F6D181BA-60C4-4FB2-B22C-A47EF5FD6B7DWelcome to my stop on the Dragonfly Escaping blog tour sponsored by Suzy Approved Book Tours! Thank you to Suzy for the invitation!

About the Book:

DRAGONFLY ESCAPING is a tale of love, loss, heartbreak and healing which sweeps across two continents and three cultures. In it, Noor is a Hindu-Muslim half caste teen in India of 1980 who dreams of escaping the abuse and segregation that has robbed her innocence.

In 1982, Sergio Santander is a Peruvian diplomat in his mid-thirties who has his own demons to outrun, when he proposes to Noor.

Safe behind their facades, the couple has two infants before Sergio returns to Peru for a home posting. Here, their precarious balance is shattered by Sergio’s AIDS diagnosis.

Noor is barely coping with the reality avalanching on her young shoulders, when her in-laws tell her to leave her children behind and return to India “where she belongs.”

Furious, and more panicked by loss than ever in her life, Noor decides to fight back. But as alone as she is, can she win?

My Thoughts:

As you can tell from the synopsis, Noor has quite the emotional journey ahead of her. From growing up in India, never feeling like she belongs, to becoming a young mother in Peru where she later loses her husband to an illness at the time wrapped in stigma.

The resounding message throughout is to never, ever give up, and the powerful of the female spirit to keep going. Noor is resilient and forges her own path. Even when she has little support around her, she steps ahead. Her journey has a part two where her life continues after the death of her husband.

Overall, this is a lovingly told story of an incredibly strong character, and I was always hoping the best for her and her children.

I received a gifted copy.

About the Author:

Raya Khedker was only three years old when she received her first writing inspiration, watching her father tie a thread to a dragonfly’s tail in the garden of their Calcutta home, then handing her the ensemble to fly like a live kite. Too young to discern the cruelty of this practice, Raya flew those dragonflies, mesmerized by the beauty and iridescence of their gossamer wings shining like precious jewels under the Indian sun, delighted by how those magical dragonflies were always within her control. 

Decades later, those trapped dragonflies would become the heart of Raya’s debut novel, Dragonfly Escaping. Her biggest dream is to inspire women to recognize their untapped power, give it their all, and fulfill any goal they want. 

Armed with a B.A. in Spanish Honors and an M.A. in Teaching, Raya has worked as an interpreter, a translator, teacher, private tutor, jail guard, and a seasonal farm laborer on different continents. At present, when she isn’t writing, she interprets and translates for federal and state courts in Massachusetts and Connecticut. 

Have you read Dragonfly Escaping, or is it on your TBR? Happy Reading! ~ Jennifer THR