Rosie’s Book Review Team #RBRT Vanessa reviews Losing it All by Marsha Cornelius

Today’s book review comes from team member Vanessa, she blogs at http://www.vanessawesterwriter.blogspot.co.uk/

Vanessa read and reviewed Losing It All by Marsha Cornelius

What an original and heart-warming book! This is life at its worst, with the best outcome.

I admit that I did not think it would be my kind of read when I started it, but as I progressed I got sucked into this desperate world of homelessness, domestic abuse, and bad luck.

Overall, the characters were beautifully developed and I loved it. The author has managed to take a difficult situation and write about it. I don’t know many that could do this.

Highly recommend if you want to read about romance against the odds.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Rosie’s Book Review Team #RBRT Terry reviews Losing It All by Marsha Cornelius

Today’s team book review comes from Terry, she blogs at http://terrytylerbookreviews.blogspot.co.uk/

She chose to read and review Losing It All by Marsha Cornelius

LOSING IT ALL by Marsha Cornelius – review by Terry

My rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

I enjoyed this – it’s interesting and unusual.

The novel is set mostly around Atlanta, Georgia in the US. Frank is a Vietnam vet whose life has crashed and burned, leaving him a vagrant trying to scratch out an existence as best he can. Chloe is a small town, naïve mother of two who has allowed her path through life to be determined by others. When husband Duane deserts her, everything gradually falls apart and she ends up in a shelter for homeless women.

Marsha Cornelius has clearly put a great deal of research into this story. I recently watched the 1960s BBC (UK) drama-documentary ‘Cathy Come Home’, which shows how easily families in the UK in the 1960s could descend from keeping their heads above water into homelessness; this book had the same effect on me. It’s shocking, but so real, and really made me think about how so many people are just a couple of salary cheques away from the street!   The details of both Chloe and Frank’s struggles are very well illustrated, as is their climb back to something approaching normality – though indeed, what they consider ‘normal’ is not the conventional lifestyle some would expect.

The message of this book is definitely one of love and relationships mattering more than anything else, and about it being the simple things in life that can bring the most happiness. The romantic aspect of the story was perfectly portrayed too, I thought; not schmaltzy, or overtly sexy for the sake of it but just touching and true to life.

It’s a story about love and hope, the goodwill of friends, and the discovery of inner strength. Recommended.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Rosie’s Book Review Team #RBRT Losing It All by Marsha Cornelius

Today’s team book review come from Cathy, she blogs at http://betweenthelinesbookblog.wordpress.com

She chose to read and review Losing It All by Marsha Cornelius

Many thanks to Marsha Cornelius for sending me a copy as part of Rosie Amber’s book review team.

Frank and Chloe, for completely different reasons, find themselves homeless. Frank is happy enough on the streets, collecting cans each day to make a little money. After the horrors of fighting and battling to survive in the Vietnam war, he returns to the US disabled and ignored and turns to alcohol and drugs to dull the physical and mental pain. Another homeless man, Randall, helps Frank work through his issues, get dried out and cleaned up. They forge a close friendship.

Frank makes the most of the little he has, with his good friends and the little community they have built. When all Frank knows is destroyed horrifically and violently one night, and he almost loses his life, he doesn’t know whether he will be able to claw his way back again. Until a chance meeting changes his life forever.

Chloe, after being abandoned by her husband, and with no-one to turn to for help, is left with two children and debts she can’t pay off. After losing her home and all her possessions, she doesn’t know how her life could get any worse. But it can…a whole lot worse.

Sinking further and further into a pit of despair and hopelessness, Chloe can’t see a way forward. She is at the mercy of a very defective system of shelters, incompetent childcare and predatory men, leaving her emotionally battered and completely drained. Until a helping hand reaches out to pull her back from the brink.

The story is told from both Frank’s and Chloe’s points of view. It brings home the stark reminder that the homeless of this world are actually out there, struggling to survive from day-to-day against sometimes unimaginable odds. Losing it all. How far can one person fall before all hope is gone. This is a fascinating book with wonderfully developing characters and a sometimes harrowing storyline, dealing with the complex issues and situations the homeless can, and more than likely do, face.

I was drawn to Frank immediately, there’s depth and authenticity in his character. He’s had a really rough deal but despite everything he cares about others and does whatever he can to help. Chloe hasn’t had a happy life and, I think partly because of that, chose poorly when it came to a husband and father for her children. The two characters’ lives are interlinked and brought together in a compelling and profound storyline. Their portrayal is genuine, believable and endearing. The writing is accomplished and descriptive with a reality that encompasses so many emotions, hope, love, anguish, misery, all of which shine through the narrative.

A really excellent read which enforces the old adage, never judge a book…You never really know the true story behind a person’s appearance and what events forced them into a certain situation. Or how a single act of kindness can be the start of changing someone’s life for the better.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com