Genre: Adult, Romance
Source: I received a copy to facilitate
my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
This is the third book I have reviewed
for this author. Each has been
different. The main character in this book is Bretna. She is an artist. When her sculptures stop selling she looks
for a job to pay the bills. She needs a job that will pay a certain amount and
allow her to continue to work on her art.
The solution to her problem? Take a job paying $18 an hour as an interpretor
for a deaf student. Bretna has one major problem. She has taken the job by allowing them to
believe she is qualified to work with this student, yet she has no sign
language experience. Her solution is to
take a class and private lessons. Thank
goodness she is a quick learner. I
thought it funny that she realized Alex’s
signing ability was sloppier than hers. Alex just wants to fit in like any other
student. He reminded me of a seventh grader I had who insisted on doing
everything her hearing classmates did.
She refused to allow her disability to define her.
Bretna shares a room with two other
young ladies. The newest roommate, Rosie
adds lots of drama to the mix. She just
keeps going back to the same type of person. Curtis was her sign language
instructor. It was only a matter of time
before a relationship was built. Curtis
didn’t necessarily agree with what Bretna’s plans were. However, after seeing that she really cares
for Alex’s education, things move forward.
She seems to be able to motivate both Curtis and Alex to take chances in
their lives. I had an issue with her contact at the school. She had a deaf son who was personal friend’s
with Alex’s parents. She didn’t agree
with them allowing Alex to go to a regular high school. She thought they should only let him attend
schools that were for the deaf. She
believed in isolating them. I think she hindered Alex’s progress in many
ways. She almost seemed spiteful when it
came to changing Alex’s classes. That
would be my take on it from an educator’s perspective.
It would be interesting to find out if
the author has any background in art.
She speaks about different people in colors. It is funny because I really understood
that. The art relationship was very
intriguing. Her writing is so descriptive
that I could picture her sculptures and her drawings. Bretna’s issues with her
family were heartbreaking. The fact that
she’d had a fairly severe hearing problem helped her understand Alex and Curtis’s
world better. When she talked about her surgery
to restore part of her hearing I understood.
My son was not even a year old when he had to have tubes put in his
ears. I remember coming back from the
hospital a semi drove by and my son put his hands over his ears. As he began to talk we realized there were so
many sounds he could not hear. Soft Ps,
Vs, Ts.
I was able to understand a lot of this
from Bretna’s viewpoint. I learned the
sign language alphabet when I was very young.
My grandmother was deaf. She had
meniere’s disease. She was an expert at
reading lips. I learned to talk slowly
to those with hearing deficits as I had my grandmother. This was an extremely enjoyable book. It is one I will probably read again.
