.jpg)
Author: Melissa Foster
Genre: Historical Fiction/Romance
Pages: 304
The Blurb: The racially-charged prejudice of the deep South forces eighteen-year-old Alison Tillman to confront societal norms—and her own beliefs—when she discovers the body of a hate crime victim, and the specter of forbidden love turns her safe, comfortable world upside down.
Alison has called Forrest Town, Arkansas home for the past eighteen years. Her mother’s Blue Bonnet meetings, her father toiling night and day on the family farm, and the division of life between the whites and the blacks are all Alison knows. The winter of 1967, just a few months before marrying her high school sweetheart, Alison finds the body of a black man floating in the river, and she begins to view her existence with new perspective. The oppression and hate of the south, the ugliness she once was able to avert her eyes from, now demands her attention.
When a secretive friendship with a young black man takes an unexpected romantic turn, Alison is forced to choose between her predetermined future, and the dangerous path that her heart yearns for.
HAVE NO SHAME is an emotionally compelling coming of age novel featuring a young woman who cannot reconcile the life she wants with the one she’s been brought up to live.Have No Shame will resonate with anyone who has ever fallen in love, and those who have been forced to choose between what they know in their hearts to be true, and what others would like them to believe.
My Review:
| As I began reading this book I thought wow how backwards our world has been for so long. I couldn't believe how dense some people could be. I have never let color of someone's skin or religious beliefs or any thing really stop me from seeing them as anything more than a person just like myself. This book really helped open my eyes to how cruel of a world we still live in. Melissa Foster did a magnificent job of showing you through words a world where having a different skin color gets you treated very differently no matter how educated or how hard you work. This is a very touching and loving story that touches on some very real issues that still take place in our own country let alone other parts of the world. This story is set in the late sixties and shows how wrong some people really can be. It also shows the reader how love can blossom out of nowhere and how the heart wants what the heart wants! I was so blown away by this book. I laughed in a couple of places but I definitely cried more. It is a beautiful story that should not be taken lightly. I will be putting this on my read again shelf as this is one story that touched my heart so dearly. I absolutely loved this book and hope you will to! 5/5 
Buy it Now on Amazon: http://amzn.to/16TaOSZ
Buy it Now on B&N: http://bit.ly/12WGCYD
"This
book will resonate with readers who enjoyed Kathryn Stockett's, THE
HELP, Julie Kibler's, CALLING ME HOME, John Grisham's, A
TIME TO KILL, Sue Monk Kidd's, THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES, and Kathleen
Grissom's, THE KITCHEN HOUSE."
"Within
moments of starting to read, you will be transported back to the Arkansas of
1967 - hot, dusty, utterly rural and edgy. Poor white farmers dependent upon
cheap black labor who, due to their superior numbers, are constantly
suppressed, living on the wrong side of town, ghettoised and terrified. You
will remember scenes from `In the Heat of the Night' and `Easy Rider'; you will
remember that, less than fifty years ago, if you were black, you could be
beaten for simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. And if you died at
the hands of a white youth, justice would almost certainly be denied you."
Author Roderick Craig Low
"A
gripping and poignant novel dealing with a subject once taboo in American
society." Hagerstown
Magazine
"Have
No Shame is a powerful testimony to love and the progressive, logical evolution
of social consciousness, with an outcome that readers will find engrossing,
unexpected, and ultimately eye-opening." Midwest Book Review
"A
historical novel of love and its triumph, told with a unique and compelling
voice." Bestselling
Author Kathleen Shoop
"Have
No Shame is a delightful eye opener and a rather poignant book that everyone
everywhere should put on their must-read list." Readers' Favorite
"A
dynamic and heartwarming tale of young love, giving testament to those who
struggled so we can live in an integrated society." Author Rachelle Ayala
"[HAVE
NO SHAME] Perfectly catches the South at the dawning of the Civil Rights
Movement. Melissa Foster takes us on an adventure that twists and turns
unpredictably to a tense climax that renders this novel a true page-turner.
This is undoubtedly the best novel I have read in a long
time." Roderick
Craig Low, Author of 'Promises of Love and Good Behaviour'
"This
book is not just a story; it's an experience." Author G.E. Johnson
Author Spotlight:
INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING AUTHOR
Melissa Foster
Melissa
Foster is the award-winning author of four International bestselling novels.
Her books have been recommended by USA Today's book blog, Hagerstown Magazine,
The Patriot, and several other print venues. She is the founder of the Women’s Nest, a social and support
community for women, the World Literary Café. When she's not writing,
Melissa helps authors navigate the publishing industry through her author
training programs on Fostering
Success. Melissa is also a community builder for the Alliance for
Independent Authors. She has been published in Calgary’s Child Magazine, the
Huffington Post, and Women Business Owners magazine.
Melissa
hosts an annual Aspiring Authors contest for children and has painted and
donated several murals to The Hospital for Sick Children in Washington, DC.
Melissa lives in Maryland with her family.
Visit Melissa on The Women's Nest, Fostering Success, or World Lit Cafe. Melissa enjoys
discussing her books with book clubs and reader groups, and welcomes an
invitation to your event.
Awards
Megan's
Way
2011 Beach Book Award Winner (Spirituality) 2011 Readers Favorite Awards, Winner (Fiction/Drama), Finalist (Women's Fiction) 2010 Next Generation Indie Book Award, Finalist (Spirituality) 2011 New England Book Festival, Honorable Mention (Spirituality)
Chasing
Amanda
2011 Readers Favorite Awards, Winner (Paranormal), Finalist, (Women's Fiction, Mystery) 2011 Dan Poynter's Global eBook Awards, Winner, (Paranormal) Top 10 Books of 2011, Pixel of Ink Amazon Top 100 75+ Days running Indie Reader's Bestselling List That Counts (8 weeks) Top Books of 2011, The Write Agenda Come Back To Me
2012 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Finalist,
2012 Readers Favorite Awards, Finalist
2012 Kindle Book Review Best Indie Books Award, Finalist
2011 Dan Poynter's Global Ebook Awards, Finalist
Top
5 Must Read Books of 2011, IndieReader
Top Ten Books of 2011, Tea Time With Marce IndieReader Best Reviewed Books of 2011, Huffington Post
Website: http://www.MelissaFoster.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/Melissa_Foster
The Women’s Nest, women’s
social network: http://www.TheWomensNest.com
Fostering Success:
htto://www.fostering-success.com
Facebook Melissa
Foster: http://www.facebook.com/MelissaFosterAuthor (Fanpage)
Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3023973.Melissa_Foster
|
Great review! Congratulations, Melissa, on your wonderful book.
ReplyDeleteHi Tammy, I found your great blog through the WLC Blog Follows on the World Literary Cafe! Great to connect!