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Book Review: Being Lara by Lola Jaye & Giveaway (Open Int’l)

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From a young girl Lara Reid has always felt different. Kids tease her at school and people look at her and her parents very strangely when they are out in public. Why you ask – well Lara learns on her eighth birthday that she is adopted. Lara was born in Nigeria and her parents are white – she slowly begins to understand just why she so often feels out of place.  Being Lara by Lola Jaye is an emotionally moving story of a girl who grows into a woman who is searching for her identity – for who she really is. It’s a wonderful story that will tug on your heart for sure!

Lara’s life spirals out of control on her thirtieth birthday. It’s dark, she’s blowing the candles on her cake, and when the lights come on and she looks up she sees a strange woman who is staring back at her. The woman is a stranger and yet Lara feels a connection to her; like somehow she’s known her for her whole life. The woman yells out Omolara and all of a sudden Lara can’t breath. When the woman tells her that she is her mother Lara knows that she has to leave right away. As she is driving and later at home her thoughts are jumbled and she is so confused. All the years that Lara had wished her birth mother would show up and she didn’t – why now? Why now when Lara doesn’t need her to anymore?  Or does she?

Since learning she was adopted Lara has always struggled with not feeling good enough or worthy enough. She has always had trouble with friendships except for her best friend Sandi and as for relationships with men those always seem to go bad before they get anywhere because Lara can’t stop feeling like the men are going to leave her anyway so she’ll put a stop to the relationship before they can. To ease her anxieties, from a young girl Lara begins to show obsessive tendencies of tapping and counting. Now she has a wonderful man, Tyler, in her life but already she feels he is tiring of her and she feels herself pulling away before it’s too late and she gets hurt.

At first Lara refuses to see her birth mother Yomi but Yomi doesn’t give up so easily and the next time she shows up she brings Gran who Lara can’t help but love. Slowly things begin to thaw between mother and daughter as Lara learns more about why her mother gave her up. Lara also learns about her family, her people, and culture and she realizes that she has the best of two worlds. She has parents who love her and that she loves and also a family in Nigeria that love her and all she has to do is open her heart to it.

This is a great story that had me smiling and even teary eyed. It is a realistic portrayal of adoption and its far reaching consequences on those involved. It realistically shows how someone who realizes her family isn’t quite what is perceived as normal learns to deal with that and hopefully find a way to move on with their lives being comfortable in who they are. I enjoyed the characters in the book and I really liked the author’s straight forward writing style. Being Lara is ultimately about hope, love, and accepting people for who they are. I loved it!

I read Being Lara by Lola Jaye for her book tour with TLC Book Tours. Be sure to check out the other tour stops to see what others think about the book. You can learn more about Lola on her website or blog and she can be found on Facebook and Twitter as well. Your own copy of Being Lara can be purchased here in the US and here in Canada.

 

GIVEAWAY DETAILS (Open Internationally)

I happen to have been sent an extra copy of Being Lara – a brand new copy – and I’m going to share it with my readers. As it’s my own copy it will be open to everyone! To enter…

  • For 1 entry simply leave me a comment entering the giveaway.
  • For 2 entries, follow my blog.  If you already do, thank you, and please let me know so I can pass on the extra entry to you as well.
  • For 3 entries, blog or tweet this giveaway and spread the word.
  • For 4 entries, follow me on Networked Blogs.  Click here to be taken directly there.  Log in to your Facebook account and click follow.  Thanks!

This giveaway is open internationally to all of my readers!  I will draw for the winner on Saturday, April 14/12.  Good luck!

Source:  Review copy provided by TLC Book Tours and William Morrow.  No compensation was received for this review and all opinions are solely my own. 

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Comments

  2. This sounds like a great read. Thank you so much for the review and giveaway 🙂

    Renee
    fattybumpkins at yahoo dot com

  3. I am already following your blog. Username: missreneer

    Renee
    fattybumpkins at yahoo dot com

  11. Oh wow, this does sound like a highly emotional read and one that would be really interesting to explore. I can imagine that the sense of self inclusion and importance that an adopted person experiences would be really deeply impacted by discovering that they were adopted, and even more so if their birth parent just decided to show up! Great review today, Dar. I would love to read this one, so please do include me in your giveaway!

    zibilee(at)figearo(dot)net

  13. I am interested in this lovely book. A great review. Many thanks. I subscribe via e-mail.

  16. This sounds like a great book. THanks for the giveaway.
    -email and GFC follower
    -Networked Blogs follower

  18. 1+ Sounds really intense but really good!

    2+ blog follower

    3+ tweeted

    4+ network blog follower

    Margaret
    singitm(at)hotmail(dot)com

  20. Thanks for the chance to win and read this book. Sounds like something that I would really like!
    I follow via email and networked blogs. Thanks again.

  26. This sounds like a wonderful story. I would love to read about her journey.

    lkish77123 at gmail dot com

  28. This one sounds spectacular to me and I’m sure it’s one that I would enjoy!

  29. I would love to read BEING LARA thank you. It does look interesting.

    +1 GFC: Mary Preston

    Email Subscriber: marypres(AT)gmail(DOT)com

    +4 Networked Blogs: Mary Preston

  36. Adoption does have far reaching consequences. It if often a wonderful thing, but there are so many aspects of it and it is often hard to think through the potential outcome ahead of time. Sounds like this book deals with some unexpected outcomes for sure!

    Thanks for being a part of the tour.

  38. Sounds like a tear jerker – I love a book that creates lots of emotion. Thanks for the giveaway.