Loved this so much - set in Georgetown Guyana, and India. The story of Rita Maraj, her childhood in Georgetown, and the way her life changes when her father remarries. Later Rita travels to India with her spoilt half sister, and encounters the formidable Maharani.

RELEASE NOTES:

Released during the first Dudley meet up.

Ali tempted me with this at our pre-meetup lunch but I resisted, then it wasn't claimed by anyone else so I took it at the actual meetup. I have another by this author already so will be interested to see what I think.

A similar setting to the last one I read by her (Of Marriageable Age), in Guyana and Tamil Nadu, but just as good and, again, I couldn't put it down. Memorable characters carried out believable actions but in an exciting plot with plenty of twists.

I'm going to ring this eventually, but when a few of my current rings have come back home!

Thanks for putting this my way, Ali!

BOOK RING!

Usual rules apply...

Make a journal entry when you receive the book
Contact the next reader for their address when you are almost done
Post a review when you've read the book - please try to send it on within a month of receipt if you can
Make a journal entry or controlled release notes when you send the book on

PARTICIPANTS

CaterinaAnna UK (UK)
Teachie UK (UK)
Scotsbookie UK (anywhere, surface)
sjr1969 UK (anywhere)
Jessibud Canada (Canada/US)
Cinnamon-Girl NC, US (US preferred)
Pammykn FL, US (anywhere, surface)
Omly Massachussetts, US (anywhere)
GateGypsy Canada (anywhere)
froggirlwendy Australia (anywhere) ----- asked to be skipped
Olifant Netherlands (Europe)
Purplerosebud UK (UK)
Calalilly (UK)
LindyB28 UK (UK) <--- it's here

.... back to me

PM'd CaterinaAnna to check best time to pass the book to her

RELEASE NOTES:

Giving to CaterinaAnna at the Birmingham meetup on Saturday.

from LyzzyBee at today's meet up: next but one on TBR, so should be done by end of half term holidays if you're looking ahead teachie

I thought this was a great book about growing up: none of your single traumatic events that force someone into a sudden adulthood, but the whole story of Rita learning who she is. However, the lines that stick with me are descriptions of shared feelings, making intangible tangible:

'The thing, the terrible, horrible thing too apalling to be spoken out loud but which they all felt, all knew; which passed from soul to soul without need of words, becasue speaking it out loud would be to unleash it from the world of feeling into the world of intellect, to defuse it, lessen it, drain its poison, make it graspable to the mind; would be to make the unthinkable thinkable: and that should never be.'

'... she recognised him: not from the photo, but from the echo she felt inside her, as if constant thinking about him had left an indelible imprint on her mind, and on seeing the living man ... that imprint had responded with a flutter of recognition.'

OK that last one's pretty soppy, but hey it doesn't mean it's rubbish ;o)

When the current blip of site wierdness is over, will be PM-ing whoever is next on the ring ...

Thanks Catherine arrived today. I have 2 other rings to read yet but can't wait to get to this one.

I like the style with the stories all interweaving. The ending is rather predictable but that just adds to the enjoyment of the story. I shall now contact scotsbookie

One of the 5 bookrings passed on to me at the UnCon this passed weekend. I'll get to it as soon as I can but please have patience as it's in a queue!

What a wonderful read! I enjoy the way Sharon Maas brings together her characters & narrarive, weaving the stories together. I found Isabelle's confession to Rita near the end of the book very moving. The ending of the book was very satisfying & gave me a feeling completeness. I mention this as I have read a few books recently that left me hanging, feeling that the author could have finished the book in a more satisfactory manner :)

Thank you LyzzyBee for the opportunity to read the book.

Have PM'd sjr1969 for their details.

Of in the post to sjr1969 this morning. Enjoy!

This arrived this morning, what a great way to start the weekend!

Thanks for the note scotsbookie!

Did a tandem book ring readathon over the weekend, and still had time to visit a museum! (didn't get much sleep though!)

I enjoyed this book, but not as much as "Of marriagble age" The different settings and the whole story made it unputdownable. Sorrry it has taken so long I am now Pming Jessibud for posting directions.

