Alice Bliss is fifteen. She’s been best friends with the neighbor boy Henry since they were in diapers, but their feelings seem to be changing into maybe something more. Other things at school have changed, too, like her best girlfriend joining the popular crowd and totally ignoring her, and a popular guy paying attention to her. But the biggest change is that her father has been deployed to Iraq. She’s not sure how she’s going to survive the months without him.
Alice Bliss: A Novel is the story of a family trying to keep going when Matt Bliss, the glue that holds them together, decides to join the Army reserves and is put into active duty in Iraq.
Alice knows that Gram is just as scared as she is — well, maybe not just as scared — and that cookies and toast and honey and molasses are not really going to make things right. But they’re all we’ve got. Just the everyday things: the forks and the spoons and the plates and breakfast and lunch and dinner and homework and playing Scrabble with your sister. That’s all anybody’s got when you get right down to it (Alice Bliss, page 176)
The writing is beautiful and as a reader, I become enmeshed with the Bliss family. Even though it’s a third person narrator, we know some of the thoughts and motivations, particularly of Alice and her mother Angie. Because Alice is a 15-year-old girl, things are a little rough with her mother. They’ve grown apart as girls and mothers often do at that age. Their responses to Matt’s absence heightens the distance, yet at times breaks it down as well. As the reader, I found myself seeing Angie mostly through her 15-year-old daughter’s eyes (unfavorably), which is saying a lot about the writing because as the mom of an almost-teen, I generally identify with the mother.
Once I got into the rhythm of this novel, I absolutely loved it. At first the way the story was told within a daily entry — not a journal, but a third-person account of each day — seemed a bit choppy, but as I continued to read the style fit perfectly. It underscored the passing of time, which is exactly what the Bliss family was doing — marking time until they could be together again. In spite of their constant worry about Matt, their daily lives go on — with school, work, dinner, sleep — in between quick static-filled phone calls and letters back and forth.
NOTE: This is a novel published for adults, but it’s also a a coming of age story that I think many high school girls would enjoy, and by high school most kids are reading adult novels anyway. I marked this one with the Teen and High School category labels, because I think that it would be of particular interest to high schoolers as well as adults. There are a handful of adult words, but believe me it’s nothing that your 15-year-old hasn’t heard before.
I am so pleased to be able to share a copy of Alice Bliss with one of you. Just leave a comment here if you’d like to win. We’ll announce the winner on June 1, the day before the book is published, and you’ll have the book in hand the week it comes out! This Giveaway is Closed.
We have many winners to announce!
- The winners of When Did I Get Like This? are #18 Stephanie and #1 Angel S.
- This is Just Exactly Like You – #8 Anita Yancey
- Nonfiction for Bird-Loving Kids – #6 Connie Black.
- Meg Cabot’s Abandon – #27 Lizzie
Jennifer Donovan is thankful for a husband who doesn’t have to leave for months at a time and is a great support in raising a teen daughter. She blogs about other marriage and parenting concerns at Snapshot.
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This sounds different, but very good. I’d love to win!
I’d love to read this one. Please enter me.
Lovely review! I just added this to my wish list last week, so I would love for a chance to win it!
Would love to read! I am the wife of an Army Reservist who just came home from a deployment in Afghanistan! =)
Would love to win! Thank you for the giveaway opportunity!
I cannot wait to read this! I have had it on my Amazon wishlist for some time and am itching to get my hands on a copy! Thanks for the opportunity to win a copy.
I enjoy reading about families and how they get through life together…
Many thanks, Cindi
Interesting that it reads as a daily entry. Looking forward to the possibility of winning this book. Thanks!
I lvoed what you said about getting into the rhythm of the novel. I never realized it before but there is always a rhytm to a great book. I would love to win and read this one.
CarolNWong(at)aol(dot)com
I would love to read this one.
I’d love to take this to the beach with me this summer.
Would love to win this!!
Thinking of my tween granddaughter whose boyfriend is joining the army.
Sounds like a great book. I think I might have to add it to my to read book … thanks for the opportunity to win.
Wow, another super giveaway. Thanks for the chance.
Deployment is so hard on all our military families. I would love to read this book – please enter me.
Sounds interesting, would love to win this. Thanks for another great review and book added to my to-read list!
Jen–
You won (finally!).
Please reply to this email notification and send me your address.
Jennifer
This soundsvgood! Thanks!
I would love to read this book.
lkish77123 at gmail dot com
I’d enjoy reading this one and then passing it on to my niece.
someluckydog at gmail dot com
This is a bit different than the books I usually read but I think I would like it.
seknobloch(at)gmail.com
I would love to read this. Thanks!
I would love a copy of this book! Thanks for the chance 🙂
I would enjoy this novel!
I am anxious to get back to reading again and would love to have this in my collection to read.
This sounds like a great book. I’d love to read it!
Sounds like a good read. I’d love a chance to win!
looks like a good one
Looks like a wonderful book!
mearley1979 at gmail dot com
Another great one 🙂
Looks like a great read. I would love to win. 🙂
please count me in…thanks 🙂
Sounds like a good book to read this summer.
Such an attractive cover. Love to be entered!
pbclark(at)netins(dot)net
Sounds like a wonderful book, and I know I would enjoy reading it. Please enter me. Thanks!
ayancey(at)dishmail(dot)net