9 March 2016

Review #363: Reading the Sweet Oak by Jan Stites



My rating: 5 of 5 stars


“The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds. And that's what you've given me. That's what I'd hoped to give you forever”

----Nicholas Sparks



Jan Stites, an American author, has penned an evocative and deeply moving tale of love in her new book, Reading the Sweet Oak that is centered around five women- Ruby, Tulsa, Pearl, BJ and Jen, who lives near the Sweet Oak River and this story tells how their lives changes along with the course of the river by indulging themselves in the world of romance novels while dealing with their love life, friendships, business, financial problems, social issues, family secrets and marital problems.


Synopsis:

Along the banks of the Sweet Oak River, deep in the heart of the Ozarks, a romance novel book club takes five women on stunning journeys of self-discovery.

After losing first her husband, then her daughter, seventy-eight-year-old grandmother Ruby wants to teach her risk-averse granddaughter, Tulsa, that some leaps are worth taking, no matter how high the potential fall. Tulsa loves her grandmother dearly, but she has a business to run and no time for romance—not even the paperback version. But when Ruby ropes her into a book club, Tulsa can’t bring herself to disappoint the woman who raised her.

Together with Ruby’s best friend, Pearl, as well as family friends BJ and Jen, the women embark on an exploration of modern-day love guided by written tales of romance. What they discover is a beautiful story that examines the bonds of friendship and the highs and lows of love in all its forms.



Ruby along with her granddaughter, Tulsa lives near the banks of the Sweet oak river and runs a business of canoeing and a lodge for the tourists in the spring seasons. But lately they find it struggling to keep the business afloat adding to their problems is a cunning real estate mane who is vying for their fallout over payments. Ruby also runs a book club in her home where she recommends good romance novels to her friends, reading which they could find a way to solve their own troubles.
Tulsa is a young woman who ran her grandmother's business. Once heart-broken, Tulsa never trusted a man around her. But lately she finds it hard to keep her feelings under control when she meets a tourist who has booked a room in their riverside lodge.
BJ has a son named Guy who was a half-brother to Tulsa. but lately she is getting too much involved in her son's life. It's time to find her own life, since are son is getting mad at her for no reason.
Pearl, an old lady, has a grandson named Daniel, who is gay but lately she is finding it difficult to come to terms with Daniel's sexuality status as well as his lifestyle.
Jen is a young married woman, who is in a marriage where she is not being able to love or comprehend with her husband.

These are the five women who lives are changed after contemplating with the contemporary romance novels that highlighted their problems like theirs own.

Firstly, the book's cover is beautiful and completely enthralling to look at it. Moreover, the book cover captures the charm of the story line aptly with the river, a girl canoeing (Tulsa) and the spring season.

The author's writing style is articulate and layered with perfect emotions. While reading, I felt like the author has poured all her best emotions into this story to make it a poignant read for her readers. The story is quite compelling as chapter after chapter, the stories and problems of each women spiraled through the pages and it certainly kept me hooked on to it and filled my heart with utmost curiosity for these women. The narrative is moving and free-flowing. The pacing of the book is medium paced as the story deals with so meany elements of life in a single as well as married woman's life.

The characters are well-developed, highlighted both with their strongest as well as weakest attributes. The realism among each and every character is very evident from their unpolished demeanor. The problems of each and every character are very relatable and while reading about them, I felt a deep connection to them and had a hard time letting them go after the end of this book. The supporting characters are also quite strongly developed, even the men of this book are projected with enough realism. All these five women had a fighting spirit among them and that's what made me fall for them.

The book is not only about troubles and falling business, but it has plenty of love to make the readers' hearts go crazy over it. There are lots of love scenes which are depicted with lots of passion and emotions that made me go weak in the knees.

Verdict: On this International Women's Day, give your heart something entertaining, emotional and romantic with this book.

Courtesy: Thanks to the author, Jan Stites, for giving me an opportunity to read and review this book.
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Author Info:
Jan Stites is the author of the novel, Edgewise, which Wally Lamb called "courageous, heartfelt and unforgettable," numerous screenplays, and Reading the Sweet Oak, a novel her agent sold to Lake Union, Amazon's full-service publishing, mainstream novel imprint. RtSO will be published Sept. 29, 2015. Susan Mallery says, "A charming new voice in women's fiction, Stites writes from the heart about friendship, love, and what it means to find where you belong." Jan has worked at a multitude of jobs, including teaching screenwriting at San Francisco State University and U.C. Berkeley, teaching numerous subjects in villages in Mexico and Kenya, and teaching middle school in various locales. Jan has also worked as secretary, waitress, translator in Mexico for American doctors, and scuba diving travel writer. The affirmative action plan she wrote for a tugboat company is probably the piece of Jan's writing that comes closest to fantasy.
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