REVIEW: The Color of Snow by Brenda Stanley

The Color of Snow
By:  Brenda Stanley
Publisher:  Tribute Books
Released:  June 1, 2012
Source:  publisher in exchange for an honest review


Brenda's Bio:  Brenda Stanley is the former news anchor at her NBC affiliate KPVI in Eastern Iadho. Her writing has been recognized by the Scripps Howard Foundation, the Hearst Journalism Awards, the Idaho Press Club and the Society for Professional Journalists. She is a graduate of Dixie College in St. George, Utah, and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Brenda lived for two years in Ballard, Utah, within the Fort Duchesne reservation where the novel is set. She and her husband live on a small ranch near the Snake River with their horses and dogs.

Facebook  Twitter  Website  Goodreads

Summary:  Can a troubled young girl reenter society after living in isolation?

When a beautiful 16-year-old girl named Sophie is found sequestered in a cage-like room in a rundown house in the desolate hills of Arbon Valley, Idaho, the entire community is shocked to learn she is the legendary Callidora--a baby girl who was kidnapped from her crib almost seventeen years ago and canonized in missing posters with portraits of what the fabled girl might resemble. Authorities soon learn that the cage was there to protect people from Sophie, because her biological father believes she is cursed.

Sophie is discovered after the man she knows as Papa, shoots and injures Damien, a young man who is trying to rescue her. Now, unsocialized and thrust into the world, and into a family she has never met, Sophie must decide whether she should accept her Papa’s claims that she is cursed and he was only trying to protect others, or trust the new people in her life who have their own agendas. Guided by a wise cousin, Sophie realizes that her most heartbreaking challenge is to decide if her love for Damien will destroy him like her Papa claims, or free her from past demons that haunt her mind.

My Thoughts:  Wow, I think this is one of the best books I've read this year.  I laughed, cried, and got really pissed off!

     This book changes from past to present, but not too fast.  This story is told by Sophie, or Callidora, her birth name.  It is the story of her life as she lives with a curse that was put on her family.  Stolen by her father at 2 days old, Sophie is hidden away for years from her mother;'s family and society as a whole and also to avoid hurting anyone with the curse.  It tells how and why she is kept out of the public eye, and also how she tries to forge friendships along the way.

     You know a book is good when you feel and display the same emotions as the characters in the book.  There were a few parts that really pissed me off asking myself, "Hasn't this girl been through enough?"  It was one of those books that kept me awake until 4am.  The only thing negative I have to say about this book is that it could have been more descriptive.  I wasn't really seeing the faces or bodies or clothes the characters were wearing.  The same with the landscape.  I was halfway through the book before I could picture in my mind what this one landscape looked like.  But, as I said, that was the only negative throughout the whole book for me.  What made me sad was the fact that Sophie doesn't realize how much she is loved.

**IMPORTANT**

There  are sensitive situations in this book.  I don';t want to give this away but, in my opinion, this book would be best suited for ages 18+.

I give total and complete praise for Brenda Stanley!!

1/2