Today it is the official release day of Parting Burden by Sinead MacDughlas. I finished reading the book last week, and OMG, I'm STILL reeling from it! Don't you just love it when a book gets that deep under your skin? :-D
Anyways... Sinead is having a "small" party over at Facebook to celebrate her release (click HERE), make sure to drop by! There are loads of prices, games and friends!
While I remember!!!! Sin's books are on SALE Friday and Saturday - find the links further down!!!
Melissa Shuler is an expert at running away. Unfortunately, doing so always lands her in more trouble than she was trying to escape. This time, she's running back to her hometown. Her family needs her, and she needs them—more than she's ready to admit. She doesn't need a new romance, and certainly not two. Melissa never dreamed that finding home would take her on a journey like this.
Parting Burden is a stroll through the lives of several twenty-somethings, told from the perspective of the main character, Melissa Shuler.
Melissa, Catherine, Angela, Seth, Travis, James, and Shane: each is searching for their path in life, love and friendship. As in life, drama and comedy walk hand-in-hand, soul-searching and self-analysis are evil necessities, and moving forward sometimes means leaving something, or someone, behind.
But I never did things the simple way, so… I’ll try and get my jumbled thoughts in order and explain what is so absolutely freaking awesome about Parting Burden. Because it is – awesome that is.
Parting Burden is the kind of book that draws you in gently, tosses you around a few times (and knocks you on the head for good measure), to spit you out on the other side with a book hangover of epic proportions. In the mean time you lost track of time, dinner was served without your notice and it has become dark outside, despite the fact that you only sat down to read ONE chapter.
Parting Burden is told from Melissa (or Mel) Shuler’s point of view, but the book isn’t just about her. We meet a lot of other characters; Cat, Mel’s childhood best friend. She’s a witch (yes a witch, literally), who has a unique talent that is both a gift and a curse. She’s quiet, sweet and sees more than you think. We have James; Mel’s brother. Mel and James drifted apart many years ago during and after their mother’s death. They rarely speak together, but when their grandmother turns for the worse, they all scramble back to their childhood town to help her and their father.
Let’s not forget the Burstrom’s brother’s; Seth and Travis. These two boys have a way of…. Well, you’ll see.
Parting Burden is from Mel’s POV, BUT! We see soooo much more. I have lived in small towns pretty much my entire life, and Arzinacky is a prefect picture of it. Everyone knows everyone. Nothing happens that the rest of the town don’t know about five seconds later – or so it seems. Small towns do have their secrets, some are more known than others, and Mel is in for a rough awakening when skeletons come crawling out of the closets all around town. Both good and bad ones. At the end of the day all you have is your family and friends and Mel is about to find out who is on her side through it all.
Parting Burden is an emotional ride to guide through. One second you’re laughing out loud because of something Mel said or did, the next you’re in tears because you just found out what actually happened all those years ago, just to jump into horror the second after because of something someone else did right now, only to turn the page and a grin as wide as the cheshire cat again. More importantly; it also makes you reflect on yourself.
I love how Sinead has incorporated the spiritual into Parting Burden, it felt so natural and gave it a nice touch. A strength on its own, if you can understand me? Another great thing is how well she has mixed all the different stories into each other. They’re intertwined in a way that is beautiful and makes you sit back afterwards to try and absorb it all.
So… in case you’re wondering; I loved this book, all +400 pages. It didn’t even feel that long because I just kept reading and reading and was so caught up in it. Pure bliss. Now if you’ll excuse me… I am going to hunt down a few more of Sinead’s books, because I’m FAR from done!
My addictive personality is appeased by coffee, cheese, chocolate, books, music, the internet...and nicotine which I'm trying to give up.
I have an ongoing love affair with semi-colons, commas and ellipses. Punctuation, self-doubt and moths are my personal nemeses. People have called me an encyclopedia of useless information and I talk...Way.Too.Much.
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