Solace

Solace Ranch Novella Series Book 1

Fiction - Short Story/Novela
124 Pages
Reviewed on 09/27/2015
Buy on Amazon

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.

This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.

    Book Review

Reviewed by Marta Tandori for Readers' Favorite

Solace by Angela Smith is a bittersweet romance set in Chapman Springs, Texas in 1969. Brooklyn (Brook) Williams is at a town dance with Roy Abbott, the man she’s been casually dating, when he shocks her by dropping to one knee and proposing in front of everyone. Before Brook can reply, everyone rushes forward to offer their congratulations, but what very few know, including Roy, is that Brook is still married to her childhood sweetheart, Leath, who had abandoned her two years earlier for another tour in Viet Nam. Still struggling with Roy’s proposal the next day, Brook is shocked to learn that Leath has been home for a year – an entire year in which he hasn’t made any effort whatsoever to contact her.

Solace is aptly named, well-researched and beautifully executed. Angela Smith’s prose is crisp and evocative, nicely capturing the essence of an era poised on the precipice of evolving technology while still mired by the hate and prejudices of the time. Leath left for Nam a boy and came back a shell-shocked, wounded man who’s doing his best to cope in his old world while haunted by the nightmares that constantly plague him. The language is shocking, crude at times, and politically incorrect by today's standards, but necessary in order to remind us of the narrow-mindedness of that shameful time of bitter upheaval in America’s history. This talented author’s voice shines through with a vibrant poignancy that is sure to touch a reader’s heart. It certainly did mine.