Shelter Me by Juliette Faye, book review

I work in the entertainment section in a retail store. I notice when books, movie, and games come in. No matter what people tell you to not judge a book my it's cover, people do it.



Synopsis:
After the sudden death of her husband, Janie LaMarche is swamped by tides of grief and rage. Yet she's forced to confront the onward march of her life by an unlikely cast of interventionists: her two small children, her Ipecac-toting aunt, the "unflinchingly nice" parish priest, and the contractor hired by her husband to build her a porch, whose involvement in her family's life becomes more ingrained with every beam he installs. Shelter Me reminds us that the terrain of one's future is best navigated with the help of others - even the ones we least expect to call on, much less learn to love.

The Cover:
Shelter Me by Juliette Faye caught my attention immediately for two reasons.
1) The vivid colors of the quilt and skyline pop off the cover
2) as a father I noticed the mother and son sitting together.

The Story:
This kind of story falls outside my normal reading. I read a lot of murder/mysteries and marketing books. I have wanted to expand my reading list in subject for awhile so when I saw the pitch on a service I subscribe to I jumped on it.

The story is about a mother of two, Janie, who loses her husband unexpectedly. One day a contractor shows up to build a wrap around porch. This is a complete surprise to Janie. Janie realizes that it was supposed to be a surprise gift for her from her husband, turning out to be his last. I was a little worried in the first couple of chapter that I was going to be reading P.S. I Love You and was very happy it didn't go that direction.

As the story progresses, you get to see how Janie deals with her grief, her parenting skills, and her relationships. I caught myself laughing out loud reading about "pology cake". When I read why Janie's son wears his goggles, I caught myself choking up (guys don't cry). I also like how the theme of shelter repeats through out the story.

Extras:
I really enjoy novels that have extras in the back such as book club discussion questions. Shelter Me is full of extras from recipes for the food that is baked throughout the story. There is the book club discussion question as well and a cute story of what happened to the first version of Shelter Me.

Final Thoughts:
This is Juliette Fay's first novel, and I'm amazed by her raw talent. She told the story in third person narrative and I thought it gave an inside view to all the characters. Intricately, she used Janie's journal writings to give the reader a closer look at her feelings. Fay managed to capture the essence of Janie's grief -- it was very real to me. In addition, I caught myself wondering, God forbid, "What if?" How would I survive if Chelsea were to die unexpectedly. I enjoyed she showed Janie's difficulties with guilt as she tried to "move on" with her life. I hope Fay is busy working on her next novel because I can't wait to read it.

This book has opened my eyes to another genre of literature that I have been ignoring for far too long.