Book Review: Small Damages by Beth Kephart

**I received this book from Around the World ARC Tours for review**

Summary (from Goodreads):  It’s senior year, and while Kenzie should be looking forward to prom and starting college in the fall, she is mourning the loss of her father. She finds solace in the one person she trusts, her boyfriend, and she soon finds herself pregnant. Kenzie’s boyfriend and mother do not understand her determination to keep the baby. She is sent to southern Spain for the summer, where she will live out her pregnancy as a cook’s assistant on a bull ranch, and her baby will be adopted by a Spanish couple.

Alone and resentful in a foreign country, Kenzie is at first sullen and difficult. She begins to open her eyes and her heart to the beauty that is all around her and inside of her.

My Thoughts:  The thing I loved most about this book was how it was written as if Kenzie is talking to her unborn child.  It was so different from any other book I've read and was so incredibly sweet!

Kenzie is sent off to live in Spain as an assistant to the cook on a bull ranch during her senior year.  Kenzie is living with Miguel, who is the ranch owner, Estela, the cook and Esteban, who also works at the ranch.  Kenzie is told that she will give her baby to a couple who live in Spain and come home after she has the baby. 

Kenzie imagines her baby all the time.  She talks about his/her toes and fingers, knows how he/she is developing all through the pregnancy.  She wants to know what he/she will look like. She tells her story to her baby is flashbacks and that is how we learn what happened.  We learn about Kevin, the baby's father and how he was more concerned with going to Yale than he was about getting his girlfriend pregnant.  We learn about Kenzie's mother who ships her off to Spain so no one will know that the is pregnant.  Kenzie is strong though and in the end, she decides to take her life into her hands, with the help of Estela, Esteban, Miguel and the gypsies.

I loved Estela!  She was grumpy at the beginning and I got the feeling that she didn't approve of Kenzie at first but as the story went on and Kenzie opened up to Estela more, Estela softened and became the friend and mother figure that Kenzie needed.  She was just so real to me that she easily became my favorite character almost from the beginning.

This book was written beautifully and I really didn't want it to end.  You will pick it up and become so involved and wrapped up in Kenzie's life and her relationships with Estela and Esteban.  You will feel what Kenzie feels and understand her confusion about the choice she must make.  This is definitely a book I am going to buy when it comes out in stores!