Thursday, September 23, 2021

No Names to Be Given Audiobook Review & Book Tour Giveaway

I rarely listen to audiobooks--but, the description of this book caught my interest. Learn about women's fiction novel No Names to Be Give and author Julia Brewer Daily, read my thoughts and enter for a chance to win a prize in the book tour giveaway at the end of this post.


Book Title:  No Names to Be Given
CategoryAdult Fiction (18 +)  
Genre
Vintage Women's Fiction
Publisher:  Admission Press Inc
Release date:   08/2021
Content RatingPG + MNo bad language, but mature subjects like suicide and a rape scene. These are both mild and not explicit. Fade to black kind of scenes. 

"A gorgeous, thrilling, and important novel! These strong women will capture your heart.” Stacey Swann, author of Olympus, Texas.

“An insightful and sympathetic view offered into the lives of those who were adopted and those who adopted them.” Pam Johnson, author of Justice for Ella.

“A novel worthy of a Lifetime movie adaptation.” Jess Hagemann, author of Headcheese.
“Readers can expect deep knowledge of the world the characters inhabit.” Sara Kocek, author of Promise Me Something.

“I found myself thinking about Becca, Sandy, and Faith frequently as I went about my day—I was always excited to sit down and find out what happened next.” Sarah Welch, author of Austin Brown Dogs: The Shelter Dogs Who Rescue Us.
 



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About the Book 
 
Today’s young women will not understand how our families made us feel shame so intensely; we surrendered our first-born children to strangers. Faith Reynolds, No Names to Be Given 
 
The widely anticipated debut novel by Julia Brewer Daily is a glimpse into the lives of women forced by society to gift their newborns to strangers. Although this novel is a fictional account, it mirrors many of the adoption stories of its era. 
 
When three young unwed women meet at a maternity home hospital in New Orleans in 1965, they are expected to relinquish their babies and return home as if nothing transpired. Twenty-five years later, they are brought back together by blackmail and their secrets threatened with exposure—all the way to the White House.
 
Told from the three women’s perspectives in alternating chapters, we are mesmerized by the societal pressures on women in the 1960s who found themselves pregnant without marriage.
 
How that inconceivable act changed them forever is the story of No Names To Be Given, a novel with southern voices, love exploited, heartbreak and blackmail.  
 
 
My Review 
 
 

Emotional Stories with Realistic Characters. The author spotlights three women as they cope with unplanned pregnancies during the '60s--and continue to face the aftermaths of their pasts in years to come. While the novel is fictional--the author chose very realistic situations for her young, unwed characters and kept the story (and her characters) in check with the historical context--and followed them through as their lives and stories developed and pasts re-emerged and reconnected.


No Names to Be Given Offers Readers Many Insights. From learning about the treatment and expectations of many unwed mothers in the '60s--to the understandable emotional trauma, grief, and guilt that carried forward throughout lives--readers will see many of the real-life types of stories that played out over those difficult years. As an adoptee herself, the author brings a lot of thought-provoking pieces into the novel. 

 

No Names to Be Given Brings Many Perspectives Together.  I enjoyed the narrator of the audiobook and the various perspectives that the author brought to the storyline. Having said that, as the book frequently moved from character to character and story to story--I may have been better settled to reading the story than listening to it. The narrator did an excellent job transitioning from section to section--but, I felt that I was moving too quickly from account to account sometimes. I am not sure if I would have felt as "rushed" if I were transitioning on my own from section to section via written pages instead of audio.

 

Would I Recommend No Names to Be Given by Julia Brewer Daily? This novel is an emotional read if you enjoy a drama with well-drawn characters and historically placed significance. While the characters face real challenges as their stories unfold, some somewhat unrealistic events and coincidences bounce into the mix. Even with some of the less believable aspects of the book, I enjoyed the characters and became attached to their stories and lives. While I enjoyed the narrator's voice and style--I think the movement and flow of this novel may have been better for me had I read it instead of listened. I would certainly recommend the story to readers who enjoy an emotional journey into and through the pains of the past.

 
 
Buy the Book  
 

Meet the Author
 
Julia Brewer Daily is a Texan with a southern accent. She holds a B.S. in English and a M.S. degree in Education from the University of Southern Mississippi. 

She has been a Communications Adjunct Professor at Belhaven University, Jackson, Mississippi, and Public Relations Director of the Mississippi Department of Education and Millsaps College, a liberal arts college in Jackson, MS.  

She was the founding director of the Greater Belhaven Market, a producers’ only market in a historic neighborhood in Jackson, and even shadowed Martha Stewart. 

As the Executive Director of the Craftsmen’s Guild of Mississippi (300 artisans from 19 states) which operates the Mississippi Craft Center, she wrote their stories to introduce them to the public.

Daily is an adopted child from a maternity home hospital in New Orleans. She searched and found her birth mother and through a DNA test, her birth father’s family, as well.  A lifelong southerner, she now resides on a ranch in Fredericksburg, Texas, with her husband Emmerson and Labrador Retrievers, Memphis Belle and Texas Star.​

connect with the author: website ~ facebook  goodreads​​

 
Follow the Book Tour
 
 
Enter the Giveaway
 

 


 

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