An Absence So Great by Jane Kirkpatrick Review and giveaway for Blog Tour March 29th - April 2nd

Product Description from Amazon

This review is a part of the Blog Tour that takes place March 29th - April 2nd. for Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group 

"Did photography replace an absence in her life or expose the truth of her heart’s emptiness?

While growing in confidence as a photographer, eighteen-year-old Jessie Ann Gaebele’s personal life is at a crossroads. Hoping she’s put an unfortunate romantic longing behind her as “water under the bridge,” she exiles herself to Milwaukee to operate photographic studios for those owners who have fallen ill with mercury poisoning. Jessie gains footing in her dream to one day operate her own studio and soon finds herself in other Midwest towns, pursuing her profession. But even a job she loves can’t keep painful memories from seeping into her heart when the shadows of a forbidden love threaten to darken the portrait of her life."

My thoughts:

Again I found myself reading a book for review that has books preceding it. So it is better of course if you read the first book, The Flickering Light as it is the first book in the series. Jessie is a young woman who has a passion for photography and her goal is to have her own studio. One of the obstacles she faces is the time she lives in where if a woman wants to branch out from being a wife and mother, she is told to "let your husband/father/brother do this sort of work and you go get married and have babies". In the early 1900's a woman had to fight to be able to do things she wants to but if she does that she is considered to be a "loose" woman. Jessie relies on her faith and determination to achieve her goals. She is also trying to go on after a forbidden and scandalous relationship with a unhappily married man whom she also worked with. The man had mercury poisoning from the solutions used in developing pictures. I enjoyed this story and I was drawn to it because the story takes place in Wisconsin, Milwaukee and Eau Clare to be exact. I grew up in Milwaukee so I found it interesting to read what Milwaukee was like at the turn of the century. In each chapter there was a picture and a description of how this picture was taken and it turns out that the author actually used some of her grandmothers pictures as reference.

An enjoyable read! 

You can go here and download and read the first chapter.

 Product Details

Paperback: 400 pages
Publisher: WaterBrook Press; 1 edition (March 16, 2010)
ISBN-10: 1578569818

I received a copy of this book from Waterbrook Multnomah Publishing Group for review.
To learn more about or purchase a copy of this book go here:   RandomHouse.com:

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9781578569816


Giveaway of 2 copies of this great book!
Giveaway ends 4/15/10 and open to U.S. entrants only
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