So happy to welcome today’s special guest, Jo Elizabeth Pinto, who is sharing a review of her book, The Bright Side of Darkness. I know you folks will all enjoy reading and sharing this review far and wide. Thanks so much! 🙂 

REVIEW:

Fantastic read!!! Changed my opinion of reading!!
January 5, 2019 Format: Paperback
Verified Purchase

I cannot say enough about this book. It has changed this middle aged person’s view on reading for recreation and the power and excitement reading can bring to a person. I am a person who has struggled her whole life with ADD and reading skills, making picking up a book to just read a pretty disheartening experience most of the time. For the last 25 plus years, I have limited reading to work required materials only (or maybe something to help my daughter in school). When a very special person in my life suggested I pick up this book, I was very hesitant…another “have to” reading project.

I cannot believe how this book changed my opinion of the power of reading and the incredible picture of life the words could paint . I found myself looking forward to reading, thinking about the characters, being upset when I did not have time to read it and yearning to know how it ended and what would ultimately be the fate of the characters who had become my first literary friends. My mind was not wondering to anything else while I read. This author was able to describe the emotions and traits of these characters so deeply, bringing out both the good and bad in them as is true of all of us in real life. The characters were so real that I felt their pain, fear, hopelessness and ultimately their joy! The struggles seemed real and the outcomes seemed realistic, bringing me to moments of tears and laughter as I followed them in and out of the ebb or flow of their lives. She expresses her thoughts so clearly, and the details so brilliantly that I often thought these were real people in real neighborhoods for which she was just narrating their lives as they lived them.

Thank you very sincerely to this author for this positive and healthy experience with literature. Also thank you for so clearly and so very powerfully sharing the strength, courage and resilience of the human spirit, even when it seems to be against all odds. As a social worker, I have seen many things and worked with many people. I pride myself on kindness, persistence and empathy. But, this book allowed me to feel the characters struggles like they were my own, rather than walking beside those in their struggles as I have for many years.

This book will definitely not disappoint. What can I read next that will keep my excitement for reading alive?

BLURB:

What is a family?  For Rick Myers, a despondent seventeen-year-old who has just lost his parents in a car wreck, it’s the four teenage buddies he’s grown up with in a run-down apartment building.  Fast with their fists, flip with their mouths, and loyal to a fault, the “crew” is all he has.

At least, he thinks so until he meets Daisy, an intelligent, independent, self-assured blind girl.  Her guts in a world where she’s often painfully vulnerable intrigue Rick, and her hopeful outlook inspires him to begin believing in himself.

But when the dark side of Daisy’s past catches up with her, tragedy scatters the crew and severely tests Rick’s resolve to build his promising future.  Fortunately, his life is touched by a couple with a pay-it-forward attitude, forged out of their personal struggle with grief and loss.  Their support makes all the difference to Rick and eventually, through him, to the ones he holds most dear as they face their own challenges.  “The Bright Side of Darkness” is a story of redemption and the ultimate victory that comes from the determination of the human spirit.

Buy The Bright Side of Darkness HERE
The Paperback Version of The Bright Side of Darkness is also available on Barnes & Noble HERE

Author Jo Elizabeth Pinto

J. E. Pinto is a magnet for underdogs! Early in her married life, her home became a hangout for troubled neighborhood kids. This experience lit the flame for her first novel, The Bright Side of Darkness.

Pinto’s Spanish-American roots grow deep in the Rocky Mountains, dating back six generations. J. E. Pinto lives with her family in Colorado where she works as a writer and also proofreads textbooks and audio books. One of her favorite pastimes is taking a nature walk with her service dog.

The Bright Side of Darkness won a first place Indie Book Award for “First Novel over Eighty Thousand Words,” as well as First Place for “Inspirational Fiction.” The novel also won several awards from the Colorado Independent Publishers Association: First Place for “Inspirational Fiction,” Second Place for “Audio Book,” and First Place for “Literary and Contemporary Fiction.

Find J. E. Pinto on Social Media here:

Email: jopinto@msn.com.
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“Looking on the Bright Side” Blog
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Guest Posts on Parenting in the Dark
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