Synopsis
Her oldest son’s suicide attempt shocks the Halversons and forces Agnieszka to reveal a past she has kept from her children.
Passion for music. Hearing her talented, irrepressible grandaunt Jola, a concert pianist in Poland, give a piano recital, young Agnieszka discovers a passion for music. Jola hones her talent and feeds her dreams.
Shattered dreams. Real-world problems, thorny relations with a mother tied to her roots and betrayal by Jola shatter her dreams.
A 70s love story. Agnieszka falls in love, but fate deals her first love a death blow. She rises from the losses she has suffered and gets a second chance at happiness.
A mother’s youthful dreams thwarted and renewed, amidst the exciting promise of the 70s.
Review
E. Journey has a great, easy to read writing style. I consumed book one in the Between Two Worlds series - Hello, My Love! - in 24 hours and did the same with book two - Hello, Agnieszka! I love writing that flows easily like a river. You open the book and then find yourself surprised later when you look up to see that hours have passed. It's the kind of writing that takes you out of your daily routine - escapism at it's best - so I want to take this moment to offer my kudos to the author.
I made a conscious effort not to look at the synopsis before I picked up this book as I love to be surprised. As book two in the series, one might expect to continue the story with the main characters from book one - Elise and Greg. Not so. They are there at the start, but this time the story offered is a prequel to book one. We explored the changing relationship between Elise and her mother before. Now we get a chance to understand the whys as we get to know her mother more intimately through the story of her life journey told in a flashback. In the end we are offered another role model - a strong woman who has the backbone to deal with what life hands out.
Hello, Agnieszka closes with the family trying to come to terms with some incredible revelations. There are often expectations set on mothers that place the bar unrealistically high. Family, friends and society forget they were all young once and have a history filled with good and bad choices, just as everyone else does. Time to let go of the pedestal society and family want to place their mothers on and offer respect instead for how they faced and triumphed over the challenges thrown their way.
Time now to crack open the pages of book 3 - Welcome, Reluctant Stranger.
Buy the books here: Amazon
Other reviews -
Hello, My Love! (Book 1 - Between Two Worlds) - click HERE.
Welcome, Reluctant Stranger (Book 3 - Between Two Worlds) - click HERE
Sugar and Spice and All Those Lies (Book 4 - Between Two Worlds) - Sept. 25thWelcome, Reluctant Stranger (Book 3 - Between Two Worlds) - click HERE
The Shade Under the Mango Tree (Between Two Worlds, Book 5) - click HERE
The Golden Manuscript (between Two Worlds Book 6) - Sept. 13th
Meet the Author
To read a behind the scenes interview with author E. Journey - click HERE.
E. Journey is a realist who thinks she has little imagination. Credit that to her training (Ph. D., University of Illinois) and work in mental health, writing for academics and bureaucrats, and critiquing the work of others. She’s been striving ever since to think and write like normal people.
She’s a well-traveled flâneuse—a female observer-wanderer—who watches, observes, listens. And writes. A sucker for happy endings, she finds enough that depresses her about real life, but seeks no catharsis by writing about it. For her, writing is escape, entertainment. She doesn’t strive to enlighten. Not deliberately. But the bias of her old profession does carry over into her writing. So, instead of broad shoulders and heaving bosoms, she goes into protagonists' thoughts, emotions, inner conflicts, insecurities, and struggles to reach balance and grow.
(note - E Journey just won the Bronze Prize in the Independent Woman Awards at SPR)
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