About this book:
“Evan made a deathbed promise to his dad to hold their family together and lead them well. In the face of challenges on every side, Evan neglects his studies, and to make up his grade, he must write the story of the girl in his class who always has a palm-sized masterpiece painted on her left hand.
Rain has lived in Ivy Hollow nearly her entire life. The circumstances of her story have never been easy to come to terms with, but they've never been a secret… until now. Her senior year brings two new students to her small-town school, and both turn out to be a threat to the life she’s created for herself. Her long buried past is being exposed all over again, and she’s terrified of facing it.
Jordan doesn’t want anything to do with Ivy Hollow, but her mom’s new business has them living there anyway. While she’s unpacking boxes, Jordan discovers a dark family secret that will shatter every conception she’s ever had—and it just might have something to do with the girl at school who has a unique name and only one hand.
Three stories. One small town. Once they collide, life will never be the same.”
Series: No.
Spiritual Content- A few Scriptures are referenced and thought over; Prayers; Witnessing to someone; Talks about God, trusting Him, Him preparing us, God making good come from bad events, His plans, forgiveness, Him redeeming others, & receiving supernatural healing from Him with repentance; ’H’s are capital when referring to God; Evan and Rain both are Christians, but Jordan hasn’t given God much thought; *Spoilers* Towards the end, Jordan realizes that God knows every little thing about her and isn’t sure how to pray, but asks for forgiveness; She feels lighter the next morning after this *End of Spoilers*; Mentions of God, trusting Him, & having faith; Mentions of prayers, praying, & blessings over food; Mentions of Bible reading; Mentions of churches & church going; Mentions of Christians; A few mentions of religious grandparents and going to church with them for holidays; A few mentions of Catholics & Protestants; A few mentions of cathedrals & stained glass windows; A few mentions of sins; A mention of missionaries; A mention of a blessing; A mention of a baby dedication;
*Note: When seeing Rain’s bedroom with her paintings, Evan thinks of stained glass windows in cathedrals and has “a kind of reverence” sweep over him; Jordan says her mom and God “are not on good terms”; Rain wonders in a dark moment if her name is a curse; Jordan’s mom says their new house probably has a ghost or two; A few mentions of superstitions, haunted houses, & ghosts; A couple mentions of magic (teasing); A couple mentions of mermaids & fairies (in a book); A couple mentions of luck & being lucky; A mention of the sky looking like “all hell would break loose”.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘blasted’, a ‘darn’, a form of ‘dumb’, a ‘good grief’, a ‘heck’, a ‘oh my gosh’, a ‘retarded’, a ‘shoot’, a ‘shut up’, two forms of ‘dang’, four forms of ‘how/what the heck’, four idiot’s, eight ‘gosh’s, nine forms of ‘suck’, and thirteen ‘stupid’s; A couple mentions of curses (said by both Evan and Rain in intense moments, but not written out); Eye rolling & Sarcasm; Some lying (including Jordan to her father); A car accident, being slapped by a parent, pain, injuries, blood/bleeding, extreme grief and sobbing (for a father, a sibling, and what a family could have been), & throwing up (up to semi-detailed); *Major Spoilers* Towards the end, Jordan is driving while crying and distraught which causes her to hit a tree; She was driving with her little sister and Evan’s little sister in the car; The little girls are injured and one has an emergency surgery, but Jordan does not make it and died at the scene of the accident *End of Spoilers*; Evan and his family are grieving the loss of their father/husband & Evan is determined to hold his family together to make his father proud; In a moment of anger, Evan’s sister tells their mother that she wishes the mother died instead of their dad; Jordan’s parents have recently gotten a divorce after her father left & she doesn’t understand how a couple that were “so in love” are able to call it “quits forever” and not fight for their family; Jordan feels like everyone in her life doesn’t stick around for very long; Jordan’s mother has a drinking episode (*Spoiler, but about physical abuse* and when Jordan tries take the alcohol from her, her mother slaps her and Jordan slaps her back; Jordan sobs afterwards and feels a monster emerging inside of her *End of Spoilers*); A bully is rude to another student who is in a wheelchair (including called him ‘retarded’ and bipolar; *Spoilers* Jordan gets fed-up with his comments and dumps a bowl of soup on the bully’s head; She received detention for it *End of Spoilers*); Many mentions of deaths (including from abortion, cancer, and a car accident), & grief (including for a husband, father, and what a life could have been); Many mentions of abortions, abortion survivors, babies being killed and unwanted, pro-choice vs pro-life, & guilt, depression, and trauma over abortions; Mentions of wars & the holocaust; Mentions of a car accident/crash, a death, funerals, injuries, & extreme grief; Mentions of a bully, someone being bullied, & his mean and belittling comments; Mentions of divorces & a father leaving his family (Jordan’s parents); Mentions of lies & lying; Mentions of jealousy; Mentions of hatred; Mentions of gossip & rumors; Mentions of alcohol, drinking, it being difficult for someone to stop drinking, & drunks; A few mentions of slapping someone (including slapping a parent and being slapped by a parent); A few mentions of bad foster care placements; A few mentions of nightmares; A few mentions of throwing up; A mention of possible suicides; A mention of the possibility of a parent in prison; A mention of a vulgar joke (unsaid/not written); A mention of a student getting held back in school due to causing trouble; A mention of blackmail;
