Thursday, January 12, 2012

 "She Had No Choice", A Latin Spin on The Color Purple by Debra Burroughs




"She Had No Choice, A Latin Spin on the Color Purple" by Debra Burroughs, is a Mexican/Latin Historical Fiction Family Saga!  This book was a wonderful story, covering three generations of Ramirez women.  This story is somewhat lightly based upon Debra's own family, yet is a fictional story.

From Goodreads, the description of the book:

Mexico in 1918 was a dangerous place to live. Disease was ravaging village after village. Young Sofía's parents decided to take what was left of their family and brave a perilous midnight crossing into the United States, hoping to save the lives of their remaining children. They did not anticipate the hardships that lay ahead of them.

After a family tragedy, Sofía is sent to live with a well-to-do aunt in Phoenix. Sofía's father assumes this is for the best, that his sister will educate her and treat her as a daughter. He could not have known it would plunge her into a life of servitude and relationships with the wrong men. Hungry for love, her first lover leads to a daughter, Eva, born out of wedlock. 

When he abandons her and the baby, another young man is quick to come to her rescue. But when he tries to convince Sofía to leave what little family she has left to go west with him, to work in the fields of California, she is torn. Weighing the few options that are available to her, she believes she has no choice but to go with him. Her difficult, yet inspiring life unfolds over the next 20 years, through a series of highs and lows, with her daughter by her side. 

As a young woman, Eva hopes to avoid the mistakes her mother made with men, but she is not always able to steer clear of them. When life becomes dangerous and unbearable for Sofía, will Eva and her beau be able to save her, or will Sofía have to save them?

This poignant and gripping drama plays out from 1918 to 1960, and is full of love and heartbreak, prejudice and betrayal, lovers, friends and family. It is inspired by the true stories written in Debra Burroughs' book CARMEN.


We are SO lucky to have an Author Interview from Debra, talking ALL about this book!  This is one to definitely put in your TBR piles!
Here's the Interview from Debra Burroughs!
Debra Burroughs, Author

Book:  She Had No Choice 

Do you recall how your interest in writing originated?
I began writing in high school. My English teacher encouraged me to enter a poetry competition, and I won. My poem was published in an anthology of high school poetry from across the country. I then began to write for my high school newspaper, became the feature editor and then the assistant editor. I also had a teen column in my city paper for two years.
  
What genre are you most comfortable writing?
I like writing in the Romantic Suspense genre the most. She Had No Choice is really more of Women’s Fiction, but does have romance and suspense in it, along with drama and historical elements. The next book I’m working on right now, whose working title is Three Days in Seattle, is purely a Romantic Suspense. I also have a Cozy Mystery/Romantic Suspense series planned after that.
  
What inspired you to write your first book?
I grew up in a large Mexican family, and I heard many stories from my mother and grandmother, as I grew up, about the hardships they suffered and overcame after our family came from Mexico in the early 1900’s. As I would relay some of these gripping and poignant stories to friends over the years, I often heard them say, “You should really write a book about that.” Once my children were grown, I finally had time to sit down and write. So those stories were the jumping-off point for my writing She Had No Choice.

What do you consider the most challenging about writing a novel, or about writing in general?
For me, the most challenging thing about writing a novel is developing the plot in an interesting way. I want to give my readers a highly-entertaining read that keeps them turning the pages to see what comes next because the story is just so interesting and exciting.

Did writing this book teach you anything and what was it?
As I wrote She Had No Choice, and did the research and interviews for it, it gave me a new appreciation for my mother and grandmother. The book was inspired by their life stories and the difficult things they went through and overcame. My mother is a very strong woman. Growing up, I thought she was a little too strong, a bit overpowering at times. But as I dug deeper into her early life, and my grandmother’s earlier life, I learned what she had to do to survive and how, as the oldest of 10 children, she came to be such a powerful force. This book is a work of fiction, but it has a lot of my mom and grandma in it. I wonder sometimes, if they had not been such strong women to break free of the hard life they had, what would my life be like?

Do you intend to make writing a career?
Yes, I do intend to make writing a career. Once I got the story of She Had No Choice out, and I have had very good reviews and comments, I knew I could succeed at doing a lot more of it.

Thank you SO much, Debra!  That was an excellent Interview you gave us!  It gave us a GREAT view into the book, as well!

This book IS available from the LINK just down below here!  It's from Amazon as an ebook in the Kindle format!  For PRIME Members, it is FREE!  For all others, it is currently 99 cents, HOWEVER, MAKE SURE TO CHECK THE PRICE BEFORE YOU PURCHASE IT!  IT CAN 'ALWAYS' CHANGE! The prices I have listed here NOW are ONLY AS OF THIS DATE!  Also, you DON'T need to own an ereader, as Amazon has FREE APPS for YOUR PC and other devices to download, and you can read this book right from your PC or any other electronic device you own!  Here's the link!



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