Book Review and Giveaway: "A Door Cracked Open" by Carmina Edwards

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​About the Book

Raised in a mean-spirited, poverty-stricken home in the seventies, where her quarrelsome father tries to squash her carefree spirit and her three siblings make fun of her, Amy struggles to understand what value she has. Somehow finding God in the midst of an atheist upbringing, she perseveres to grow up better than the useless person she’s assured she is.

When told at the age of sixteen that she must start working to pay her way instead of finishing school, she dares to dream of a better life, away from the squabbles and constant despair she encounters at home.

A magazine ad from a family in Sweden, looking for someone to watch their children, entices Amy’s adventurous spirit, and she soon finds herself looking through a new door in her life, cracked open to an amazing world she never dreamed possible, where people are nice to her and life is good.
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“An incredible true story of perseverance in adversity, this is one account where truth truly is stranger than fiction.” ~Laurie Penner.

​My Review

​A Door Cracked Open is Carmina Edward’s first book. This book is difficult for me to review because I wanted to like it but in the end, I just couldn’t connect at all to the characters.
 
A Door Cracked Open is based on a true story, and the entire book feels like a series of vignettes that don’t quite gel together to make a complete story. We jump from scene to scene with Amy, our main character, and for me it just didn’t work.
 
I understand the themes Ms. Edwards was imparting throughout the book, especially about trusting God when we feel confused or unsure about what we are called to do, but I did not connect to Amy’s emotional journey. The story is dialogue heavy with little narrative prose and it makes it difficult to see what Amy is feeling and experiencing.
 
The writing itself is rather simplistic. The simplistic style suited the book when Amy was a child, but as she grew older, I wanted the prose and dialogue to mature along with her! However, it stays the same and makes Amy seem younger than she truly is, which I feel does not suit Amy’s character growth during the book.
 
I did enjoy the story, as Amy lives a fascinating and colorful life, but the writing itself and the feeling of “vignettes” instead of scenes flowing together makes it tough for me to recommend A Door Cracked Open.
 
I give this book 3/5 stars for the “vignette” storytelling and the simplistic writing style. If that form of storytelling works for you, you may enjoy this book more than I did.
 
**I received a complimentary copy of this book from CelebrateLit. All opinions are my own.**

​About the Author

​I am a mother of two wonderful grown up children and currently living in the UK, after living in Sweden for three years where I wrote my first book, “A Door Cracked Open.” I was blessed to be able to spend six months in USA before returning to the UK, my home country, to work with my editor in California on the edits of this book and visit friends.

​I am an avid reader and linguist, having also spent some years living in France and have been fortunate enough to have taught Swedish and French over twenty-five years and translate for businesses and manuscripts in both languages. 

​​Being unemployed the past few years, has led to me becoming homeless. However, I never give up hope. As I try to portray in my books, God has always had His hand on me. Once again, He has stepped in right at the last minute. I now have a new job in Sweden and will be moving back there. Because I feel passionately about helping the homeless, a large percentage of my royalties will go directly to them.

​Guest Post from Carmina Edwards

Something about my book.

After many friends, having seen the unusual life I have led up until now, told me that I should write a book, I finally decided to do just that. I am an ordinary person who has not suffered more than many, but have been privileged with many extra-ordinary experiences. I wrote my book in order to share with others, just how God has had His hand on me and brought me through some tough times which seemed impossible to find a way out of. My first book highlights some of this, though it isn’t until the second book, that more becomes clear and the third book will show the extreme mercy and grace He has showered me with. The story is still unfolding. My aim is to show, through my writing, that giving up is never an option. Stay true to God and He does pull us through. Trusting in Him is key and I personally, have seen Him transform some of the dreams He put onto my heart, into reality. I’d love for my books to be of some encouragement to others and have so far received several emails from readers all over the world, telling me how my story so far, has done that. One went so far as to say that she had given up, but read my book purely by chance and has picked herself up and is once again back on the road to reach her goals. The story of a scatty, spontaneous and highly sensitive girl, ridiculed all her life because of her faith and dreams, (she’s born into a completely atheist family). never gives up and some of the situations she gets herself into are pretty scary, but sometimes humorous. Yet God’s protection is seen all the way through.

Blog Stops

​August 3: A Baker’s Perspective
August 4: Quiet Quilter
August 5: Carpe Diem
August 6: Book Reviews From an Avid Reader
August 7: The Power of Words (Spotlight)
August 8: Christian Bookaholic
August 9: Reading Is My SuperPower (interview)
August 10: Books, Books, and More Books.
August 11: Mary Hake
August 12: Avid Reader Book Reviews
August 13: Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations
August 14: cherylbbookblog
August 15: Margaret Kazmierczak
August 16: His Grace is Sufficient

Giveaway

​To celebrate her tour, Carmina is giving away:

Grand Prize of a book themed gift basket all the way from Sweden!
And
A 1st – 3rd place prize of an eBook copy of A Door Cracked Open!!
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Click below to enter. Be sure to comment on this post before you enter to claim 9 extra entries! https://promosimple.com/ps/bd29