Book Review: Shake Down The Stars

Author: Renee Swindle
Publication Date: August 6, 2013
Publisher: NAL Trade

When you’re in trouble, and sinking fast, who do you call?

Piper Nelson is stuck. She can’t quite stay away from the husband she divorced. She isn’t always attentive to the high school students she teaches. And even she admits that she’s been drinking too much and seeking out unsuitable men. Piper’s mother, married to a celebrity evangelist, and her sister, immersed in plans to wed a professional football player and star in a reality TV show, are both too self-absorbed to sympathize with Piper’s angst. They tell her to get a grip. But how can Piper ever really recover from the blow she suffered five years ago, when a car accident took the life of her young daughter?

When Piper’s ex-husband announces his new girlfriend is pregnant, Piper is forced to take stock. Realizing that it’s time for a change is one step, but actually making it happen is quite another. And despite what she thinks, Piper can’t do it alone Lucky for her, a couple of crazy, funny new friends are ready to step in when she needs them most…and show her how to live and laugh again.

It’s two in the afternoon, and I’m already nursing a bottle of scotch I took from the banquet hall when my sister’s engagement party will take place.

The place is straight out of The Great Gatsby with its expansive lawns, indoor swimming pool, smoking room, the aforementioned libraries, and lookout tower covered in ivy.

She sits next to me on the bed. I worry briefly that she’ll catch on to the fact that there’s a man under the covers, but no surprise, she’s completely oblivious.

This book caused me to feel a lot heavier emotions that I was planning from the start. Piper is our troubled heroine, who is going through a divorce and is far from the normal divorcee that we often think about when reading books like this one. Hear me when I tell you that this book will take you places and make you feel things that you did not expect at all! Piper is a troubled soul and at first I questioned her character and if I would even grow to like her. However, when I also took into consideration that Piper was dealing with her daughter’s death as well this changed things for me. I have never experienced feelings like these, but I think that Renee Swindle did an amazing job in characterizing what they might feel like.

Piper is a strong character with deep, believable characterization provided by Swindle. Like I said before, I started off not liking her at all, but by the middle of the book I was Team Piper. I couldn’t stand the people in her life that had hurt her of the trials that she was going through. This would be an excellent book for someone to read that is going through a hard time that others may not understand. Piper could be considered a very inspirational role model in the life of suffering through things just like she is.

The love interest in this book was very delicate and I often wondered if anything was going to come of it. Renee Swindle had me guessing the entire time. I fought the urge to read ahead and find out about the supposed love interest, but I did not. I waited like a good little reader. There is so much I loved about this book, and I could really go on and on. What I loved most was that this book gave me everything I was NOT expecting! It was a wonderful surprise! Very well-written!

***A copy of this book was provided to me by the publishers at NAL Trade in exchange for my honest review***