TWO 4 Star Reviews for Sandcastles by Suzie Carr – #FF #Health #Literary @girl

Title: Sandcastles
Author Name: Suzie Carr
Publication Date & Length: January 28, 2015 – 235pgs

Lia is smart, successful, and best friends with Dean, a gay man who is just as neurotic as she. Life is smooth and flowing, unmarked by much more than a little family jealousy here and there, until she runs into Willow, an exciting enigma from her past.

Willow, a psychic, receives a sense that something is off kilter surrounding Lia. Should she tell her, even though Lia, the person she’s never been able to stop thinking about since childhood, might run the other way? It’s a risk she decides to take, and Lia’s curiosity surprises her.

As truths about life, love and uncertainties are unearthed, Lia and Willow, along with Dean, learn to seek strength from unexpected places and people. Along their journeys, the three learn what a struggle it is to maintain their sandcastles as they embrace the parts of their lives that really matter.

This was a long read, but worth it. I love Suzie Carr’s writing style. For anyone who likes a lot of plot with a side of romance, this fits the bill nicely. There are a few great scenes between Lia and Willow, enough to satisfy but not so much they overshadow the storyline. The steamy-but-not-graphic sex was perfect for my preference.

I enjoyed the characters, but Dean was by far my favorite. I thought he was a good balance for the story. Lia was the textbook definition of stressed workaholic, and Willow was a bit much sometimes on her end, too, so it was good to have something in between.

My only hesitation (and why I can’t give it 5 stars) was that Willow and Yvonne came across as somewhat judgmental and like they had an agenda for the reader. There was also a bit of body-, health-, and fat-shaming (for example, Lia assuming a plump boy was running to get ice cream, or the character running a wellness session on the “causes” of obesity). I wasn’t fond of the part where a couple of the characters seemed to be saying people cause their own illnesses and that emotions other than peaceful/happy are bad. I think those elements could be triggering for some people.

Otherwise, it was an enjoyable read. I’ve been a fan of Suzie Carr for a while, so my concerns with this story will in no way keep me from reading her work and recommending it to others.

Amy

Its not exactly a page turner in my opinion but it is a good book full of life lessons that everyone should take to heart. Its a easy read and full of love,happiness and pain just like life.
It is very inspirational and just the right mix of deep and humor. It will have you laughing while thinking how true, and good of a point it is. I also like that it shows the importance of being open minded, how you hurt truly great people by being small minded. This book is a eye opener and we’ll written.

Amber

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Suzie Carr is a prolific novelist, publishing company owner, philanthropist and avid blogger. Occasionally she sleeps, but not often.

Whether it’s writing about women in love, inspiring new authors, advocating for lgbt equality and animal welfare or blogging about community awareness, positive living, taking action and inspiration… Suzie remains passionate in her beliefs!

She believes in the power of community and fostering a welcoming place where everyone feels connected and their voices are equal, valued and appreciated. Bullying, bigotry and inequality are not welcome… but curves always are.

Suzie’s love for the written word started back when she was a child. She enjoyed visiting the library every Saturday to spend hours reading. Books quickly became a constant companion to her and remained as such throughout her childhood.

Always in the creative mindset, she dreamed of a life where she would work by day and write books by night.

Unfortunately, twelve hour work days left her no time or energy for learning how to craft a novel. So, off to college she went to pursue her passion for writing.

College fed her hunger for the written word and Suzie devoured anything and everything written on the subject of novel writing while pursuing her degree in communications at Rhode Island College.

Soon after graduating, The Fiche Room, a coming-of-age novel about two women falling in love, was born. Over the years The Fiche Room grew from its humble e-book origins to an Amazon Kindle best seller receiving glowing reviews and recently giving rise to its adaptation, The Curve, a short film currently in production.

With six bestsellers on Amazon Kindle in the lesbian romance and lesbian fiction genres, Suzie continues to write about the beauty of women falling in love with each other to the rave reviews of her growing fans, loyal followers and fellow authors.

Suzie Carr believes strongly in giving back to the community. She donates a portion of book sale proceeds to the Hearts United for Animals and NOH8 Campaign.