New Release: Finding Motherhood: An Unexpected Journey

Finding Motherhood Cover

 

“My plan was simple. I would get married, have kids, and live happily ever after. However, life doesn’t always follow the path we plan for ourselves.”

When Jill Murphy became pregnant at the age of seventeen, she was faced with some difficult decisions. Unsure of how to be the mother she knew her child deserved, Murphy chose adoption for her baby.

Years later, after she married the man of her dreams, Murphy decided it was time to create the family she’d always imagined. The couple tried for years to get pregnant before being given the heartbreaking news that Murphy could no longer conceive. Her journey toward motherhood then took an unexpected turn: adoption.

Murphy is a birthmother who has reconnected with the child she chose adoption for. She also is an adoptive mother who is forever grateful to the women who made the difficult decision to choose adoption for their own babies. Above all, she is part of a family that is even better than any she could have imagined as a little girl.

“I am blessed, and this is my journey to motherhood.”

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Author Bio & Social Media Links

 

Jill M. Murphy is an author, blogger, assistant preschool teacher, wife, and mother. In her Jill Murphy Picturefree time you might find her taking a discarded chair or table off the side of the road to repurpose it into something new and fun. She also loves to read, cook, entertain, and laugh. Murphy lives outside of St. Paul, Minnesota, with her husband and two daughters. You can learn more by visiting jillmmurphy.com.

 

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***Disclaimer: I am the book manager for this book and I DO receive profit from each book sold.***

 

Closet Full of Coke Review

Title:  Closet Full of Coke  Closet Full of Coke

Author:  Indra Sena

Published:  2012 by Indra Sena

Genre: Memoir

Purchase Closet Full of Coke from Amazon

 

 

 

About the Book: 

Narrated by the teenage girl who lived it, Closet Full of Coke tells the true story of how a New York suburban fifteen-year-old girl’s savvy and wit helps turn the small-time drug business of Armando, a Colombian drug dealer, into a multi-million-dollar cocaine operation that puts them on the DEA’s Wanted List.

This intimate diary gives readers a fast-paced glimpse of the couple’s speedy rise to riches, and their inevitable descent.

These wannabe drug lords of the 1980s New York-to-Florida drug scene end their story only three years later with an untimely death, betrayal, and revenge.

Here is a true account of drug dealers whose obsession with money, power, sex, and glamour drives them to a lifestyle of deceit and recklessness, ending in tragedies that destroy lives forever.  (Provided by Pump Up Your Book.)

I was so excited to read this book!  Does anyone remember Go Ask Alice?  That’s the first thought that came into my mind when I saw the synopsis and I thought, I haven’t read a book like that in a while.

Like the synopsis says, this memoir tells the story of a 15 year old drug dealer.  Indra is about to make a buy at her dealer’s house (she currently sells at her high school) and he isn’t there but Armando, her dealer’s supplier is.  She goes for a car ride with Armando and soon he becomes her dealer and boyfriend (even though he’s married).

There is so much potential in this book and for it to be based on real life is crazy.  It seems like something one would see on a TV special, 20/20, or a movie.  It was a fast paced suspenseful read, but I just felt as if a few details could have made it amazing instead of good.

There are a few characters in the book that are frightening.  If you make them mad, there is no telling what they might do.  One of those people is Armando.  Indra knows that he beat up his wife, she saw the bruises on her face so of course she is scared of him.  We as readers know this, but my heart didn’t pump in fear in situations when it should have.

The other person was Carlos, Armando’s brother in law.  This guy was a legit psycho; he got off on violence.  I know Indra must have felt terrified in some of the situations with him, and I wanted to feel it with her, but I just didn’t.  Maybe some situations should have just been worded differently?

My heart breaks for the author and her parental situation growing up; it just sounded plan awful.  Her parents were addicts and selfish, and being a parent myself, this just broke my heart.  Another thing that seriously bothered me was Indra’s non actions in getting a woman she worked with out of jail after they both got in trouble.  The woman, Janet I believe, had a kid, and Indra just seems to blow it off.  I know she was young, but man, it made my blood boil.  (Obviously these situations were well written for me to have reactions such as these.)

Although some things bothered me, and I do feel like it could have been amazing instead of just good, I do think it’s a good book.  I read it within a few days, and enjoyed it.  And perhaps a teenager on the brink of a bad decision will read this and will change their mind about their future actions.  Although it does not have a happy ever after, I still do recommend it.

My Rating:  3 1/2 out of 5 stars

~Pam

**I received this book free from Pump Up Your Book in exchange for an honest review.***

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About the Author:

You can visit Indra Sena’s website at www.closetfullofcoke.com. Indra is currently working on her second memoir. It covers two years in her twenties, where she joined the Rainbow Family and traveled the US and abroad.

Her latest book is the memoir, Closet Full of Coke.

Connect & Socialize with Indra

FACEBOOK | GOODREADS

Discuss this book in our PUYB Virtual Book Club at Goodreads by clicking HERE.

Closet Full of Coke banner***Images, and wording for about the book & author were provided by Pump Up Your Book***

Becoming Alice Book Spotlight & $25 Giveaway

 

Image from Pump Up Your Book

Image from Pump Up Your Book

Title:  Becoming Alice

Author: Alice Rene

Publisher: iUniverse

Genre: Memoir

Pages: 284

Click here to purchase at iUniverse

 

“Strongly recommended a deftly written memoir that will hold the reader’s rapt attention from beginning to end.”
-Midwest Book Review

“Her ability to authentically capture the bewilderment and pain of dislocation through a child’s eyes – including the disharmony in her immediate family – makes for engaging reading that will resonate with young adults everywhere.”
-Beth B. Cohen, Ph.D., author of Case Closed: Holocaust Survivors in America, 1946-1954

Six-year-old Ilse watches Nazi soldiers march down her street in Vienna, Austria. It is the beginning of an odyssey that will take her to Riga, Latvia, and finally to Portland, Oregon. Becoming Alice chronicles her Jewish family’s harrowing escape and struggle as immigrants to fit into the American landscape. The added problems of growing up within a troubled family cloud her childhood and adolescence.

Ilse changes her name to Alice. Not until she moves into a boarding house in Berkeley, surrounded by girls from a patchwork of cultures, does she make peace with her true identity. Becoming Alice brilliantly showcases Rene’s triumph over adversity, identity crisis, and the sometimes debilitating power of family ties.

 

Enter for your chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

Terms & Conditions:

By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.

Two winners will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive one $25 Amazon Gift Certificate or Paypal Cash.

This giveaway begins November 11 and ends November 29.

Winners will be contacted via email on Monday, December 2, 2013.

Winner has 48 hours to reply.

 
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Image from Pump Up Your Book

Image from Pump Up Your Book