Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Garden of Second Chances, by Mona Alvarado Frazier {ends 8/2}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

Xochitl and I finished cleaning the dayroom while the rest of the girls were locked in their cells for the night. We had five minutes alone before Ms. Montes finished her paperwork and sent us to our rooms. Eager to jot down my gardening plan,  I held my pencil over the back of one of my old worksheets.

“What were those words you used before?” I asked.

“Tell Mrs. Shaffer a garden can help inmates stay busy and out of trouble. The staff like to hear that kind of stuff. Say, the garden is ecological, good for the environment. Especially since we won’t use pesticides.”

“Those words are too big,” I said. “You write it down.”

“No, you need the practice. Write ‘organic vegetables and flowers help inmates gain skills,’” Xochitl said slowly. “What are we going to plant?”

“Let’s ask for tomatoes, chiles, some herbs, calabazas. Sunflowers, marigolds.” I recorded the names of the seeds and plants. “Those are easy to grow. We need a water hose and bucket too.”

Juana wants to do what is right for her baby, but it’s hard to do the right thing while navigating the crime she’s accused of and the sentence she’s serving in prison.

Official synopsis:

Juana's life has taken a dark turn. Accused of her husband’s death, she's now a seventeen-year-old mother, alone and undocumented in a prison cell. No one believes her when she claims she's innocent, not even the prison staff or the gang leader in her block who torments her relentlessly. 

Her only solace is in her baby, but as Juana struggles to survive the dangers lurking in prison, the threat outside grows even more terrifying. Her husband's furious family wants to take the child away. 

With no hope in sight, Juana discovers a glimmer of light in a small patch of earth in the prison yard. As she nurtures the plants, memories of her mother's strength and resilience surface, pushing Juana to fight for her freedom and her daughter's future. This is a story of courage, hope, and determination in the face of impossible odds. 

Juana Ivanov seems to have all the cards stacked against her. She barely speaks English. Her father wants nothing to do with her. Her mother-in-law never liked her, and now her husband is dead and everyone has decided she did it. While she knows she didn’t, she has no knowledge of how to prove otherwise, or how to even tell the people who matter.

Luckily she makes friends with another prisoner who is literally incarcerated on charges that she assaulted a police officer during a protest for immigrants’ rights. If anyone gets it, Xochitl does.

Together, they try to navigate finding out the truth about Juana’s husband’s death, while also making it through their time behind bars alive. Prison rules and the other prisoner’s gang rules are often two very different lists of things they can and cannot do without repercussions. 

Juana just wants to do what she can to be reunited with her baby and give them the best life together that she can. This touching story gets 3 out of 5 stars and would be recommended for those who appreciate stories about teens and shows or books like Orange is the New Black.

{click here to purchase from Amazon}

Becki Bayley is a wife and mom to a 16-year-old and an 11-year-old. Their busy household is rounded out by two black cats who are sisters. See more of their life on Instagram where Becki posts as PoshBecki.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of The Garden of Second Chances!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Wednesday, August 2nd, at 11:59pm EST, and winner will be contacted via email the next day, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!