This OR That #Giveaway Week 36 ~ The Precious One by Marisa de los Santos OR The Orphan's Tale by Pam Jenoff #ThePreciousOne #TheOrphansTale

I have sooooo many books! 

The This or That Giveaway! feature that I post every Saturday is a way for me to clear my shelves and to share some of the many books I have. It's a way for me to cull my collection and give someone else the chance to enjoy these treasures.

Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

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The Precious One

by Marisa de los Santos

ARC ~ Pub date March 2015

From the bestselling author of Belong to Me, Love Walked In, and Falling Together comes a captivating novel about friendship, family, second chances, and the redemptive power of love.

In all her life, Eustacia “Taisy” Cleary has given her heart to only three men: her first love, Ben Ransom; her twin brother, Marcus; and Wilson Cleary — professor, inventor, philanderer, self-made millionaire, brilliant man, breathtaking jerk: her father.

Seventeen years ago, Wilson ditched his first family for Caroline, a beautiful young sculptor. In all that time, Taisy’s family has seen Wilson, Caroline, and their daughter Willow only once.

Why then, is Wilson calling Taisy now, inviting her for an extended visit, encouraging her to meet her pretty sister — a teenager who views her with jealousy, mistrust, and grudging admiration? Why, now, does Wilson want Taisy to help him write his memoir?

Told in alternating voices — Taisy’s strong, unsparing observations and Willow’s naive, heartbreakingly earnest yearnings — The Precious One is an unforgettable novel of family secrets, lost love, and dangerous obsession, a captivating tale with the deep characterization, piercing emotional resonance, and heartfelt insight that are the hallmarks of Marisa de los Santos’s beloved works.

You can read my thoughts here.

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The Orphan's Tale

by Pam Jenoff

Paperback ~ Pub date February 2017

A powerful novel of friendship set in a traveling circus during World War II, The Orphan's Tale introduces two extraordinary women and their harrowing stories of sacrifice and survival.

Sixteen-year-old Noa has been cast out in disgrace after becoming pregnant by a Nazi soldier and being forced to give up her baby. She lives above a small rail station, which she cleans in order to earn her keep. When Noa discovers a boxcar containing dozens of Jewish infants bound for a concentration camp, she is reminded of the child that was taken from her. And in a moment that will change the course of her life, she snatches one of the babies and flees into the snowy night.

Noa finds refuge with a German circus, but she must learn the flying trapeze act so she can blend in undetected, spurning the resentment of the lead aerialist, Astrid. At first rivals, Noa and Astrid soon forge a powerful bond. But as the facade that protects them proves increasingly tenuous, Noa and Astrid must decide whether their friendship is enough to save one another - or if the secrets that burn between them will destroy everything.

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On Tour: The Precious One by Marisa de los Santos and a Giveaway!

The Precious One

The Precious One by Marisa de los Santos

Paperback, 368 pages

Publication date: March 24th 2015 by William Morrow & Company

From the bestselling author of Belong to Me, Love Walked In, and Falling Together comes a captivating novel about friendship, family, second chances, and the redemptive power of love.

In all her life, Eustacia “Taisy” Cleary has given her heart to only three men: her first love, Ben Ransom; her twin brother, Marcus; and Wilson Cleary — professor, inventor, philanderer, self-made millionaire, brilliant man, breathtaking jerk: her father.

Seventeen years ago, Wilson ditched his first family for Caroline, a beautiful young sculptor. In all that time, Taisy’s family has seen Wilson, Caroline, and their daughter Willow only once. 

Why then, is Wilson calling Taisy now, inviting her for an extended visit, encouraging her to meet her pretty sister — a teenager who views her with jealousy, mistrust, and grudging admiration? Why, now, does Wilson want Taisy to help him write his memoir?

Told in alternating voices — Taisy’s strong, unsparing observations and Willow’s naive, heartbreakingly earnest yearnings — The Precious One is an unforgettable novel of family secrets, lost love, and dangerous obsession, a captivating tale with the deep characterization, piercing emotional resonance, and heartfelt insight that are the hallmarks of Marisa de los Santos’s beloved works. 

Purchase The Precious One 

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My thoughts about The Precious One ~~ 

I read another one of Marisa's books, Falling Together, and just absolutely fell in love with her writing. I have been so excited to read her newest novel. And The Precious One is such a great read.

