NEWLY RELEASEDForty-one year old Dana Quinn, a closet writer, career waitress and three-time psych ward patient has just lost her last family member. For Dana to go on, she must create a life meaningful enough to answer her eternal question: why did she alone survive the accident that killed her family? That's a tall order for someone who's barely managed to exist. Never married, in and out of an institution where only her writing saved her, Dana works a dismal job with a few friends she's managed to keep at a safe distance.
Lost and hopeless in the weeks following Aunt Irma's unexpected death, Dana discovers a letter and takes her aunt's advice to walk away from her life in Queens and return to her family farm to write herself well one more time. For over thirty years Dana's believed the farm was sold and did her best to forget it. But what if everything in the house is frozen in time exactly the way they left it? Nothing can stop her from walking through that door. On the road she adopts a one-eared dog and finds a new best friend in Iowan-turned-New Yorker, Stu, who's given up designing off-Broadway sets to care for his ailing mother back in his tiny hometown.
Chokecherry, her father's beloved farm, is not at all what Dana expects and far more than she bargains for. By firelight, Malcolm reveals the cryptic history buried in the tunnel, and why the big barn strikes fear in the hearts of those who enter it. Despite its tragic past, the farm also possesses an undeniable capacity to heal the broken. In fact, it seems to be a magnet for broken hearts. Just as Dana and her friends form a tight bond and rise to the challenge of helping Chokecherry realize its true potential, a supernatural ability she's failed to repress for years, nearly kills her. Dana's forced to fight for a life she wants--a life that finally answers her eternal question in ways she never could've imagined.
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Sheri's Debut Book - Swallowtail
Our Book Review
A story that will take you through loss, uncertainty, second chances, hope and the special bond of friendship.
After a tragic car accident loosing her parents and siblings the young Dana leaves the cherished family farm to live with her Aunt Imra. In time the trauma sees her treated as an inpatient more than once to get her back to herself and she also uses her own talents to 'write herself well' by continuing her siblings life's through pen and paper. When her elderly aunt dies after falling down the stairs, secrets she has kept from Dana are told and she is encouraged to return to the farm she once knew as home.
Her journey see's her build in confidence and fate brings Dana and her soon to be best friend Stu together as well as her new furry loyal friend, one eared Slim (the dog). It's a reminder of how people can just enter into your life unexpectedly for a reason or a need and this is exactly what happens here. Dana comes alive when she is reaquanted with the family farm, although now sadly derelict, the memories still hold it together for her. The reunion with her neighbour Malcolm, who had continued to look after the place, gets off to a tricky start but you see it gradually blossom. Dana gets a second chance of life, freedom from the past memories and the weight of loss and a new reason to live. The three of them strive to create something magical and uplifting with the farm but will the farms tormented secret and their lack of money halt their plans?
Sheri has a unique ability to create a magical visual read purely by the talent of her writing as she describes life on the other side or spiritual life from within oneself, for myself personally I would have absolutely loved more of this in the story. It took the first couple of chapters to pull me into the story, having to re-read certain parts as it jumped around a little, but by no means do not let this put you off, it is well worth the read and by the end I was flicking those pages almost as fast as I was reading them. Once read you will find yourself thinking back fondly to the characters and the story.
This is a story is full of hope, reinvention and how you can take control in the opportunities of life if you would only let yourself. If your looking for a really nice enjoyable read and enjoy a beautiful drop of spiritual fiction wrote beautifully by the authors hand then this is the book for you.
About the Author
A story that will take you through loss, uncertainty, second chances, hope and the special bond of friendship.
After a tragic car accident loosing her parents and siblings the young Dana leaves the cherished family farm to live with her Aunt Imra. In time the trauma sees her treated as an inpatient more than once to get her back to herself and she also uses her own talents to 'write herself well' by continuing her siblings life's through pen and paper. When her elderly aunt dies after falling down the stairs, secrets she has kept from Dana are told and she is encouraged to return to the farm she once knew as home.
