A Facebook Affair
Tara ChevresttContemporary romance
Available from Breathless Press
ISBN: 9781771010306
December 2011
| This story begins with second grader, Kelly Littleton, starting at a new school in a new town in Oklahoma without knowing any kids. Of course, the first two kids she meets are Caitlin and Lindsey, you know, the mean girls. We then switch to twenty years later in Utah when Kelly's mother has died and she is just bereft. The story continues on, going back to second grade then to twenty years later. The biggest thing you should know about our girl Kelly, is that she has a definite hearing impairment and cannot hear without her hearing aids and by reading lips. The other kid she met on that fateful first day was Brandon, Lindsay's twin brother. He was kind and considerate and not similar at all to his sister.
So, after Kelly's mom died, she was kind of in her own (not quite) drunken stupor and her friend Tammy arrives to try to help her. One of the many things she did was start Kelly an account on Facebook. The only old schoolmate she would be moderately interested in even speaking to is Brandon. Keep in mind, this story weaves back and forth, second or third grade depending on where you are in the story to twenty-ish years later. Brandon just divorced his wife, Caitlin, and Lindsay is very pregnant with her first child. For the two years Kelly went to the same school with them, Caitlin and Lindsey did nothing but torture and mentally abuse her. Brandon was the only bright spot in her school life. Ms. Chevrestt does just a wonderful job painting the picture of the romance between Kelly and Brandon. I loved when Kelly sends a message to Brandon and how the two of them are constantly trying to message each other. I actually already recommended this story to a friend of mine who works with hearing impaired children! I think what I liked the best about this is that Ms. Chevrestt shows us that just because Kelly has hearing problems, that does not mean she doesn't have what is (in general) considered a ‘normal' life. There are certainly parts of the story that are uncomfortable, like the girls bullying Kelly because of her hearing problems and getting the rest of the kids to do the same, then we get to the very tender and poignant parts of the story between our leads that just made me squishy, happy!
Overall rating:
Reviewer: Teresa T. |
