REVIEWS OF 'THE DONOR':
LaDonna's review (on Goodreads)
Oct 22, 2015
5 of 5 stars
bookshelves: arr, blog, backstage-books, rockstar-romance
Read in October, 2015
The author provided me an ARC of this book for a honest review and to see if I felt it fit the criteria for "rockstar romance" for a blog I run dedicated to that genre. I felt it did, though it isn't your typical rockstar romance. This book will take you on an emotional rollercoaster, and admittedly most of those emotions will be of the darker kind.
Once upon a time, Clare is very close to her older sister Izzy, and adores/idolized her in that way that only little sisters can. As a very naïve young woman in 1970, Clare goes to a big rock festival. This American reader could really only tie it to the endless stories of Woodstock I have heard, being just slightly younger than that generation, but I realize festivals of the like were going on across the pond as well. Anyway, that is the picture I have in my mind of the festival she attended, and at the end of several days, Clare has lost her friends and is dirty, exhausted, hungry and broke. An Adonis of a man steps in and offers her an apple, and companionship back home. He is quite fond of the waif, and calls upon her to date whilst he is determined to make it in his band. He puts up with the obvious dislike of her father, and her virginal antics. She has quickly fallen in love with him, and he is quite smitten with her as well, until one night her sister decides to join them for one of his gigs.
To Ross' credit, he never had any intention of hurting Clare, but when he met Izzy, the stars aligned and he knew he had met his soulmate. Likewise, Izzy had never meant to upset her sister, but who can deny true love. No one expected Clare to be as hurt as she was, or to hold a grudge for so long.
Life goes on as it is apt to do; tragedies, joys, and all the other little moments that make up a life pass by. Ross' band hits the big time very quickly, as well as Izzy's first pregnancy and their marriage. Clare refuses to have anything to do with any of it, hanging on to hatred for her sister for having the life she was sure was destined to be hers. Clare does go on to marry a perfectly suitable man, has 2 children with him, and by all accounts a pretty nice life with him. She tells him early on that she has an irreparable rift with her sister, but never tells him the reason why.
Izzy has always tried to keep tabs on her sister but Clare simply has not allowed it, even turning away when they once ran into one another and Izzy tried to introduce her to her niece. 30 years go by, and tragedy forces Izzy to contact Clare. Clare's husband reads the note and encourages Clare to acknowledge Izzy's plea, but Clare tears up the letter and ignores it. Not until Ross arrives at her door does she consider listening and doing what her sister needs. Here is where the story really came together for me. The senselessness of hate and holding on to a grudge, not to mention basically a teenage dream, for all those years, to finally realized how quickly life passes us by and how many precious moments simply cannot ever be replaced. There are so many unexpected twists and turns after Ross arrives, and so much depth to the amount of lives touched by this rift that seems so silly in retrospect. This story touched me on so many levels, and I hope that you will give it a chance to soak into your heart and mind as well.
Very highly recommended for anyone that realizes life doesn't always hand us a happily ever after, at least not in the way we think it should.
**********************************************************************************************
Review by Michael Phelps on 14/1/16
5 stars
AUTHOR STEVIE TURNER is a Novelist from across the pond, Great Britain. This is my first read of her lengthy list of novels. Now, I am excited to read everything she has written.
In THE DONOR, Ms. Turner has crafted a novel with characters so well developed, you instantly visualize their personalities and feel as if you really know them as living human beings. Her writing style is unique. I have been reading for well over sixty years and must confess I have never read any book that is outside the “first person” or “third person” point of view. I am quite impressed in that Ms. Turner has written “THE DONOR” with each individual character’s “point of view”. In this novel, you read the innermost thoughts of each of the characters from their “individual points of view”. I was amazed at how Ms. Turner could switch between her characters to pen a very touching novel.
