You may recognize this author, Bette Lee Crosby. I have reviewed several of her other books here, Spare Change and Cupid’s Christmas, and she sent me Cracks in the Sidewalk to review as well.  Bette is quite the story teller but this book is based on a true story (sadly).  She interviewed the Grandmother and she told me that the actions of the son-in-law were not fictionalized.  I know this sort of thing happens across the world every day, but I can’t imagine it happening to someone I know.

Synopsis:

From the Bestselling Author of Spare Change, comes a powerful story that is a heart-wrenching reminder of how fragile relationships can be. Cracks in the Sidewalk is based on a true story.

Claire McDermott is an old lady when the letter arrives and brings news of the grandchildren lost some twenty years ago.  It also brings sorrowful memories of her daughter’s death and the thousands of letters written over those years.  Not one of them ever reached its destination.  But what if one of those letters actually made it through?  Can a single letter change the lives of four people?

Claire is about to find out, and three young adults are about to discover letters are a journey of the hear that can eventually reach their destination.

Review:

I don’t know what it is about Bette’s writing and the stories she tells, but they capture my interest from page 1.  The stories are told with so much emotion that it is hard to not get caught up in the characters and feel like you are sitting there next to them seeing what they are experiencing.  Cracks in the Sidewalk is no different.  The story starts off with Claire, the grandmother, receiving a letter from a grandchild that she has not seen in over 20 years.  The story then reverts back to a two year (or so) time that tells the story of Elizabeth (Liz) and Jeffrey (JT) along with Liz’s parents, Claire and Charles.  This story tugged at all of my emotions from anger to joy to sadness to disgust for JT’s character.  I will say that I was crying during the last chapter or two.

I give this book 5 paws and highly recommend picking it up if you don’t win the copy I am giving away!

A little bit about Bette:

Award-winning author Bette Lee Crosby is originally from New Jersey, but now makes her home in Southern Florida where she lives with her husband Richard and a feisty Bichon Frise named Katie.

In 1997 Bette abandoned the fast-paced world of advertising and embarked on a career as a novelist. Her books, frequently written in a Southern voice, cover a wide spectrum of locales and personalities as they tell tales of courageous women overcoming life’s obstacles. Her novels were first recognized in 2006, when she won the National League of American Pen Women Award for unpublished fiction with What Matters Most. In 2007 she won the National League of American Pen Women’s First Place Fiction Award for her novel Girl Child; and in 2009 her latest novel Cracks in the Sidewalk received the prestigious Royal Palm Literary Award from the Florida Writers Association; and in 2011 it won the FPA President’s Book Award Gold Medal. Bette has recently completed an biography of Lani Verner Deauville, the amazing woman who is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s longest living quadriplegic. This book, scheduled for release in February 2012 is titled “Life in the Land of IS…the Amazing Story of Lani Deauville, the World’s Longest Living Quadriplegic.”

The Giveaway:
Fill out the form below to be entered to win an autographed copy of Cracks in the Sidewalk by Bette Lee Crosby.  All information will be deleted once a winner is chosen and the book has been mailed.  Open to US residents only and will close on Saturday, January 26th and a winner will be chosen on the 27th.