Keep a box of Kleenex handy.
This one will tug at your heart-strings.
My Review
In the early 1920’s Olivia Ann Westerly rebels against her father and moves out on her own, despite his threats to disown her. She never looks back. Working at the telephone company for many years, she sees her friends get married, and become mothers shortly after. When she questions them about it, they say, sure, that’s what’s expected:
1) Get married
2) Get pregnant
3) Have a baby
4) Have more babies…
The thought terrifies her.
But she does fall for Herbert and excepts his proposal. But then she gets to thinking about what her friends told her, and breaks off the engagement.
“I told people the thought of being tied down to a man who expected a clean shirt and dinner on the table at the dot of six was something I simply couldn’t face; but the real truth of the matter is that I’ve grown petrified of babies. They look all cute and cuddly in their little pink and blue buntings, but I’ve seen what they do to women.”
So, that’s how it went, year after year, relationship after relationship. Until 1956.
That’s when Charlie Doyle steps into her life. His son, Benjamin, is grown and married with a boy of his own, so children aren’t in the picture. So Olivia, at 58 years old, lets herself fall in love and get married.
What should have been the beginning of the rest of her life, ends abruptly when Charlie dies suddenly during their honeymoon. A massive heart attack takes him from her arms and her future.
She returns to Virginia and quickly realizes she can’t go home again, so she settles into Charlies apartment in Wyattsville and begins to make friends, until something happens that changes everything she ever believed.
Ethan’s mother, Susanna, never grew up. She was what you called a free spirit, fun to be around.
His father, Benjamin Doyle, was the opposite. He dished out tough love, sometimes violently.
His best friend is Dog, his loyal canine companion.
A violent argument turns deadly and Benjamin hits Susanna so hard, she never wakes up. Ethan has been hiding in the woods, afraid to come home when he sees a man pull up to the house, Shortly after, the man comes out, attacks his father, and beats him to death before tearing off in his car.
When Ethan ends up placed in the murderers home, he steals off in the night with nothing but his dog. He comes upon a tired looking gas station and a kindly man who gets him a ride right to his grandfathers apartment building. Charlie Doyle’s apartment building.
That’s where Olivia finds Ethan and Dog, fast asleep at her doorstep.
This is where it gets fun. There are no pets or children allowed in the apartment complex and Olivia is scared of being kicked out. Also, she has no clue what to do with this stubborn, taciturn boy and his raggedy dog.
Soon enough, some friends learn she’s hiding them in her apartment, and before you know it, everyone is clambering to help her keep her secret.
One detective back home suspects Ethan knows what happened to his parents and keeps searching for him. The killer is looking for Ethan to silence him for good.
There’s no avoiding it. They will all meet again.
There is a lot I didn’t tell you about Spare Change. About Olivia’s trip home from her honeymoon and the mysterious and kindly woman who gives her advice or about her eccentric and mixed bag of neighbors. I can’t tell you everything or I’d spoil it.
I wanted to gather Ethan Allen up in my arms and take him home with me. He may be double tough but he’s just a boy. A scared little boy who’s just witnessed the horrifying deaths of both parents. He shows a taciturn front, but inside he’s scared.
Olivia. She deserves a hug and a big pat on the back. Here she is confronted with her worst fear, and she handles it so sensitively and wisely. I bet she didn’t know she had it in herself.
I was swept away by Bette’s writing. The South oozes from the pages. I swear she writes with a southern drawl.
Bette’s characters are so real, so genuine. They have the same fears and insecurities as you or I. They all have their flaws. They are so real you might think you recognize one as someone you know.
The ending. You are going to love the ending! It left me smiling as tears ran down my face. It is one of the best endings of any book I’ve read and filled me with happiness and hope.
Five Hugs for Spare Change.
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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKcJGgu4lig]
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Giveaway
I have one paperback copy to giveaway.
*****Us/Canada Only. Sorry to my International friends.*****
Good news!
I also have one e-book to giveaway.
***Anyone can enter for the e-book!***
To enter, please leave your email address, specify if entering as for the paperback or e-book, and answer this question,
“Has a book ever made you cry?”
Giveaway ends April 19th.
Thanks so much for visiting fuonly and Good Luck!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bette Lee Crosby’s work was first recognized in 2006, when she won the National League of American Pen Women Award for unpublished fiction with What Matters Most. Her novel, Cracks in the Sidewalk, received the 2009 Royal Palm Literary Award and then went on to win the 2011 FPA President’s Book Award Gold Medal. In 2011 Spare Change received the Reviewer’s Choice Awards and it garnered a second Royal Palm Literary Award. Her books have earned numerous five-star ratings with readers acclaiming them as heartwarming and captivating.
Most recently, Bette completed a memoir written for Lani Deauville, a woman the Guinness Book of Records lists as The World’s Longest Living Quadriplegic.
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