Long Blue Line by E. McNew

Taking place in the idyllic town of South Lake Tahoe, CA, Long Blue Line is the coming of age of Elizabeth Jeter. It candidly reveals the provocative and secret world of a planned teen pregnancy and the brutal consequences that follow. The girl next door – popular and driven.

Once upon a time a beautiful teenager looked forward to school letting out and the warm, carefree days to come. But in the summer of her fifteenth year, things would drastically change. After reading a romance book sensationalizing a young woman's perfect life following the hookup with a wealthy prince charming, Elizabeth set out to create her own fairy tale ending. This would become the beginning of the darkest hours in her life: pregnancy, bridesmaids, drugs and jail.

Long Blue Line is Elizabeth's true story about her descent into addiction. Her obsession with pregnancy, social issues, independence, and, ultimately drugs is chronicled in brutally honest Prose that will leave you spellbound. Her journey isn't over – far from it. She still has nightmares, but today she is wiser and lives in reality.

If you are this girl, you will take a deep breath and nod your head knowingly. If you knew this girl, you will rethink your assumptions. If this girl is your daughter, you will finally get an insider's look at what she can't put into words.

Above all, you will be moved – moved to tears, to unity, to action. Elizabeth is one of the lucky ones. She survived. Sadly, many young women and their children are unable to escape the madness and become another one of too many true crime stories. Not everyone gets a second chance, and she hopes to inspire others with her straightforward honesty.

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Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Jacki – ☆☆☆☆
This was a difficult book to read and review. I didn't quite know what to expect when I decided to read it, but I can say I didn't want to put it down. I can't say that I loved it, but it isn't meant to be a book you love. The author has created a brutally honest warning to everyone. She is by no means perfect and neither is this book. It isn't a grand story created for entertainment. It is one of brutal truth and self-discovery.

Elizabeth is/was your typical suburban teenage girl. Her head was full of fantasies, and even though she was quite intelligent, her adolescent brain couldn't comprehend the consequences of putting those fantasies into action.

This book is her actual story. She tells the brutal truth through her own eyes. It was very difficult for me, as a mother, to comprehend how she could have let some things happen, but another side of me that has dealt with family and friends' addictions, can also see how easily a person can slip away from themselves without realizing it. Drugs are a slippery slope, and the author wants readers to understand that. She wants people to understand that it can happen to anyone, and that it isn't something to ignore or hide when you see it.

I can say that my heart both aches for and scorns her for her actions. I couldn't imagine going through what she has, but having been a teen mother myself, I also relate to that naiveté that she would have had. I commend her family and friends that supported her through everything. I do not think she would have made it through her ordeals without them. I am happy to hear that she seems to be doing well and I wish the best for her. I have seen friends go through something similar to this without a good outcome.

Overall, I think this IS a book for anyone to read. I am glad I read it and know quite a few people that I would like to suggest it to.

Elizabeth McNew is a dynamic professional whose publishing acumen has resulted in amazing success for her clients. In addition to her roles as freelance writer, blogger, best-selling author and web design specialist, she has helped over one hundred aspiring authors launch and sell ebooks in nearly every genre. She also invests in website design and auctions.

While life is certainly treating her well, it wasn't always so cordial. Formerly known as Elizabeth Jeter, she grew up in the small town of South Lake Tahoe, California. During her youth, Elizabeth struggled with substance abuse, teen pregnancy, domestic violence, child custody loss and hardships in the California court system. Her ultimate passion has always been writing and she candidly recounts her challenging journey in the controversial book, Long Blue Line – which is available on Amazon.com.

It wasn't easy, but she persevered in the end and is still going strong. Her ambition is clearly evident in each project she assumes and her impeccable reputation is something new and existing clientele have learned to depend on.

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Jacki reviewed her personal copy of Long Blue Line by E. McNew for this post.

The Grass Was Always Browner by Sacha Jones Blog Tour

The Grass Was Always Browner by Sacha Jones is the story of a strong-willed, smart yet often less than sensible, curious and questioning girl growing up as the middle-child of three children. Her parents are old, and old-fashioned, deeply impractical, idealistic and naive, not best suited to negotiating the rough and rugged terrain of suburban Sydney in the 1970s-80s.

Sacha is not only the middle child, but she is stuck in the middle of the muddle and mess of her family’s situation. She sees and suffers more than her siblings do – or so she feels. However, one advantage of her position is that she is sent to study ballet to treat her asthma, and through ballet she finds a way out of her predicament.

