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!

Book Review: You Are My Only by Beth Kephart

Synopsis (from Goodreads):  Emmy Rane is married at nineteen, a mother by twenty. Trapped in a life with a husband she no longer loves, Baby is her only joy. Then one sunny day in September, Emmy takes a few fateful steps away from her baby and returns to find her missing. All that is left behind is a yellow sock.

Fourteen years later, Sophie, a homeschooled, reclusive teenage girl is forced to move frequently and abruptly from place to place, perpetually running from what her mother calls the "No Good." One afternoon, Sophie breaks the rules, ventures out, and meets Joey and his two aunts. It is this loving family that gives Sophie the courage to look into her past. What she discovers changes her world forever. . . .

The riveting stories of Emmy and Sophie—alternating narratives of loss, imprisonment, and freedom regained—escalate with breathless suspense toward an unforgettable climax.

My Thoughts:  I started this book the other night only planning to read the first chapter.  I read the first 150 pages instead.  I could not put this book down!  I wasn't even sure after the first chapter that I would like it but something kept pulling at me to keep reading and by the second chapter, I was completely engrossed in the story.

Sophie is fourteen.  She lives with her mom in a rental house.  She is homeschooled and isn't allowed to leave the house for fear of the "no goods".  One day, while Sophie's mom is at work, Sophie watches the boy next door out of the attic window.  Soon, she is outside playing catch with him.

The next day, while her mom is at work, Sophie meets Joey's two aunts.  I loved the aunts!  For some strange reason (and seriously, I have no clue why except for their physical appearance) they reminded me of the aunts in James and the Giant Peach.  They were not mean or magical but one was tall and thin and one was short and round.  I loved their love for each other, their love and sacrifices for Joey and their interest in Sophie. 

Sophie continues to visit Joey and the aunts and one day, she gets up the courage to go to the basement and go through her mother's "personals".  Two cardboard boxes that are taped up and moved from house to house hold the secrets to Sophie's whole life.  Those two boxes will change Sophie's life in ways she never expected.

Meanwhile, we are taken back in time to Emmy.  Emmy was a young mother in a loveless marriage.  The only thing Emmy lived for was Baby.  Until the day when Emmy ran inside for just a moment and came back out to find Baby gone.  As I followed her on her search for Baby, I connected with her.  I felt her panic and heartbreak when she found Baby missing.  I felt her helplessness when she was put into the hospital and I felt her pain when she lost one of the only people close to her.

I loved how the story went back and forth between Emmy and Sophie.  It kept the reading fast and interesting and you were able to piece together the different stories easily.  There was absolutely no confusion.

I really loved this book!  The writing was beautiful and the descriptions were vivid.  The characters were very well developed and you couldn't help but connect to each and every one of them.  You won't be able to put the book down because you will have to find out what happens next.  It was amazing!