Book Review: The Patience Trilogy

Courage in Patience
Beth Fehlbaum
(The Patience Trilogy #1)
Publication date: March 29th 2016
Genres: Contemporary, Young Adult

Courage to endure.

Courage to survive.

Courage to overcome.

Tenacious 14-year-old Ashley Asher claws her way back to normalcy after enduring six years of an unimaginable Hell. Uprooted from her negligent and selfish mother, Ashley finds solace in the safety of her father’s home. Building a relationship with her stepmother, she’s finally able to open up and confront the past that haunts her.

With the help of her stepmom, therapist, and a group of troubled adolescents, Ashley battles her demons, struggling to find the normal teenage life she’s always wanted. Can Ashley find the strength and courage to overcome the horrors of her past while fighting for the future she so deserves?

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The complete trilogy:

My Review:

A Rollercoaster of feelings….

 This is how I would classify this series. Ash has been through more than any child or teenager should experience. As a consequence, she is very traumatized emotionally and has a difficult time getting over everything that happened with her stepfather. Her mother and grandparents does not believe her so this is in no way help to her recovery. Having a real family around sure counts, but she has issues integrating, with all the help her real father and her stepmother are offering.

 But the series is not extraordinary only because of this. There are multiple issues (like racism, homosexuality, friendship, trust, love, forgiveness) that can be analyzed. The relationship between teachers and students is also very well analyzed and illustrated from various points of view: the teacher concerned by the well-being of the students, the one obsessed with his teachings and the teacher parent. I do believe these aspects provide very complex and detailed picture of a teenager’s life, traumatized or not.

 There are a lot of issues that can be discussed about the books. I loved all three of them and I believe they are interesting, not only from the main character’s perspective. The way the author managed to combine sexual abuse with other social aspects left me wordless! I would like to congratulate Beth Fehlbaum for this amazing trilogy. The way the feelings were reflected and transmitted to the reader impressed me! This is a story I would gladly read again!

 

Author Bio:

In addition to writing Young Adult Contemporary Fiction, Beth Fehlbaum is a high school English-Language Arts teacher who frequently draws on her experience as an educator to write her books. She has a B.A. in English, Minor in Secondary Education, and an M.Ed. in Reading.

Beth is a featured author on the 2015-2016 Spirit of Texas Reading List- High School for the Kirkus Starred Reviewed Big Fat Disaster (Merit Press/F+W Media, March 2014) and The Patience Trilogy: Courage (1), Hope (2), and Truth (3) (Steady On Books, April 2016).

Beth is a member of the RAINN (Rape , Abuse, Incest National Network) Speakers’ Bureau. She has a following in the young adult literature world and also among survivors of sexual abuse because of her work with victims’ advocacy groups.

She has been the keynote speaker at the National Crime Victims’ Week Commemoration Ceremony at the Hall of State in Dallas, Texas and a presenter for Greater Texas Community Partners, where she addressed a group of social workers and foster children on the subject of “Hope.”

Beth is in-demand as a panelist, having presented/appeared at the Texas Library Association Annual Conference, the American Library Association’s annual conference, YALSA, and N.C.T.E./ALAN, and she is a member of The Author’s Guild.

She is a survivor of a traumatic childhood, like Ashley in The Patience Trilogy, and the day-to-day manager of an eating disorder much like Colby’s in Big Fat Disaster. These life experiences give her a unique perspective, and she writes her characters’ stories in a way meant to inspire hope.

Beth lives with her family in the woods of East Texas.

You can find Beth online at http:www.bethfehlbaumbooks.com, http://www.uncommonya.com, on Facebook, and on https://twitter.com/bethfehlbaum.

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