Her journey see's her build in confidence and fate brings Dana and her soon to be best friend Stu together as well as her new furry loyal friend, one eared Slim (the dog). It's a reminder of how people can just enter into your life unexpectedly for a reason or a need and this is exactly what happens here. Dana comes alive when she is reaquanted with the family farm, although now sadly derelict, the memories still hold it together for her. The reunion with her neighbour Malcolm, who had continued to look after the place, gets off to a tricky start but you see it gradually blossom. Dana gets a second chance of life, freedom from the past memories and the weight of loss and a new reason to live. The three of them strive to create something magical and uplifting with the farm but will the farms tormented secret and their lack of money halt their plans?
Sheri has a unique ability to create a magical visual read purely by the talent of her writing as she describes life on the other side or spiritual life from within oneself, for myself personally I would have absolutely loved more of this in the story. It took the first couple of chapters to pull me into the story, having to re-read certain parts as it jumped around a little, but by no means do not let this put you off, it is well worth the read and by the end I was flicking those pages almost as fast as I was reading them. Once read you will find yourself thinking back fondly to the characters and the story.
This is a story is full of hope, reinvention and how you can take control in the opportunities of life if you would only let yourself. If your looking for a really nice enjoyable read and enjoy a beautiful drop of spiritual fiction wrote beautifully by the authors hand then this is the book for you.
Our Rating
About the Author
Sheri Meshal spent most of her childhood on an old farm in Iowa. She is an author by day and chauffeur by night... for a tad bit longer. She inherited her lifelong love of books from her father, who sensed she was a writer long before she did, and changed the course of her life by telling her so. Her debut novel, Swallowtail, took over six years to write and was inspired by bizarre events which occurred shortly after her father's passing in 1998. Best friends, they'd engaged in countless conversations regarding the possibility of life after death.
A minimalist, Sheri currently lives in Chicago sans furniture with her dog, Kylee and her roommate and fellow writer, Mack Oliver. When she isn't writing, she's traveling and spending time with her nieces and nephews every chance she gets.
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Sheri's Debut Book - Swallowtail
Chicago wife, mother and finance executive Claire Cummings, arrives at work one morning to discover her friend Julia has embezzled millions and vanished. Blindsided and devastated by the betrayal, she’s sent home pending further investigation. Claire’s bizarre death the following day sends everyone reeling, guessing and looking for her in all the wrong places. In no time she's addicted to an enchanting menagerie of tricks and techniques for getting the living's attention, but most people are harder to reach than she'd ever dreamed and even harder to set free.
She was still a mother, a wife, a daughter and a friend... she'd move heaven and earth to keep it that way.
Sheri
Meshal’s Swallowtail is a haunting story about life, love, loss and just how far we’ll go to control it all.
This debut from a thought-provoking new voice in fiction begs the question… what would you do if all the rules changed, and you were suddenly bestowed powers beyond your greatest imagination?
NOW FOR THE AUTHOR'S GIVEAWAY
ONE LUCKY WINNER will win a $10 Amazon Gift Card
Open Worldwide
Ending on Sunday 6th July at 11.59pm EST
Enter Below and Good Luck !!
Sharon x
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This sounds like a really interesting book. I really need to make the time to read more.
ReplyDeleteI love emotional books. I bet I would sob through this one!
ReplyDeleteIt is such fun finding new books for the kindle.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like this starts out so tragic but really gains hope as the story goes. Great summer reading!
ReplyDeleteI love when a book pulls you in and doesn't let go! I will have to add this to my summer read list. Thanks!!
ReplyDeleteYou said it so much better than me. I loved it too.
ReplyDeleteBooks on hope and finding yourself are always captivating for me. Looks like a great one!
ReplyDeleteSounds great ! Will put it on my read list for over the summer, popping over from www.mummy2monkeys.co.uk
ReplyDelete