Until Lily: The First in a Trilogy (Volume 1) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)Are you looking to buy Until Lily: The First in a Trilogy (Volume 1)? Here is the right place to find the great deals. we can offer discounts of up to 90% on Until Lily: The First in a Trilogy (Volume 1). Check out the link below:

>> Click Here to See Compare Prices and Get the Best Offers

Until Lily: The First in a Trilogy (Volume 1) ReviewSome novels tempt you to want to live in a fantasy world, to keep the characters you have come to know and love alive. Women fall prey to romance novels, comparing their husband unfavorably to Prince Dashing, complaining when he doesn't read our mind like the Duke and sweep us off to a live of privilege and luxury. I wondered, then, why I was becoming so engrossed with a book about an acerbic old lady alone in a nursing home within the iron grip of the final stages of Parkinson's. It was the way author Sherry Boas described her adopted daughter Lily, I decided. Lily is a young woman with Down syndrome whom Bev had reluctantly agreed to raise when her sister Jen died of cancer after adopting her two siblings, and giving birth to Lily whose father she refused to disclose.
I never read a novel with a character with Down syndrome in it, and Ms Boas must have someone with Down syndrome in her life to write about her so vividly and with such appreciation of her childlike joy and limitless love.
But the compelling novels of the Lily Trilogy: Until Lily, Wherever Lily Goes, and Life Entwined with Lily had something more attracting me than merely an affinity for those with Down syndrome, something deeper. I read these books in an attempt to escape the sting of what I saw as my loved one's lack of appreciation for me. Entering into the world of a lonely old lady whose life was coming to an end, and then the lives of her adopted niece Terry and grandniece Beth in the subsequent books, I lost myself because of Ms Boas' exquisitely detailed characters were real, and I cared about what happened to them, whether Bev would die lonely and bitter, whether Terry would give up on her marriage with her handsome husband Jake who never picked up a tool around the house, whether Beth could open her broken heart and learn from Lily as her family did, that nothing matters in life more than giving and receiving love. I had to know what happened to them, and read these three books at a breathless pace, finding my heart unwillingly wrapped around another character while I was trying to find out what happened to another.
The characters in the Lily Trilogy are as real as your own family, and as flawed. Yet, there is a theme in these novels, a theme of redemption which starts faintly at first, as a thirty-something Lily walks her frail aunt down the nursing home corridors to patiently feed her meatloaf and mashed potatoes though she has long ago lost her sense of taste, Lily gives back the love Bev meted out to her her in tiny pinches, in unmeasured generosity she knows she doesn't deserve. But love changes Bev, and heals her. Not sweeping her away from the pain of losing control of her limbs, but helping her to see beyond this life, to an eternal love mirrored in the gentle touch of the soft hands of a young woman with Down syndrome.
The power of selfishness to destroy lives versus the power of self-giving love to restore hope is the overriding theme of this amazing story set in the future. Jarring as it was to see dates like 2066 written as dates in the past of the novel's characters, this is no science fiction book. It is a story about real people who resemble people around us, whose flaws hurt and whose love heals us, and the hope that turns despair into love though the power of innocence. The Lily Trilogy are the most Catholic of books in that that glory of the fullness of truth well lived and the devastating consequences of the Culture of Death are juxtaposed in stunning relief, and the novelist does very little preaching. The story tells it all, with profound relationships and moving symbolism.
These are the novels I want my daughters losing themselves in this summer. I want to sit outside with cups of tea in the summer twilight and talk about Lily, Beth, Pablo and Terry. Then, I want to pick up the books and visit them again. These books, after drawing me into their world, make me reflect on my own with appreciation and want to become the transformed Terry who sees the nobility in her husband she missed in 20 years as he moved across the country to care for her sister Lily. To make my home radiate with the joy of their renewed love. To take my precious nine year old daughter Christina in my arms and thank her for the joy she has brought to us, and not to fear what her adulthood will bring. Whether or not she lives independently, she, like Lily will be a blessing to whoever shares her life.
How many times can it be said that a novel makes you a more grateful, loving person who reenters life from the world of the novel to embrace the challenges which sent you running into the pages of the book in the first place?
Until Lily: The First in a Trilogy (Volume 1) OverviewBev Greeley could have never predicted that the burden she tried to cast off long ago would become her only source of joy in her final days. Until Lily is a moving book, rich in the universal struggles we all face, illuminated by Bev's contrite reflection on the life chosen for her -- a life filled with the strife, chaos, tragedy, laughter, deep meaning and redemption possible only when you hand yourself over to love. It's a tender and gritty story about the truths underlying the human condition and the inalienable value of every soul, even if it can do nothing more than love or be loved.

Want to learn more information about Until Lily: The First in a Trilogy (Volume 1)?

>> Click Here to See All Customer Reviews & Ratings Now