Mother of Pearl

Mother of Pearl is the debut novel of contemporary women's fiction author, Kellie Coates Gilbert.  Barrie Graeber, mother of two, is a high school counselor.  She deals with teen issues--AND a frustrating football coach on a daily basis, but when her daughter Pearl is betrayed by close friends, Barrie struggles with how to help her.  Pearl's behavior brings unthinkable consequences, and in the midst of dealing with that, Barrie learns the coach is much worse than she originally thought.

This is one of those novels that you come away thinking about the realities within the story, and I had to talk about it when it was over.  The plotline and extremely real characters evoked strong emotions.  Overall, Mother of Pearl is a incredible debut novel, and I am looking to more from Kellie Coates Gilbert.  She delivers an inspiring story while creating awareness about a sensitive issue--fantastic job!!

I'm going to do something new with this review and link to a couple of other posts about this book that I enjoyed reading.   The first is a heroine interview with Barrie Graeber on Margaret Daley's Blog.  I found it to be a fun and informative post!  The second is from Lena Nelson Dooley's blog: A Christian Writer's World.  She does author interviews and book giveaways, and this post gives great insight into author, Kellie Coates Gilbert.

I did receive a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.