan pulls the reader into the book as you meet the people and their
existence of a meager Kentucky town. Her prose was beautifully written as she
describes in detail the characters’ lives and their bitter task for survival. This
was one emotional novel that had me thinking about it long after the last paged
was turned. I finished this book two days ago, and I’m still thinking about
those people and their bitter will to survive both mentally and physically.
Just such an eye-opening type of story about a topic that I’m sure really does
exist in today’s society. I’m so thrilled to see what this author will tackle
next. Her stories are complex but yet so relatable. Her characters deal with
some of the most desperate circumstances that life has to offer. But, they are
survivors and their stories are moving beyond substance. Loved, loved this
novel! I don’t think that I ever high-lighted so much of an author’s written
words before. I hope that anyone who reads this story feels the same sort of
compelling message as I did...
“What are your dreams?
Tell me,” he whispered.
To fall in love with
someone who stays. To stop wishing so hard it could be you.
“Hmm. To see the ocean.
To dance in the surf. To go to dinner at a restaurant. To have more than one
pair of shoes. To get one of those store-bought birthday cakes with the perfect
pink roses in the corners. To get my mama a good doctor who knows how to heal
her. To be a teacher-to inspire kids to love books as much as I do. To live in
a house with a yard and a garden and my very own bed.”
He was quiet for a
second. Finally, he said very quietly, “You should have all those things and
more.”
“What are your dreams,
Kyland? Other than leaving here...what things do you hope for?”
He was silent for
several beats. “I want to be an engineer. I want to have a refrigerator that’s
always stocked with food. I want to do something that matters-that really,
really makes a difference. And I want to recognize that thing when it shows up.”
I smiled, grateful he
had shared that part of his heart with me. “I bet you’ll do all those things,
and even more,” I said, feeling just a tinge of sadness. I wanted him to
achieve his dreams, but I wondered if, when he did, I would only be a small
memory in his head. ~
Tenleigh (Chap. 14)
“I think that when enough time has
passed, when you’ve survived that which you didn’t imagine you could, there’s a
dignity in that. Something you can own. A pride in knowing the pain made you
stronger. The pain made you fight to succeed. Someday, when I’m living my
dreams, I’m going to think of all the things that broke my heart and I’m going
to be thankful for them.” – TF
Even you, Kyland. ~ Tenleigh (Chap.15)
“We had everything we needed. None of it
was big. Most of it was simple. But what I knew in that moment was that the
size of your home, your car, your wallet, doesn’t have one single thing to do
with the size of your life. And my life...my life felt big, filled with love
and with meaning.” ~ Kyland
(Epilogue)
Review Written, 3/4/15
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