Title: Stay With Me
Author: Sandra Rodriguez Barron
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Publication Date: November 30, 2010
Paperback: 384 pages
ISBN: 978-0061650628
Genre: Fiction
In 1979, five toddlers were found alone in a luxury boat tied to a dock in Puerto Rico after a devastating hurricane. No one knew who they were or where they came from. Raised by different families, they remained connected by a special bond—always considering themselves siblings, despite their unknown blood relations.
Now adults, Taina, Holly, Adrian, and Raymond have been summoned by the fifth, David, to an island off the coast of Connecticut and the family home of David’s ex-girlfriend, Julia. But along with the joy of reuniting comes the exposure of raw places, jealousy, and childhood sorrows. Having been diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer—and experiencing flashbacks to the time before the hurricane—David believes that healing his relationship with Julia and discovering his origins will strengthen his ability to endure and survive. David pushes the people he loves the most to their emotional breaking points in order to uncover the truth about the mystery that both unites and divides them.
Intensely gripping and lyrically written, Stay with Me is a magnificent blend of romance, suspense, atmosphere, and intrigue that brilliantly explores the true meaning of family and the remarkable ways a personal history can paint a future.
My Review:
Family dynamics, drama, life challenges and the mystery of why these adults were left abandoned as toddlers on a ship in Puerto Rico are the main themes in Stay With Me by Sandra Rodriguez Barron. The reader is swiftly drawn into the lives of David, Taina, Holly, Adrian, and Raymond who were found together abandoned as mere toddlers, raised by separate families and yet consider themselves family. When tragedy strikes David, he begins having flashbacks and the reader is further drawn into the drama and intrigue around the lives of these five people. Barron uses beautiful, flowing prose, vivid imagery, and detailed and realistic characters to draw the reader into her multi-facetted book of family, whether blood-related or not, and the struggles each of the five have endured since their abandonment. Stay With Me is a beautiful story of love, mystery, family and interpersonal dynamics. The family reunion is wonderful, bittersweet, and at times quite filled with drama, memories, and fairly well executed. I truly enjoyed reading Stay With Me wanting to know what would be unearthed next, the stories and lives of David, Taina, Holly, Adrian and Raymond will stay with the reader long after the book has ended. I highly recommend Stay With Me to my readers.
Sandra Rodriguez Barron is the author of The Heiress of Water, winner of the International Latino Book Award for debut fiction. The recipient of a Bread Loaf Fellowship and a National Association of Latino Arts and Culture Grant, she was born in Puerto Rico, lived in the Dominican Republic and El Salvador, and now lives with her family in Connecticut.
To learn more about Sandra Rodriguez Barron please visit her website.
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I received a complimentary copy of Stay With Me by Sandra Rodriguez Barron from TLC Book Tours to be a part of this tour and offer my honest review of the book. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of aforementioned book.
Sounds good, I will add this to my wishlist!
Wonderful! Enjoy.
This sounds so good! I’m going to have to get this one!
Oh Yay! I do so hope you enjoy it.
Wow!! Another to add on my list to Santa! Have never read this author before so really looking forward to reading this.
I think you will truly enjoy it.
The plot of this book is so unique – I’m really looking forward to reading it to see how it all comes together. I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for being a part of the tour!