Sacha’s determination to escape her humdrum existence and ‘become Russian’ saw her push through and succeed against the odds (wrong-shaped head, wrong feet, overall wrong build) and a father who is strongly against her becoming a ballet dancer. He describes ballet as ‘a frivolous and selfish pursuit, too focused on appearances.’ His own dreams are focused on a desire to save the Third World. However, in their very different ways, Sacha and her father are more alike than either would care to admit.

In becoming a dancing star, Sacha surprises no-one more than her legendary dance teacher– an actual Russian – Mrs P, Tanya Pearson. However, her father was right about ballet.

Although it gives Sacha the escape she desires, there is a heavy price to pay. And when she sets off for London to further her dance career, it is in part because the Australian dance scene betrayed her trust.

Award-winning playwright, poet and novelist Stephanie Johnson says of The Grass Was Always Browner, “Nineteen seventies suburban Sydney comes winningly alive in Sacha’s light-hearted girlhood memoir of boundless optimism, pink milk, tutus, triumph at the Eisteddfod and a horse in the back garden.”

The Grass Was Always Browner is a laugh-out-loud memoir and a cautionary reminder that the grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence.

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Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Jacki – ☆☆☆
This book left me struggling with how to write my review. It was definitely different from memoirs I have read before.

Sacha was a very unique person to read about. Experiencing her life's memories through her eyes was a very interesting journey. The ups and downs, her very bizarre, but quite humorous family, and her unique way of telling her story combined to make a nice read.

The book was longer than I had expected it to be, but as a life's journey, it definitely ended up being appropriate. I also had a few jumbled moments where it took me a moment to figure out what was going on.

Overall, I liked going through Ms. Jones’s life and I would recommend this book to fans of memoirs looking for something different.

Sacha Jones has a PhD in Political Theory from the University of Auckland and has variously taught politics, preschool and dancing. She lives with her family on the outskirts of a proper forest (in Auckland, New Zealand) and returns as often as it will have her to the land of fake forests and improbable fruits where she grew up (Frenchs Forest, Sydney).

Connect with Sacha

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Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of The Grass Was Always Browner by Sacha Jones to read and review for this tour.

Love in a World of Sorrow by Fanya Gottesfeld Heller

This book describes Holocaust reality as we have never encountered it before. From the unrelenting fear of death and gnawing pain of hunger, to the budding relationships of an adolescent girl growing into womanhood during the worst of all times, the author withholds nothing. Fanya Gottesfeld Heller's subtle depiction of her parents’ knowledge that it was a non-Jew's love for their daughter that had moved him to hide them, and their embarrassment and ultimate acceptance of the situation, lead us to wonder how we would have acted under the same circumstances as father, mother, or daughter. Love in a World of Sorrow features Fanya's gripping tale of survival and an updated foreword and epilogue by the author, reflecting more than a decade of experience bearing witness to the Holocaust before hundreds of audiences around the world. On the reading list at Princeton University, the University of Connecticut, and Ben Gurion University of the Negev, among others. Fanya Gottesfeld Heller's book is an indispensable educational tool for teaching future generations about the human potential for both good and evil.

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Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Jacki – ☆☆☆☆☆
I cannot give enough praise to Mrs. Heller for sharing her story with the world. This book was phenomenally riveting and will leave a lasting impact in my memory. I have had an interest in the Holocaust for some time now and this book has stood out to me by far. It does not get much more real than this.

Most people are familiar with the horrors of the Holocaust, but this book brings the reader right into them. This first person account made me feel very much in the moment. It was an emotional roller coaster and a more personal education of the Nazi invasion.

Everything I expected was there, but there was so much more along with it. Fanya tells all of the personal details that I'm sure many just wanted to forget and couldn't force themselves to recall. Every moment, no matter how large or small, is shared to create a complete story. The happiness of the early times in her life through the horror and suffering and even on to post Holocaust are all included. I applaud her for including even the most humiliating and even shameful things that she suffered through or did to survive where others may have chosen to leave them out of their stories. Fanya's own personal journey throughout her life completely amazes me and I admire her as a person for everything she went through and for the person she strove to become in the aftermath.

This book is not for the faint of heart, but for those willing to read it, I highly recommend it and am glad that I took the time to read it.

Fanya Gottesfeld Heller was born in 1924 into a traditional Jewish family in the small Ukrainian village of Skala. Just over a decade later, Fanya was beset by hunger, marked for death, and faced with the constant threat of execution. Fanya, her parents and brother were hidden from the Nazi death squads through the kindness of two Christian rescuers, a Polish farmer and a Ukrainian militiaman. Despite the incomprehensible conditions, Fanya miraculously survived to live a full life and shares her message of hope.

