Review of Kalayla

[Jayme Rich]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Kalayla" by Jeannie Nicholas.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Kalayla by Jeannie Nicholas is a story about three ladies of different generations navigating through their complicated lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Lena, a seventy-two-year-old widow, and Kalayla, an eleven-year-old girl, form a unique bond that changes them both for the better. Kalayla’s mom, Maureen, finds comfort in leaning on Lena for advice and companionship as she finds her way as a single mom to a strong-willed child after her husband unexpectedly passed away in an auto accident.

Lena’s lifestyle before Kalayla could be described as bleak and lonely. After the passing of her twins and abusive ex-husband, Lena decided to stay to herself and submerge herself into the business world to forget her past for the majority of her life. Then an intriguing, loud-mouthed preteen started worming her way into Lena’s heart, unknowingly to both of them the depth their relationship would have. Lena helps to keep Kalayla out of trouble while her mother, Maureen, is busy working. Kalayla slowly starts to transition and grow into a young woman with Lena and her surrounding community’s help, while she helps Lena learn how to open herself up to the world again. Maureen was a broken mother who learned to accept her past and move forward with her life, thanks to the people around her.

The author’s use of shifting perspectives made it easier to comprehend the story-line of the book and allowed the author to go into more detail per character. You get to experience not only how the outside world sees that character, but how the character sees themselves and their life experiences.

There is nothing negative that I can say about this book. Both the plot and the characters are well written. This book touches upon many different themes, such as race, discrimination, domestic violence, forgiveness, and love. Kalayla also addressed many social issues that are applicable in today’s society, making it a very relatable book.

I would suggest younger readers and individuals that are easily triggered by abuse or discrimination stray from this book as it has an attempted physical abuse scene, many instances of discrimination, and several swear words. I would recommend this book to mature audiences who are interested in strong female leads, women helping women, and family drama.

I would rate this book as four out of four stars as it was very well written with no grammatical errors. I did not want this book to end! I thoroughly enjoyed reading Kalayla by Jeannie Nicholas!

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Kalayla
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