Customer Reviews

A Blessed Event: A Novel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Joanne Timbro and Darla Stevens had grown up together in a small town in Texas. In fact, their back yards touched each other. They spent all their time together and knew each other so well you would think they were sisters.

Darla grew up and married Cal. Joanne, always considered the bad girl, had been thrown out of her parents' house and lived alone with a small dog. But the two were still best friends, still like sisters. Eventually, Joanne agreed to carry a baby for Darla, who was infertile. No doctors were involved. Cal got Joanne pregnant the normal way. To Darla, all seemed right with the world. Then one day Joanne, four or five months pregnant, showed up at Darla's home, needing desperately to say something, but couldn't. She left, agitated. She returned in the middle of the night, in an unexpected way. Joanne had been returning to Darla's home and ended up crashing through the bedroom wall. Joanne was brain dead, but the unborn baby was still okay.

In the months that follow, Darla tries to figure out what events led Joanne up to that tragic moment. Secrets are uncovered about Joanne that Darla never dreamed existed and a custody battle is in full swing.

**** This book starts out with Joanne's car coming through the wall of Darla's home! Needless-to-say, that will capture your interest instantly. From then on the secrets keep coming and you will be turning the pages as quickly as possible to see what will happen next. The only time the novel slows down too much is during court scenes. If you are looking for high drama, here it is! ****

Reviewed by Detra Fitch of Huntress Reviews.

What a debut novel! From the first page you are powerless against it. It starts with an explosive event, pulls back to reveal characters and the lines that connect them, and then, with each chapter, adds emotional flesh to their bones -- and considerable momentum to the plot -- building to a deeply emotional payoff that feels wholly earned. Page writes with luminous compassion and a finely tuned ear, drawing deeply defined (and deeply flawed) human beings. A beautiful story, beautifully written. Do not miss!!

What a wonderful new writer we have in Jean Reynolds Page! Again and again, I'd find some new passage or exchange that touched me to my soul, and I'd stop and think: "she can't know what THAT'S like." But she does, inevitably. I was astonished by the confidence and sensitivity with which Page set her scenes.

I'm going to go back and read some favorite parts aloud -- the best test of a book, or so I find. "A Blessed Event" is not just a "good read," it is a work of art.

The readers of 'A Blessed Event' are in more than capable hands with Jean Reynolds Page in her fine debut novel. The book covers rugged moral terrain that Page, much to her credit, makes no attempt to pretty-up, but presents warts and all. Darla and Joanne, the central characters, share a lifelong, twin-like closeness, and by the book's end we have seen both of them make bad decisions as well as good, arrived at through weakness as well as strength--but always with deep love. Their mistakes--and there are lots of them--are the mistakes that good people make when they understand the consequences of their actions too little and too late; when they long for things too much; and when they desire outcomes for each other that in reality can't be had.

The pacing of 'A Blessed Event' is excellent, the characters finely drawn, the blending of flashback and present well-controlled and seamless, the story original and compelling. I strongly recommend this book as a brisk and satisfying read.

I certainly was intrigued by the premise of a best friend carrying her friends baby. Then after crashing into their house and becoming comatose, there are secrets that get revealed. I thought the study of the friendship between Darla and Joanne was extremly thorough and well developed. But, I didn't feel that was the case with Darla's supposedly desperate feelings about becoming a mother. Those feelings are only touched on briefly, are not prevalent throughout the book, and therefore, her approval of the unorthadox conception didn't completely ring true for me. However, I think that this book showed the grief felt by Darla losing her best friend, better than almost any book I've ever read on the subject. The author did not tie that grief up in a neat bow, but showed how the crushing loss of someone you love is something that is struggled with for a very long time.

Story of Darla and Jo, best friend since childhood. Story opens with Jo crashing in the middle of the night into Darla's house. While Jo is kep alive by machines in the hospital because she is pregnant, we go through Jo and Darla's friendships and learn what brought them to this tragic event. Darla got Jo to get pregnant by Darla's husband, as Darla can't have children. This has led to trouble in Darla's marriage, and we follow her as she comes to terms with losing her best friend, making discoveries about who Jo really was, the relationship between the two of them and their families. While some of the writing is sometimes a bit cliche, Page does a good job with this story of redemption, forgiveness, loss and relationships. Recommended.

"A Blessed Event" is that special kind of book where the writing is as enjoyable and involving as the story itself. The novel is, at its heart, the story of the friendship of two women and what happens when circumstances bring them closer together and tragedy threatens to tear them apart. As a man, I felt that I could understand, better than with any book I've read, what a friendship - a close friendship - between two women is like. The ending was perfect, but in a way, I wish the book hadn't ended. This would be a great book for book clubs, because it's the kind of book you want to share. It's hard to discuss such a wonderful book, though, with friends who haven't yet read it. So I've been buying copies for friends and relatives.

Darla and Cal Stevens have given up on conceiving a child. When her best friend Joanne agrees to be a surrogate, Darla gives the okay to do it the old fashioned way. Five months later, a teary eyed Joanne flees the Stevens household, only to come crashing through the bedroom a few hours later, leaving her brain dead, but able to carry the child.

Joanne's accident unearths many lies and long-buried secrets, and results in a grueling custody battle between Darla and Cal and Joanne's estranged parents. With Cal acting distant and unsure if they should pursue keeping the child, Darla is forced to turn to an old mutual friend of her and Joanne who is now a priest for answers. But is she ready to uncover the truth?

Page tells a compelling story with a moral center that will keep readers debating until the end, despite a pretty selfish protagonist who'll do anything to be a mother.

Oh, this book. I can't stop thinking about it....specifically the friendship between Darla and Joanne. The only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was somewhere around the middle I felt it was dragging and I *almost* didn't finish it. I am so glad I stayed with it. For me the ending was....well,,,,almost anticlimatic......, unresolved in some ways and resolved in others (i.e. life) but I grieved for Darla all the way through and her loss of her best friend. I loved the flashbacks although was the author suggesting a tad more to the intensity of their friendship than ever really came out in the book?(???) I thought the writing was beautiful with real dialogue and definitely not just a sappy Lifetime channel movie as one reviewer thought. I'd recommend this to anyone who wants a poignant and wonderful read about friendship. I look forward to more by this author.

Like any good thriller, the book starts with a bang. By the end of the second chapter you are hooked. The main characters are introduced and you cannot wait to find out what happens to them. As the story unfolds, your head spins as one layer of emotional complexity is intertwined with another. Parenthood, friendship, faith, marriage, loyalty and honesty are themes that are first entangled and then untwisted into a beautiful finished quilt as the book ends in a way that is both surprising and pleasing. A highly recommended read.