A Song For My Mother by Kat MartinWhile picking up my books on hold at the library, A Song For My Mother was being displayed on a shelf above my books. It’s a small book so I picked it up and read the book flap. Since it was a very short story I figured why not. It’s not one I would have read if not for being displayed, so I took it home. I try to expand the genres I read.The story was about a mother’s love for her children. The mother in the story gets a chance to explain to her grown daughter why she made the choices she made when her daughter was young. After 12 years of not seeing or talking to her mom, and after hearing the reason why her mother made the choices she did, the daughter forgave her and everyone lived happily ever after. I assume readers finished the story feeling good that all is forgiven and a good life was lived by all. I did not have this feeling. I think the mother made the wrong choices. I’m not even sure I would forgive the mother. I understand her daughter’s reason for leaving home and not communicating with her mother for 12 years. However, the story itself was touching and the characters fit the story. But to me it lacked substance so I looked at it from a different perspective as I always try to bring something positive from a book I didn’t really enjoy. What I realized was Kat Martin’s dialogue sounded effortless and spontaneous. It was literary genius.As any aspiring writer does, I read to improve my writing skills. A Song For My Mother is a great book to improve writing dialogue. It’s the perfect model to emulate. A writer may take classes, purchase writing books, and write daily to improve. I learn better reading books by authors who have mastered writing dialogue, along with taking classes, purchasing writing books, and writing daily!I recommend A Song For My Mother for readers who enjoy romance novels and feel good stories that have happy endings. For aspiring writers, I recommend A Song For My Mother for its outstanding dialogue! Reviewed by Mary, reposted with permission It is not always easy to forget the pain of the past but can true love help you forgive?Marly Hanson has struggled to get where she has in life and never wanted to look back at the town she left. But when her daughter Katie wants to meet the grandmother she never met Marly agrees knowing this trip down memory land may have the ability to break her strong will. Katie is recovering from cancer and Marly will give her anything to make her happy even if it means dragging up bones she buried a long time ago.It has been 12 years since Marly broke away from her abusive father, then moved past her loser husband and helped her daughter recover from cancer. Nothing scares her anymore but the town she came from does frighten her a bit. She left there a bitter young woman and she returns a headstrong woman who refuses to forgive her mother for not leaving the man Marly blames for ruining their life. But her mother has reasons and answers for all they questions Marly poses and tries to explain that the way things turned out was not the way it always was.Old wounds do start to surface again when Marly finds herself back in her mother’s kitchen, but they are soothed more than a bit when she meets the neighbor, widower Reed Bennett. It seems Sheriff Bennett is as lonely as Marly and while not looking for love, companionship would be awful accommodating to him. He is raising a son on his own and the days keep him occupied but the nights tend to drag on. Rumors may have him committed to another and proving to Marly that there is nothing to any relationship but theirs is something only a determined man in love can accomplish.A Song for My Mother is written as a story of love between a mother and daughter, as well as a love story between a man and a woman. Relationships are never easy regardless of who they are with but they always live and thrive when the heart of a person is truly sincere. Ms. Martin has written a book that shows regardless of who you are love does find its way to you and like with answered prayers the unanswered ones are just as fulfilling.Side note from Stephanie: Be sure to check out Mary's blog for more reviews and giveaways!
What do You think about A Song For My Mother (2011)?
Saccharinely sweet....the best thing about the book is the poem at the beginning.
—july
This is a sweet, short novella. I enjoyed reading it!
—1735