Sent on to the next person on the list this morning

This book arrived yesterday. I hope to finish my current read this weekend and then will dive into this one. Thanks, and happy holidays to all

Oops. I mailed this one on to Cinnamon-Girl on January 14. I thought I had journalled it here but apparently not. For some reason, I just couldn't get into this book. Maybe the timing just wasn't right for me but I tried for about a week and just wasn't feeling engaged by the characters at all.

Anyhow, I hope the rest of the participants in this ring enjoy it. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to give it a try.

Received the book this past weekend - thanks very much! I'll move this to the top of my TBR pile and journal again once I'm ready to send it on to the next reader.

I ran into the same problem as jessibud - although I've tried starting this book a few times over the past month, I could never really get into it and turned to other books instead. Perhaps someday I'll return to it and enjoy it, but for now, I don't want to keep this ring held up any longer than it has been, so I'll be mailing the book off to Pammykn tomorrow.

Regardless, thank you for including me in the ring!

Thanks rec'd today. Look forward to reading.

Thanks I enjoyed this one very much. Not quite as many characters & interweavings as Of Marriageable Age (at least for my memory). I liked following Rita from childhood in Guyana into adulthood & eventually India and some well-deserved happiness. Will mail to Omly on Tuesday.

I just returned from some travel to find this book waiting for me. I should be starting it soon.

Arrived in the mail today. I do have a couple of bookrings ahead of it, but I shall get to this ASAP. I've been doing pretty well with speeding through books, recently! Lyzzybee, thanks for starting this ring. I'm really looking forward to this one!

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book! I was a little confused, to begin with, as to how the two "main" characters we were following would eventually meet, and wasn't bothered when it happened. I wished we'd spent more time with the fellow, rather than his life story kindof flash past us, but I really liked sending as much time with Rita as we did. (I also liked that it was set "elsewhere" -- though the US and Canada and England were referred to, we were never there, and I liked that.) Rita marched to her own drum, and I really enjoyed the language the author used when describing that drummer. She reminded me of me sometimes, but more often was definately her own person. I couldn't help but wonder about the author's heritage, and whether she was as mixed a pot as Rita... obviously bloodlines are a topic that mean something to her. I especially liked when, bleeding heart that she is, Rita escalated her humanitarian endevours from animals to hospitals and prisoners to child prostitution. The horror of the knowledge of what goes on in that world is described so forcefully, and then in the same breath dismissed because it's too big to comprehend -- that that kind of suffering could exist in a world where people still have birthdays and sing songs and dance and laugh... I thought it was a well-made point. We all know about it, and still we go on. The terror and pain of that knowledge ought to be crippling, but it isn't. What can any one of us do, right? It definately got me to thinking about my goals... I plan on getting a Social Work degree... It made me take a good hard look at myself and ask, honestly, could I take on that terrible world and try to make a difference, myself?

RELEASE NOTES:

Went in the mail to Olifant. Froggirlwendy said she wanted to be skipped. I did not get a reply regarding whether she wanted to be bumped to further down the list or not.

Arrived safely in Utrecht today. Thanks for sending and ringing!

Started in it today.

I didn't finish this book. I'm preoccupied :-)

Sorry for keeping it so long. Will sent this book to purplerosebud as soon as possible.

Many thanks the book arrived today! I'll start as soon as I finish my current read but with nearly 500 pages it will take me a little while to get though. Maybe I should take a another holiday so that I can enjoy some quality reading time. LOL

An enjoyable read! I can't really add more than earlier JEs but I particularly liked the climax which I read very quickly wanting to know how the story ended and not finding it quite so predictable as Teachie but very satisfying. I was disturbed by the life that Asha was sold into presuming this was based on reality and realising what appalling lives those people lived.

Thanks for sharing. I will be passing it on to Calalilly at the Talisman meet up this week.

Received from Purplerosebud at the meet up last night, thank you. Why do rings seem like buses you wait ages and then several turn up within a short time. I've got a couple of other rings ahead of this but look forward to reading it.

When I first tried reading this book I just couldn't get into it so I put it to one side to come back to and I'm glad I did. I really enjoyed the book and how the stories weaved together. I shall definitely be looking out for more of her books. Thank you Lyzzybee for sharing this book. Will be sending it out this week to LindyB28

This arrived the other day; thanks Marlene, Ali, etc... am looking forward to reading it :-)

Received this back from LindyB28 today - thanks to everyone who passed it along.

Available for loan or ring, but with me for the moment...