Love in a World of Sorrow: A Teenage Girl’s Holocaust Memoirs documents her family’s wartime existence and her complex relationships with her rescuers.

Fanya’s original intent in writing her book, was to uncover the truth about the death of her father which to this day remains unexplained. But in writing her memoirs, she came to understand the importance of her story both as family history for her children and grandchildren and as a contribution to the Holocaust record. The publication of her book was greeted with warm praise for her bravery and described the difficult choices she had to make as she did everything possible to insure the survival of her family.

Her friend, fellow survivor and Nobel Laureate, Elie Wiesel has said, “Everyone who listens to a witness, becomes a witness himself.” In reading Fanya’s story, you too will become a witness.

Love in a World of Sorrow: A Teenage Girl’s Holocaust Memoirs is included in the curriculum of prestigious educational institutions including Princeton University, Yale, and The University of Connecticut. It served as the basis for her film, Teenage Witness: The Fanya Heller Story, released in 2010 when it was broadcast on PBS and its affiliate stations. Narrated by Richard Gere, the film tells Fanya’s story of survival through archival clips, photographs and live action testimonials and reflects her interaction with inner city teens.

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Jacki reviewed her personal copy of Love in a World of Sorrow: A Teenage Girl's Holocaust Memoirs by Fanya Gottesfeld Heller for this post.

Silent Tears by Kay Bratt

Irrepressible memories. Vacant eyes. A child being dangled from a third story window. A boy tied to a chair. Children sleeping in layers of clothing to fight off the bitter cold. An infant dying from starvation. Some things your mind will never allow you to forget.

Silent Tears is the true story of the adversity and triumphs one woman faced as she fought against the Chinese bureaucracy to help that country’s orphaned children.

In 2003, Kay Bratt’s life changed dramatically. A wife and mother of two girls in South Carolina, Bratt relocated her family to rural China to support her husband as he took on a new management position for his American employer. Seeking a way to fill her days and overcome the isolation she experienced upon arriving in a foreign country, Bratt began volunteering at the local orphanage. Within months, her simple desire to make use of her time transformed into a heroic crusade to improve the living conditions and minimize the unnecessary deaths of Chinese orphans.

Silent Tears traces the emotional hurdles and daily frustrations faced by Ms. Bratt as she tried to change the social conditions for these marginalized children. The memoir vividly illustrates how she was able to pull from reservoirs of inner strength to pursue her mission day after day, leaving the reader with the resounding message that everyone really can make a difference.

Buy Links

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Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Jacki – ☆☆☆☆
This book was quite different from anything I have read before. It was more emotional and enlightening than I was expecting and I'm glad I read it.

Kay Bratt moves with her husband and daughter to China and there she is thrust into a completely different world with eye opening experiences that will impact her life forever. She finds herself trying to adjust to a new culture and decides to do some volunteering to help fill her time. She volunteers at a local orphanage. Little does she know that the experience will lead to a roller coaster of deep emotions that lasts for years. Whilst there, she learns how culture really affects how people treat one another and how different her culture is from China's. All while she cares for and tries to make a difference in the lives of unfortunate orphaned children.

I don't want to spoil any of this for readers, but Kay's experiences will definitely stay with me. I myself have lived abroad and struggled with adjusting to a new culture, so I found myself easily relating to her story, but as I read more, I was grateful to have had an easier transition to my new home. I can still be brought right back to moments in this book and often find myself snuggling my own children a little tighter as I do. I cried and had a few dark moments during my reading of this book. I will say it isn't for everyone and that some readers may find themselves feeling angry and judgmental during some parts of this book. I tried to keep an open mind about cultural differences, but even I struggled. It made me feel blessed that I was born and raised in the culture that I was.

This was tough read emotionally, but I am glad I read it. I would recommend it, but warn that it isn't the best read for the soft hearted or anyone preferring lighter reads. I praise the author for sharing her experiences and for being strong enough to have done what she did.

Kay Bratt is a child advocate and author of the books Train to Nowhere, Chasing China, The Bridge, A Thread Unbroken, and the acclaimed memoir of the years she spent working in Chinese orphanages, Silent Tears: A Journey of Hope in a Chinese Orphanage. She has actively volunteered for several nonprofit organizations, including An Orphan’s Wish (AOW) and the Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) for abused and neglected children. In China, she was honored with the Pride of the City award for humanitarian work. After living in China for several years, Bratt now resides in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in South Carolina, with her husband, daughter, dog, and cat.

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Jacki reviewed her personal copy of Silent Tears by Kay Bratt for this post.