Welcome to one of the September 8th stops on the blog tour for Beyond the Gardens by Sandra C. Lopez, organized by Silver Dagger Book Tours. Don’t forget to follow the rest of the tour for more posts, guest posts, reviews, and a giveaway!
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Beyond the Gardens
by Sandra C. Lopez
Genre: Teen Fiction
Page Count: 432
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!
At the age of 18, Esperanza Ignacio begins her college years at an upscale Los Angeles art school, where she studies to fulfill her long-term dream in Animation. But she soon learns the truth to the old folktale: “You can take the girl out of the barrio, but you can’t take the barrio out of the girl.” Even though she’s getting financial aid, Esperanza works a part-time job during her break from classes just to make ends meet. Her roommate, Anna, is what she calls a “chicana from Beverly Hills” because of the rich daddy and the new car she got for her quinceañera.
Things get a little confusing for Esperanza when an old friend comes looking for her, hoping to start a meaningful relationship. But is Carlos the right guy for her? She never even considered him to be anything more than a friend since high school. Then comes Jake, a gorgeous mechanic, who shares her passion for books and loves her for who she is. What’s a girl to do?
Strength and determination help pave the way for the future. And, as she approaches her graduation, she is faced with a difficult decision: should she leave Los Angeles and leave behind her family, her home, and everything she’s known? Ever since she was born in the California barrio of Hawaiian Gardens, she’s always had to look over the fence, wondering what she’s been missing. Now she’s taking a flying leap over to see what’s beyond the little barrio. What’s beyond her family, her friends, and her past? What’s beyond the little nothing town, where dreams don’t exist? What’s beyond The Gardens? Is it life, love, a future? The story of Esperanza is finally concluded in this wildly entertaining and heart-warming sequel.
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Esperanza: A Latina Story
by Sandra C. Lopez
Genre: Teen Fiction
Page Count: 356
Add it to your Goodreads TBR!
Fourteen-year old Esperanza Ignacio could only think of a few words to sum up her life: Crap, crap, crap!
She was born into a poor Latino family living in a small, crummy apartment in the barrio side of town, where the graffiti chiseled more the souls and character of the residents than it impacted the exterior looks of the buildings. Her father was a drunk, gambler, and wife-beater who, one cold night, got arrested after a violent intrusion. Her entire circle of relatives consisted of nothing but formers-former drug-addicts, former gangsters and gang-bangers, former alcoholics, former everything. Yep, her life was nothing but a huge load of crap. And she hadn’t even started high school yet.
After surviving a scorching summer heat, Esperanza enters the unfamiliar world of high-school with a tight knot in her stomach. On the very first day, she is sucked into a blunder of catastrophic events beginning with accidentally running into the world’s BIGGEST bully. Now, she has made herself the prime target for a main course. And, to top it all off, she has to see this girl everyday in P.E! P.E., the one class Esperanza truly despises the most. Could life be any worse for her?
Well, her family could take in a relative hopped up on drugs, a probable shooting can take place right in front of her, and Esperanza could also sit and listen to the crazed ranting of her loud psychotic mother. Oh, wait, all that does happen. To make things even easier, her best friend, Carla, won’t stop trying to marry her off to her twin brother, Carlos. And she has these two puny siblings constantly vying for her attention. God, it’s a wonder she doesn’t strap herself in a straight jacket and pretend to be Elvis. Nonetheless, Esperanza attempts to get through it all.
She is a smart and ambitious young kid struggling to survive her life while fighting to make her mark on the world. Her story is filled with pain, strength, and too much loud bickering. It carries a voice enriched with barrio slang and sarcastic humor. Esperanza illustrates what persistent Latino youth can achieve when they get back up after a fall and keep on walking straight into college.
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Sandra C. López is one of today’s influential Latina authors in Young Adult literature. Her first novel, Esperanza: A Latina Story, was published in March 2008 WHILE she was still in college. Since then she has published several other books, including the Single Chicas series. She was named as one of “2011 Top Ten New Latino Authors to Watch” by Latino Stories, and her book, Beyond the Gardens, was a Silver Medal winner of the 2016 Global Ebook Awards in Multicultural Fiction and won first place in the Int’l Latino Book Awards. She also works as a freelance illustrator and graphic designer. Art, literature, and travel are her passions, and she aims to keep doing them as long as she can. For inquiries regarding events and projects, please contact her directly.
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Hi there just wanted to give you a quick heads up.
The words in your article seem to be running off the screen in Opera.
I’m not sure if this is a format issue or something
to do with internet browser compatibility but I figured I’d post to let
you know. The design and style look great though!
Hope you get the problem solved soon. Thanks
Thanks for the heads up. I downloaded the latest version of Opera to test and I’m not seeing that issue. I was flipping different options on and off recently trying to find what was causing a different issue I was having, so it’s possible you happened to visit during that. If you’re still seeing that error, it’s possible your browser is using archived HTML to display pages. You should be seeing the layout that features a bookshelf with horses on it in the header banner, which has an orange background, and only one side column on the right once you scroll past the header.
Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to
make your point. You definitely know what youre talking about,
why waste your intelligence on just posting videos to your blog when you could be giving us something informative to
read?
Here is my web page … Happy Honey Cream Cost
I appreciate the feedback, but this was a social media blitz feature on a tour that I was auto-added to as a “post the blurb and share” participant. I did not receive a review copy and have not read this book. The “about the book” blurb was provided, and likely matches exactly with the synopsis on Goodreads. If you would like to read my actual thoughts and anylsis on books, look for posts marked as reviews or tags.