This story is about Taisy and Willow, half-sisters who have only seen each other once in their lives. We learn about each of them as they tell their stories in alternating chapters of the book. Taisy's father left when she was a teenager and let me tell you, he was not an easy man to live with. But when he calls out of the blue and wants Taisy to write his life story, she travels to see him. But she is not the same, meek young girl he left behind. She is now a strong woman who can stand up to her father.

Willow is Wilson's young daughter in his new family and she has not had an easy life. But it is all she has ever known so she accepts things the way they are. That is, until her father suffers a heart attack and she has to start attending the local high school. Then she sees what she has been missing.

'But I knew the deeper reason for the caveat, the one that was behind every decision her made, and that was that he wanted to keep me safe and uncorrupted forever, keep me from turning out like the Others, the Earlier Ones, because he loved me more than anyone in the world. He never said this, not in so many words, but he didn't have to. I knew.'

The story focuses on Taisy and Willow. We watch them as they get to know each other and try to make this 'new' family model work. Then the author goes and throws in a past love relationship of Taisy's and there is a whole lot of emotion and angst all around.

'To employ a cliché, what I learned is that in order to have a silver lining, you need clouds, and my new life had plenty of those, clouds upon clouds upon clouds.'

The Precious One is a beautifully written story about family, love, secrets, finding oneself, and strength. There is such emotion and growth of these characters and this story was a delight to read. The characters were flawed but real, just like in real life. I loved some and wanted to throttle others. I love it when authors can make me feel so strongly about their characters. You will definitely want read The Precious One! I highly recommend it.

'None of them mattered, none. I stood in the back of the library, drawing myself upright, easing my shoulders back, reminding myself of the truth I had so recently learned: nothing can touch you, not guilt or fear or sisters who are not sisters; no one can hurt you, not enemies or loneliness or friends who stop being friends when other people show up; you can rise above anything, anything, everything when you are in love.'

About the author

Marisa de los Santos was a poet for a very long time, with an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and a Ph.D. from the University of Houston. Her first book, FROM THE BONES OUT, a collection of poems, was published in 2000.

She and her husband, writer David Teague, lived in Center City, Philadelphia for a number of years before moving to Wilmington, Delaware in spring of 2003. That summer, Marisa began writing what would become her first novel LOVE WALKED IN (Dutton, 2006). LOVE WALKED IN was translated into fourteen languages, was optioned by Paramount pictures, and was a trade paperback bestseller. William Morrow published her second novel BELONG TO ME in April 2008, and it was an instant New York Times Bestseller.

Marisa, David, and their two children, Charles and Annabel, live in Wilmington, where Marisa takes as many ballet classes as she can, volunteers at her kids' school, and is working on her third novel.

Connect with Marisa

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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Book Spotlight and a Giveaway! Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos

Belong to Me

Belong to Me by Marisa de los Santos
Paperback, 398 pages
Published March 31st 2009 (first published January 1st 2008)
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

"On a recent rainy Monday, I'd tried imagining the last month and a half of my life as a feature film, a game I play, secretly, fairly often, and that I'm convinced other people play, secretly too," confesses Cornelia Brown, whose witty observations and small epiphanies in the pages of Marisa de los Santos' Belong to Me surround readers like the warm embrace of an old friend. Cornelia and her impossibly handsome husband, Teo Sandoval, made their debut in the author's Love Walked In.

As this book begins, the couple is settling into their first house on an idyllic street in a picturesque Philadelphia suburb. Cornelia is inexplicably drawn to "this unsurprising place" that she yearns to call home, but her neighbors are less sure of how these transplanted, apparently childless urbanites will fare in their midst. Especially Piper Truitt. The epitome of blonde cool, this demanding mother of two has created her own version of perfection within the walls of a home that sits across the street from Cornelia's. From their early encounter at a dinner party, the two are at odds, a situation that Cornelia, adrift from her familiar surroundings, cannot conceive how to navigate.