*Note: Because of past actions of another, Rain has struggled with negative thoughts about her worth and comparing herself to another, but has tried to keep from wallowing it in; *Major Spoilers, but mentions abortions* Rain was adopted as a baby after a failed abortion (her biological mother had an abortion which killed her twin and took Rain’s right hand, but the mother didn’t know it was twins and had to deliver Rain; It wasn’t guaranteed that Rain would make it through the night, but she did and the biological mother and aunt left her for the state to deal with; Rain was adopted by her NICU nurse and calls her by her first name; Rain’s biological mother is Jordan’s mother, making Rain half-sisters with Jordan and Maya; Rain has struggled with feeling unwanted by her biological mother because she kept her next two daughters instead of her; Rain has eventually forgiven her biological mother, but feels guilt over the death of her twin *End of Spoilers*; A mother shares with Jordan about doctors trying to convince her to have an abortion after finding out that her baby would be “different” and made him sound like a “leech on society” (she and the husband did not have an abortion); Jordan has always thought of abortion as a taboo topic and been raised with the idea that it’s a woman’s choice because it’s her body, but listening to her friend’s mother about it, she realizes it’s a “right more powerful” than she wanted access to—choosing her body or the baby’s was more important; In her first chapter, Jordan finds out her mother had a baby before her which is shocking news and Jordan wants to find out what happened to the baby (Jordan thinks this betrayal is another reason to believe her family has been broken since the beginning and never stood a chance; Jordan wonders if it haunts her mother); Jordan has never been close to her mother and feels like she walks on eggshells when speaking to her (at one point, she notices her mother using her “overly nice voice” after take her stress out on her and her sister and never apologizing); Jordan’s mother struggles with anxiety and depression (with symptoms similar to PTSD); After the divorce, Jordan has a strained relationship with her father (Jordan’s father tried to get custody of her and her sister due to her mother’s “fits” and calling her unfit to parent, but the judge ordered for the mother to see a therapist); Jordan finds her mother having a drinking episode, being uncontrollable, and clutching her abdomen and later wonders if it is her being haunted by a past choice; Jordan has always been close to her aunt and able to do things with her that her mom would never let her do (like drink a little wine); *Spoilers, but about abortions* Jordan is told by her aunt about her mom’s abortion, her aunt being very pro-choice and having three abortions of her own, & the aunt talking about having “the right to choose” and offering her help to Jordan if she needs to get out of trouble and will take care of her during it (and how they will later have a toast to her right as a woman); The aunt says that it’s a woman’s “right” and ”half the reason it’s been so hard to keep our rights” is because of people bringing shame into the topic of abortion; Jordan is shocked by this conversation and wonders if her aunt is right because while her mom’s life would have been so different, she isn’t sure that makes it right; The aunt does admit that Jordan’s mom had to experience the pregnancy and labor (which the aunt never did) and says that probably would have turned her too; The grandparents never knew because the mom’s mom was “too religious” and would have had a heart attack; Jordan then realizes that abortion isn’t right because there were people killed, but her aunt says it’s usually “pretty easy” and just like a “bad period” (Jordan doesn’t find this convincing); The aunt says that the baby would have been better off dead than in the foster care system and Jordan asks if it’s right for them to decide about it, but her aunt sneers that it was the mom’s body and says they need abortions (such as having her whole life ahead of her or the baby having a birth defect, but Jordan feels sick at that thought because of her friend’s story); Jordan starts to believe that a baby isn’t a woman’s body, that you can’t kill a person because of their inconvenience, and while it might have been her mother’s right, it scarred her deeply; Jordan and Rain are able to talk about it all and Rain wonders if it would help for their mother to know answers about her, but Jordan isn’t so sure; Towards the end, Jordan tells her mom about Rain, but her mom is very upset and wants to move as she doesn’t think she needs to apologize and is “not the villain” (Jordan knows she’s fighting the voices and guilt in her own head at these words); Jordan’s mom warns her not to talk to Rain again or she’ll make her life miserable and blames Jordan for everything; To hurt Jordan, her mother tells her that her aunt wanted her to abort Jordan as well, but because she was traumatized by the first abortion, she didn’t; Jordan is extremely shocked and hurt, feeling like she wants to die in a dark hole after hearing this and wishes she didn’t know, but knows now that it’s why her mom and her have always been disconnected; Jordan hopes that her mom will one day be able to process it all and move on *End of Spoilers*; Jordan thinks of a boy in her class as mentally slower than normal, but quickly realizes how smart the boy is; The author shares at the end of how her own parents were pressured to abort her due to being diagnosed with one of the most severe forms of Spina Bifida; Each chapter starts with a book and/or author quote (C.S. Lewis, L.M. Montgomery, Mary Shelley, Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, J.M. Barrie, & J.R.R. Tolkien); Many mentions of books, authors, & fictional characters (‘A Tale of Two Cities’, ‘Great Expectations’, ‘Peter Pan’, ‘Frankenstein’, ‘War and Peace’, ‘Anne of Green Gables’, Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, J.M. Barrie, Charles Spurgeon, & Shakespeare); Mentions of singers/bands & songs (The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra, The Andrews Sisters, & Dean Martin); A couple mentions of a actors/actress (Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant); A couple mentions of Google; A couple mentions of panic attacks; A couple mentions of therapists; A mention of Star Wars.
