Title: Torn Together
Author: Emlyn Chand
Publisher: Evolved Publishing (August 14, 2012)
Book genre: Literary/Women’s Fiction
Number of pages: 258
Book summary (from Amazon.com): From her cheating boyfriend to her dead father and cold, judgmental mother, Daly knows she can’t trust others to be there when it counts. This cynicism begins to melt away when she meets Kashi, a light-hearted charmer from India, who decides he cares too much to let her fade into the background of her own life. After a series of false starts, their quirky romance carries them to India, where Daly must win the approval of Kashi’s family in order to seal their “forever.”
Meanwhile, Laine struggles to cope with the pain of early widowhood, fleeing into the pages of her well-worn library and emerging only to perform her duties as a social worker at the crisis pregnancy center. Although her daughter wants nothing more than to work as an artist, Laine doesn’t know how to redirect Daly to a more suitable profession without further damaging their tenuous relationship.
Can Laine look past her pain to learn from an unlikely mentor? Has Daly finally found someone whom she can trust? Will the women recognize their common bonds before the relationship is broken beyond repair?
Torn Together, Emlyn Chand’s first sojourn into Literary/Women’s Fiction, illustrates how our similarities often drive us apart.
It’s been hard for me to come up with a review of Emlyn Chand’s Torn Together. On the one hand, I appreciate the approach of the story and how the underlying emphasis of it was on growth and acceptance (both personal acceptance and acceptance of others) and the survival of the heart and self through adversity and loss. On the other hand, I found it very difficult to identify with most of the primary characters, which I tried not to let taint my perception of the story. All in all, I find myself torn (no pun intended) on how to feel about this particular tale.
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Book summary (from Amazon.com): Andrea Garrett is trying to escape her abusive marriage. Fearing for her life, she leaves her two small children with her twin brother and flees her home the day before her husband is due to arrive back from a tour of duty. After falling asleep at the wheel and landing in a ditch, her life takes on a new direction when strangers step in and introduce her to a life she could only have imagined and one that could save her soul and give her children the future they deserve.
