The Battered Heiress Blues has already been optioned for a feature film. This is a book that will be great as a movie, maybe even better. It all depends on which angles of the story are played up.
The title of the book is very appropriate. The book is about a woman’s blues, and by the time you read a few pages, these blues will be transferred to you. This is the kind of book where you feel the pain of the character, and maybe relive some pain from your own life. So it’s certainly not the ticket if you’re looking for feel good reading.
Julia Spencer, or Jewels as she is called by her friends, is a shattered woman. She comes from old Southern money. You only realize how much money as you read through the book. Having lost her mother in child birth at a young age, Julia and her brother have pretty much been abandoned by their father. Father is busy making millions while Julia nurses her grief, goes to Harvard and gets a law degree. Baby brother is married to the church. Julia is shunned again when her father refuses to take her into the business in an active role. And it hurts more that her boyfriend Henry is taken on as her father’s protégé for a price.
Years pass. Julia marries, is pregnant, and is deceived by husband. She flees to Peru to work for the Mission and loses her child in a knife attack. Now she is back at the old plantation house, once again trying to overcome her grief.
The local sheriff has a son with special needs. Julia bonds with them and starts spending more time with them. She faces a few more setbacks through friend Henry and his sister. Will Julia find new purpose in her life, a reason to live that can overcome her sad life?
This is a tale of redemption, if I ever read one. Some of Julia’s problems or issues seem ‘rich’. It is hard to relate with a person who gives away millions on a whim. There is an aura of gloom and sadness through the book. But the story is well written and has a few twists. At some point, you start wondering what the next bad thing will be in the story.
The Battered Heiress Blues is all about a heiress, and the trials and tribulations she goes through in life. There is hope for her, however, you will be glad to know.
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