Written by Denise Turney
Book Summary
Author: Patsy T. Moore
ISBN: 11-4241-2122-1
Publisher: Publish America
Available: www.publishamerica.com
The events that happen to the wife and mother in Tobacco Stains are, at times, so intensely painful and shocking, it is amazing that the book is based on real life experiences.
In fact, the book tells the life story of the same woman it is dedicated to. That woman is Dora Barnett Moore. She is a woman who endured years of hard abuse at the hands of her first husband, a man she knew early on she should not have married.
When Dora contacts her mother and reveals to her the facts of her newly married life, her mother gives her these sharp words, “I told you that if you make your bed, you have to sleep in it.”
The words would haunt the young Dora Barnett for years. She would use the words to convince herself that she was stuck in an unrewarding relationship, that she was prisoner to a mistake she made early in her life’s journey. After reading the book I came away feeling that it was this belief in the words, that gave the words their power and imprisoned Dora, not the words themselves.
Tobacco Stains is riveting. {quotes}Straightaway it cuts deep to the core{/quotes}. I can only imagine the depth of courage it took the book’s author to pen the story. The scenes are so vivid, the reader feels a part of the story, as if they are one of the book’s characters – the mother, the husband, a neighbor, or one of the children perhaps. Tobacco Stains is written with clarity, honesty and heart. The book accurately portrays a mother’s fight and will to protect her growing children. Sadly, by the book’s end, it is this same fight and will the mother will need to steel herself against hard mistakes her children make as adults. Seldom have I read a book so moving.
Tobacco Stains demanded my attention from the first page. I could not put this book down. It was an eye opening, a powerful and revealing read.
The book’s one sizable area with room for great improvement is the sentence structure used throughout the story. Some sentences ran on absent grammatical pauses or endings. A few times characters were introduced by their nicknames then later referred to by their birth name which at times confused me and caused me to wonder who was being written about.
Yet, the strength of the story packs such a wallop that I came away deeply moved after having read Tobacco Stains. In fact, I think with improvements to the sentence structure, something an effective editor could readily fix, Tobacco Stains would be an excellent book to be used in education centers, shelters and organizations that offer help to women and men involved in abusive relationships and their teenage and adult children. Anyone involved in or thinking of dating an abuser, would be blessed to read Tobacco Stains. It could save a life.
