Published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Published: May 12th 2015
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When Apple's mother returns after eleven years of absence, Apple feels almost whole again. In order to heal completely, her mother will have to answer one burning question: Why did she abandon her? But just like the stormy Christmas Eve when she left, her mother's homecoming is bittersweet. It's only when Apple meets her younger sister, Rain-someone more lost than she is- that she begins to see things for how they really are, allowing Apple to discover something that might help her to feel truly whole again.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
A friend of mine read this one and gushed about it so I took a chance and picked it up. Honestly I wasn’t sure what I expected. I thought the description sounded very interesting and pretty emotionally intense. But honestly I never expected Apple & Rain to hurt my heart the way that it did. And for it to make me as angry it did at a parent.
Apple & Rain is the story of 14 year old Apple, a girl that has lived with her grandmother for 11 years, since her mother took off from England to the United States. Every day for the last 11 years Apple has waited for her mother to come back and then one day she does. But she isn’t alone. She is with someone that makes Apple wonder if she was wishing for the right thing and if having her mother is really what she needed all these years.
I think what made this book so heartbreaking was how strongly Apple held on to the idea of her mother, a woman that she barely knew and that essentially abandoned her. That is what hurt me the most because all the kid wanted was her mother’s love and to be honest I don’t think she was capable of giving it. She was a very very selfish woman that thought of no one but herself. She put Apple in bad situation after bad situation. She made her choose sides. She made her act like an adult when she was 14. It made me both angry and sad at the same time. And Rain. Poor, poor Rain. She was desperate for love and just didn’t know how to get it. Killed me.
What I loved the most though was the growth and change in Apple. I loved seeing her blossom and not be afraid to be who she is whether the popular girls liked her or not. I loved seeing her stand up for herself and realize what was right and what was wrong and where her place in life was. That was truly a great part of the story and what I think Apple & Rain was really about.
Apple & Rain turned out to be exactly what my friend said it would be. It was heartbreaking and real. It made me sad for people that didn’t exist but I knew did somewhere out in the world. It was a great story of family and love and growing up. I would definitely recommend this one. Maybe have the tissues handy just in case.
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