Blog Tour - "The Color of Snow" by Brenda Stanley

The Color of Snow by Brenda Stanley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Source: Tribute Publishing
Genre: Contemporary YA

Book Description: 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: The book begins with Sophie living through the arrest of her father. She has been living with him in isolation. She has had two friends and has never gone to school. This does not meet that she is uneducated or backwards, she is a resilient young lady who has never know her life to be different.

She remembers events from her life and how she started to learn that her life is different and there is more that she is missing. Her flashbacks to her younger life occur as she is being questioned at the police station. She finds out that she is a missing child and that her maternal grandparents have been searching for her for 17 years.

The events leading to her kidnapping by her father are complex. I enjoyed that we learned most of them through the POV of her father. His story is also shared illustrating past events. He had a rough life, dealing with his Greek families expectations and trying to fit in to a society that he felt shunned in.

The story deals quite a bit with Sophie learning about what happened with her parents, re-entering society, learning about her mother's family and their religious views, and her trying to adjust to life in general. She is very naive, which leads to some uncomfortable situations.

This is a moving book. I couldn't help but feel sympathy for Sophie and her struggles. I did struggle with some of the portrayal of extreme religious views. This book deals with many extreme circumstances.  I sincerely hope that many are not typical. I only say this because I am a Mormon.

Overall, this is a very well written book. It is very interesting. My only content warnings are mild swearing and non-descriptive sexual situations.

About Brenda: 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.

You can find her at these links!

Facebook/ twitter/ website/ Goodreads

Color of Snow Links:

Website / twitter hashtag / Goodreads page

Tribute Publishing Links:

Website / facebook / twitter / facebook

Purchase Links: 

Kindle $2.99 / Nook $4.95 / iBookstore $4.99 / Google $3.75 / Smashwords $4.99 / PDF $4.95



I WANTED TO SHARE THIS INFORMATION THAT I RECEIVED FROM TRIBUTE - MAKE SURE TO  MARK YOUR CALENDARS!  THIS IS THE WRAP UP TWITTER PARTY FOR "THE COLOR OF SNOW"

It is taking place Thursday, August 30th at 12 noon Eastern on Twitter - http://www.twitter.com

The hashtag is #TheColorOfSnow - and can be easily followed using the Twitter app found at http://www.tweetchat.com

Author Brenda Stanley (@MyAuthorLife) will answer your questions for 90 minutes.