Review of Kalayla
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Review of Kalayla
Kalayla by Jeannie Nicholas is a heartwarming novel about the interactions between the lives of three generations of women. Maureen is a 29-year-old widow who moves to Cambridge, Massachusetts in search of a fresh start to life alongside her 11-year-old daughter Kalayla, an energetic, independent and sharp-tongued young woman. Maureen and Kalayla rent an apartment owned by Lena who is a wealthy 72-year-old Italian woman but is also a widow. Maureen and Lena share a common characteristic: They are both unhappy due to their past. Lena lost two of her sons to the Vietnam war and another of her sons has seemingly disappeared from the face of the earth. Maureen however was ostracized from her family for following her heart and marrying a black man named Jamal. The novel opens on the aftermath of the death of Jamal and its impact on the lives of Maureen and Kalayla. Seeing as Kalayla is hardly under the supervision of her ever working mother, Lena takes it upon herself to be a guide to Kalayla to relieve the disoriented single mother while actively trying not to repeat the same mistakes she made with her children. These three women interact with each other and along the way, they find out they all need support from each other and discover family does not have to be blood-related only. There is also some hidden truth laying low in the novel. Will they be revealed and if so, what will be their effect in the worlds of these women?
I enjoyed reading Kalayla by Jeannie Nicholas. The author did a splendid job of telling the story from the point of view of three main characters: Kalayla, Maureen and Lena with the occasional addition of Rico. I loved the way she aligned the timelines of events that involve these characters from each person’s point of view. I also enjoyed the way she organizes her flashbacks as they can occur as things as simple as getting lost in thought. Each character was given a distinct trait that is also useful in the development of the book later on where Kalayla is an out of control child and Lena is there to control her.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book even though there were a few minor editing errors that need to be worked on. However, the book was so good that it couldn’t disrupt my rating for the book
I am happy to rate this book 4 out of 4 stars because there was no aspect of the book I disliked or felt like it was unnecessary.
I would recommend this book to mothers who feel like they are walking around blindly when it comes to their children. The book however has a good amount of profanity and sexual content and as such might not be good for a younger audience.
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Kalayla
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