Alison RagsdaleRezensionen

Someone Else’s Child was heart-breaking to read, Catriona and Duncan had so much tragedy in 8 years and it almost broke them. Not only did their living twin Hope die in tragic circumstances and the family not doing very well with processing it, but now April’s birth mother wants to visit her, and promises her so much that it seems April is being pulled away from Catriona.

I cannot imagine living through what Catriona and Duncan went through, it was so sad to read that I was grabbing tissues frequently. It was an emotional read that really got to me and I had to tell my husband what I was reading just to relieve myself from the emotions I was feeling about it.
Alison Ragsdale wrote this perfectly, it pulls you in from the very beginning and doesn’t want to let you go, even when you have finished the book.

A quiet, slowly moving (but not necessarily slow, more like drifting quietly) tale of loss, recovering from grief and finding oneself again, Ragsdale does a lovely job developing her characters, and her settings are richly described. (You may find yourself researching flights to the Isle of Skye.) While Heather isn't always likable (a difficult thing to say about someone who is drowning in grief) but I found myself rooting for her.

A beautiful book.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publisher who provided me an ARC. All thoughts and opinions, however, are my own.

Thank you to the author for this book.

Rounding up to 3.5 stars.

I can't remember the last time I read a book about ballet nor brain tumors but this one was a great read.

It really blended a lot about love, ballet, remembering things from the past, and the upcoming future, which was uncertain.

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Linda's Book Obsession Reviews "The Art of Remembering" by Alison Ragsdale, July 16, 2019

WOW! Alison Ragsdale, Author of "The Art of Remembering" has written such an intense, captivating, thought-provoking, poignant, emotional and heartbreaking story. The Genres for this novel are Fiction, Women's Fiction, and Contemporary Fiction. The timeline for this story is set in the present and goes to the past when it pertains to the characters or events in the story. The author describes her dramatic characters as complex, complicated, flawed, and having their own set of problems and expectations.

Ailsa is a professional ballerina and is married to Evan, and to the outside world, it appears that she has everything. Some of Alisa's and Evan's goals are different. Alisa is getting terrible headaches and collapses on stage. The diagnosis is a brain tumor, and surgery is required. Both Alisa and Evan try to understand the prognosis and the possible results.

Will Alisa be able to dance? What will happen to Alisa's memories? There are so many questions, and even after the surgery, there might not be answers for a long time. When Alisa first wakes up, she doesn't have many memories of Evan.

I love the way that Alison Ragsdale describe in vivid detail Alisa's emotional and physical changes. I also appreciate that the author discusses the importance of living your dreams for yourself, courage, emotional support, family, love, and hope. I would highly recommend this well-written story. I have to confess to some Kleenex moments.

My Review of “A Life Unexpected” by Alison Ragsdale 2018

I enjoyed and was intrigued by “A Life Unexpected” by Alison Ragsdale. The Genres for this Novel are Fiction and Women’s Fiction with a dash of Romance and suspense. The timeline of the story is the present and goes back to the past when it pertains to the characters and events of the story.

Alison Ragsdale describes her characters as everyday people with problems, and are searching for their sense of purpose. Eve Carruthers, a photographer and her husband Ken, a shop-owner are surprised when their newly married daughter Jess inquires if anyone in the family has the cystic fibrosis gene. Jess and her husband want to start a family, and is important for them to know the medical history in the family

Eve has always accepted the fact that she is adopted, and never has told her daughter Jess. This is a secret that is going to cause complications for everyone. How would you feel if your parents kept a secret that they had been adopted from you?

Eve goes on a personal journey of discovery and self-worth in trying to find answers to questions. As Eve, goes on this quest for the truth, it affects her relationship with her husband Ken, and Jess. Eve’s adventure is like opening Pandora’s box.

I appreciate that the author mentions significant topics such as cystic fibrosis and other genetic complications. I also like that the author mentions the topic of adoption. For the parents, who have shown love and support for the children they adopted, believing that the children belong to them, and the children in search of their natural birth parents, it must be a stressful, complex and complicated situation.

I love that Alison Ragsdale discusses the importance of family , support, forgiveness, love and hope. I would recommend this captivating and emotional story for those that enjoy Women’s Fiction.

The Father-Daughter Club from Alison Ragsdale looks at family dynamics through multiple lenses. The story, by necessity, starts at a moderate pace as we learn about the characters and prepare for what is to come.

What struck me about the insights into the characters was the complete humanity given to each. Our humanity includes blemishes and each character has a fair share. What some might call pondering I call the normal second-guessing of life's decisions. Perhaps some people truly go through life without "pondering" what they are going to do or what they have done. This seems to be a shallow way to live life and these characters are anything but shallow.

What I was initially uncomfortable with in the moments when the characters were reflective were what might be seen as making excuses for either another person's behavior or their own. Such thoughts can easily lead to blaming or placing undue responsibility on the person who was 'wronged.' These concerns of mine were put aside when I came to realize these thoughts are indeed what we all do and these characters, in doing so, did not seem to shoulder any more, or any less, responsibility than would seem normal for an emotionally healthy person. In other words, there is nothing wrong with wondering what one did that contributed to another person doing 'wrong' as long as that person is not absolved of the wrongdoing.

I found the story compelling and the various reactions well within believable territory. I liked each character even when I was furious with them for what they might be thinking or doing at a given moment or in response to a given situation.

I would recommend this to any reader who enjoys reflective fiction that sheds light on the many nuances of our decision-making, both good and bad. The characters are well-rounded and the reader will be able to relate to much of the internal conflict each experiences, unless of course the reader by nature does not reflect on their life, in which case it may appear to simply be pondering, but that is a much stronger statement about that type of person than it is about this novel.

Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads' First Reads.½

** spoiler alert ** Finding Heather had the potential to be a true favorite for me, but there were just a few things that held it back. Once Heather makes the decision to move herself and her twins back to her home in Scotland, the story began to drag. There was a whole chapter about her cleaning out the closet. That's it. No big reveal, no hidden secrets of her deceased husband's. Just cleaning out the closet and finding pictures. I kept waiting for there to be some connection to be made, some hidden truth revealed. But nothing.

I think the intention was to highlight that she loved and missed her husband, that this was a big, tough decision and that he had been a good guy. But for me, unless you give me a good reason why she wouldn't be sad about the death of her husband, I'm going to believe that he was a good guy and that she does miss him. For me the first third of the book seemed to drag with unnecessary little scenes that were setting up what I would already assume to be truth unless told otherwise.

Once they get moved and Elspeth takes her tumble down the stairs and Max disappears, the pace picks up and the story seemed to flow much better. But then once again, once Max is found and back home, things began to drag again. Setting up the relationships between Heather and Fraser, Elspeth and Davy, and lastly Murdoch and Chrissy seemed to just drag on more than necessary. All of the setting up of the relationships could have been happening during actual action.

All in all, Finding Heather is a sweet story of moving on, not just for Heather and her children but for many members of her family. I just feel as though there could have been more action moving the story along rather than little cut scenes.

*A copy of this book was provided by the publisher/Netgalley in exchange for a review.½