Sexual Content- Some touches, hand holding, butterflies, & smelling (barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes & Crushes; Some noticing & staring (barely-above-not-detailed); A guy looks Jordan up and down, tries to flirt with her, & she walks away from a class field trip to follow his invitation and he flirts more with her (she goes with him despite the red flags waving in her head); Jordan figured out a long time ago that her mom was pregnant with her before her parents married because she was born six months after their wedding (Jordan feels like she was an accident and her mother has never forgiven her for it); Rain’s biological mother was seventeen when she got pregnant with her and it’s believed the biological father didn’t know about her (someone asks if she could have been raped, but Rain doesn’t know); Evan visits Rain’s bedroom twice and her mom teases to “keep the door open” on the second time; Many mentions & conversations about abortion and abortions (see Negative Content Note Spoilers for more information); Mentions of teen girls going wild behind their parents’ backs (implied because the parents were religious/strict and hovered; this includes teen pregnancy and having abortions); Mentions of teen and unwed pregnancies; Mentions of kisses; Mentions of boyfriends/girlfriends, dates, dating, & broken hearts; Mentions of cute boys, crushes, & flirting; A few mentions of dating a guy who already had a girlfriend; A mention of abortion enabling rapists and traffickers to hide their abuse; A mention of puberty; Light love, falling in love, & the emotions;
*Note: A woman comments on an abortion being like a “bad period”; A mention of postpartum depression; A mention of a woman’s skin-tight pants.
-Evan, age 17/18
-Rain, age 17/18
-Jordan, age 15-16
1st person P.O.V. switches between them
320 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
Trigger warning: many mentions of and conversations about abortions (not graphic or detailed).
Oh, boy. I don’t know where to even begin with my thoughts about this book. As soon as I heard it had pro-life themes, I wanted to read it. Then I heard about the grief in it, I thought I needed to wait. I think that was ultimately the best decision, but I still sobbed in the last quarter of the book. I wasn’t expecting that ending and now can confirm what many friends warned me: read this book with a box of tissues nearby.
As someone who also poured herself (and continues to pour herself) into gardening after extreme grief over the passing of immediate family members, I felt seen at Evan’s parts. I highlighted many parts of his chapters because I could relate to his emotions. Which was an interesting dynamic to this book for me: in some ways, I liked the book even more because I could unfortunately understand what characters were going through. But on the other hand, there were parts that felt so…familiarly realistic to me because of many different reasons, that it was also hard to read.
Somehow—despite all the hard topics and conversations and feelings and messy, grief-filled lives—this book didn’t feel heavy. There’s a proper weight on my shoulders after finishing this book because of it all, but it’s because I understand some of the characters’ grief and also hearing about the heartache of abortions. Our characters don’t wallow it those moments of darkness, though. The faith element of this book was beautifully done. It was in every important conversation, every tear-filled heartache, and in the hopes and dreams of the future when everything seems uncertain.
If I had three complaints: 1- Jordan’s texting parts were a little cringey but that was because of the lack of correct spelling and grammar. 2- The event that happened in the last section. I am not okay. 😭 3- The ending was a little too open for my tastes, but I figured that would be the case based on prior conversations between Evan and Rain. Overall, however, it was a great book that had such a wonderful pro-life theme to it with strong faith content!
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
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