As the novel progresses, new characters emerge. We meet Elizabeth, Piper's best friend, who's battling cancer, as well as Toby, Cornelia's brother, and Clare, the bright and compassionate teen familiar to readers of Love Walked In. Then there's Lake, a single mother working at a local Italian restaurant, who throws Cornelia a timely lifeline in the form of a dish of spaghetti alla puttanesca. Lake's son Dev, a preternaturally gifted 13-year-old, becomes Cornelia's unexpected kindred spirit. Deftly blending several tales at once, de los Santos' narrative is richly embroidered with intertwined lives and loves. As present circumstances are threatened by the revelation of past secrets, the friends forge a circle of strength and forgiveness that the reader, too, belongs to -- and will hate to leave when the last page is turned. A triumphant testimony to the power of love, Belong to Me hums with the hope that pulls friends through the ups and downs that the years hold in store for everyone.

About the author

Marisa de los Santos was a poet for a very long time, with an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and a Ph.D. from the University of Houston. Her first book, From the Bones Out, a collection of poems, was published in 2000.

She and her husband, writer David Teague, lived in Center City, Philadelphia for a number of years before moving to Wilmington, Delaware in spring of 2003. That summer, Marisa began writing what would become her first novel Love Walked In (Dutton, 2006). Love Walked In was translated into fourteen languages, was optioned by Paramount pictures, and was a trade paperback bestseller. William Morrow published her second novel Belong to Me in April 2008, and it was an instant New York Times Bestseller.

Marisa, David, and their two children, Charles and Annabel, live in Wilmington, where Marisa takes as many ballet classes as she can, volunteers at her kids' school, and is working on her third novel.

Connect with Marisa

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter

Giveaway Time!!

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On Tour and a Giveaway: Falling Together by Marisa de los Santos

From their first day of college orientation, Pen, Cat and Will seemed born to be close friends. Eventually though, Cat's decision to marry an unpleasant mate had loosened their magical bond and without its center, the group had drifted away from each other.

Now, six years later, when Cat emails her former cronies, asking them to join her at their college reunion, they cannot resist. Whatever nostalgic dreams the pair nurtured, however, dissolve when they are forced to confront a dangerous situation in which everything they believed about themselves and each other is brought into question.

With its vividly drawn characters; plausible plot developments, another triumph for the author of Belong to Me. ~~ synopsis from Goodreads

My thoughts about Falling Together ~~

Oh - my - goodness! What a beautiful book this was to read!

I have been wanting to read Falling Together for quite awhile and when I saw that it was on tour, well .... that was the perfect opportunity to make it a 'must-read'. This is a story about three college friends who had a falling out and who have not seen each other for six years. A reunion pulls them back together. I love books that deal with relationships and all that goes into tearing them apart or bringing them back together.

I thought this would be an easy, fast read. Well, I was totally wrong about that! This is a book so beautifully written that I was going back to reread parts that went by too quickly. And then I started reading each page slowly so that I could savor every word.

'... when the three of them parted ways, first Cat leaving, then Will, they had agreed to make it final, to never get in touch, not years later, not ever.'

What tore this close friendship apart? And what makes them come together again after not being in each other's lives for six years? The story flows very gently from the present to the past as we come to understand Pen, Cat and Will. Has the past changed them? And can they recapture the closeness that they once had?

'I don't know how to be with you without her.'

Can just two of the three be friends if the other one is not there? Does this once fabulous friendship only work if all three of them are together?

As you can tell, I love Falling Together and I love the story of Pen, Cat and Will. Marisa is such a beautiful writer and I can't wait to read more of her books. I actually have one of her other books, Belong to Me, on my shelf already. What am I waiting for?

About the author

Marisa de los Santos was a poet for a very long time, with an MFA from Sarah Lawrence College and a Ph.D. from the University of Houston. Her first book, FROM THE BONES OUT, a collection of poems, was published in 2000.

She and her husband, writer David Teague, lived in Center City, Philadelphia for a number of years before moving to Wilmington, Delaware in spring of 2003. That summer, Marisa began writing what would become her first novel LOVE WALKED IN (Dutton, 2006). LOVE WALKED IN was translated into fourteen languages, was optioned by Paramount pictures, and was a trade paperback bestseller. William Morrow published her second novel BELONG TO ME in April 2008, and it was an instant New York Times Bestseller.

Marisa, David, and their two children, Charles and Annabel, live in Wilmington, where Marisa takes as many ballet classes as she can, volunteers at her kids' school, and is working on her third novel.

Connect with Marisa

Website | Facebook | Goodreads

Other stops on the tour

I received a copy of this book from TLC Book Tours

in exchange for an honest review.

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a copy of Falling Together!

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