Dear Fellow Reader,

It is finally feeling like summer. It is hot today, but the temperatures keep bouncing around a bit. We are having a family party on Saturday, and I am quite sure my flowers, which look great right now, will go on hiatus as soon as the first guest arrives. Oh well, I will just enjoy it now.

Let’s talk about The Garden of Second Chances. I have to tell you two things up front. One is that I kind of know the author. We were in an internet writers’ group together several years ago. There are a few members of the group that I have kept up with on social media and she is one of them. I am so happy for her. Several of the group have been published and she is the latest. We cheer on her success. The second thing about this book is that I did receive a copy of the book to review.

But I also bought a copy. Yes, I know that means that I have two copies. But I think that we should be cheerleaders for our artist friends. I believe that we should, when possible, buy the book, the piece of art, the whatever to support them. Believe in their dream and hope for the absolute best for them.

The Garden of Second Chances is a novel about Juana. At age 17, Juana has always jumped before thinking things completely through. As the book opens, she is in prison for the murder of her husband. The only thing that gives her hope is being released and being with her baby. Juana is tormented by the gang leader on her block. She just wants to be quiet and get through her time. She tries to find her way through the time in jail by behaving and being quiet. She knows that she did not murder her husband, but she never told anyone her side of the story. It often seems like the system and the people who are a part of it are stacked against her. Then she gets a letter saying that her ex-mother-in-law wants Juana’s baby. This is a blow to her. While she knows that her ex-mother-in-law must be lonely she doesn’t want her to have the baby as she is afraid that the ex-mother-in-law will take the baby to her homeland, Russia.

One highlight of her time is that she is allowed to cultivate a small parcel of land into a vegetable patch. This showed her that she did have skills and could be a responsible person.

Over time we see the life points where Juana made decisions that were not well thought out – she jumped at what she felt were opportunities that did not work out that way. She has disappointed her family when she was trying to do good things for them. The best part is that Juana also looks over her decisions and sees where she went wrong and could have made better decisions. She learns that she has to stand up for herself and let her voice be heard.

I enjoyed the book. I felt that Juana was portrayed realistically in that she stumbled several times but grew as a person over the course of the book. I look forward to Mona’s next book!

Thanks for reading!