Review: Yours to Keep is a keeper
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 26, 2013
Quote from the first chapter: Now there were no more choices. There was only Ana's reality: live here in the shadows or be deported to a country that was as foreign to her, as devoid of the things she loved, as rural China.Ana's reality is one that author Serena Bell paints vividly. It is at times bleak, at times hopeful, and always undergirded by Ana's determination to carve out a life for herself and her family in the United States, even though the United States doesn't want her.Counterpoint to Ana is Dr. Ethan Hansen. An upper-middle class widower and father of a teenager, Ethan has worked hard for the lifestyle he enjoys. It's not until he steps into Ana's world of hiding and living in constant fear of deportation that he realizes how very much he has taken for granted...and how he has let fear shape his life.The setup for this story is brilliant and sets up more conflict than you can shake a stick at. The Boston-suburb setting rings with authenticity. The romantic tension is spot on and kept my turning the pages. I cried a couple of times, hurt with the characters more than a couple of times, and was fully engaged for the whole story. This one's a keeper...mine to keep? On my bookshelf? Forever and ever? Yeah. I think so. Thanks for a great read, Serena!