“THE DONOR” opens in 1970 with the end of a Band Festival, sort of a British version of America’s infamous “Woodstock” of 1969. The reader is introduced to “Claire Ronson”, who at almost 19 had secreted away three days earlier to attend the festival, unbeknownst to her father, a doctor. On her way to the ferryboat, she meets a handsome young man, “Ross Tyler” and they spend several hours together. Claire has fallen in love. Ross invites Claire to a local Pub where his band will be playing the following Saturday. Claire accepts, knowing her father will never approve of Ross. Claire has a sister “Izzy” (Isabel), who is enrolled in Medical College. She tells her sister Izzy all about Ross and when she learns Izzy has “broken-up” with her boyfriend Jeff, invites Izzy to join her at the Pub. Events unfold from there taking the reader through the next three decades with many incidents which tears her family apart. The ending will blow your mind! “THE DONOR” is a love story that has all the characters intertwined and reading how each character views the evolving events in “real time” is unique
and makes “THE DONOR” one of the BEST novels I have read in the past eighteen months. I LOVED it!
I give this novel FIVE STARS, more if it were allowed. I highly recommend it. Ms. Turner is a true professional.
Now, I will purchase every novel this extremely talented Author has written. A list of her novels appears in the beginning of “THE DONOR”.
**********************************************************************************************
by Stevie Turner (Goodreads Author)
Julie's review
Jan 16, 2016
5 stars
It was amazing!
From the word go this book grabbed my attention and kept it to the very end.
This was a book I could not put down and I read it in 3 hours.
The characters were profoundly flawed and that only added to the realism of the story, the relationships between them all are bittersweet yet heartwarming.
It's a story of one family who suffer because of one betrayal then as the story progresses you find that there was more betrayal that has happened in the past, it was so well written that I could see myself being one or another of the characters and put myself In their shoes at time I found myself rooting for one character then in the next chapter I was rooting for another and wishing I could grab the and shake them and tell them not to be so prideful and explain to them all they would lose out on.
In the second half of the story the main two characters find themselves reunited in the darkest of circumstances and they have to find a way to get through it all together and that leaves them both reeling! The final heart-breaking chapters moved me from disbelief to tears some of joy some of sadness, and it's a credit to the author that she was able to convey these emotions with the telling of this fabulous story.
**********************************************************************************************
Review by Paliden from the OnlineBookClub
24/1/16
4 out of 4
This is my review of The Donor by Stevie Turner
The Donor starts out with a young girl at a concert. Clare is exhausted and desperate to leave when fate intervenes. She meets Ross, whom she compares to Adonis, such is his beauty. Clare knows immediately that she has fallen in love with Ross but knows that her family will not approve. Accordingly, she keeps their relationship secret for as long as she can. But then, Izzy comes on the scene. Izzy is Clare's older, more worldly sister. One day, when Ross comes over to pick up Clare, Izzy happens to be there. As soon as their eyes meet, both of them know that the pull between them is too strong to ignore. Izzy and Ross begin a clandestine romance with Clare as of yet unaware of it all.
When she finds out what is going on, Clare disowns her sister and refuses to even speak of her. Years later, something horrible happens and Clare must decide if she can accept the past and move on, or if it is too late for anything good to come out of it.
This book is very good. It changes point of view frequently. It is different in that regard. Usually, when a book changes POV, it does so between 2 or 3 people. This book changes between all of the important characters which makes for a very interesting read. At first, I wasn't sure that I liked the way it was written, but the more I read, the more I enjoyed it. There was a lot of thought that went in to the writing in this book. I was very impressed with the little things, like the fact that Izzy uses Latin and medical terminology in her thoughts. Being that she was a medical student, this made perfect sense. By the end of the book, the characters were very real to me.
In many ways, I was saddened by the ending. I don't want to say more as it will spoil the book. I felt that Clare didn't end up with the story that she should have gotten. But at the same time, I can say that it is a very “real” book. Sometimes, that is just the way life goes. I didn't like Ross at all. I felt like both Clare and Izzy could do so much better than him.
I enjoyed this book immensely. It wasn't what I thought it would be, but it was very enjoyable anyway. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys Danielle Steele or Nora Roberts. I can't really pinpoint what it is about this book that I enjoyed so much, as I was very saddened several times. I think that is part of what makes a great book. When you read something and it stays with you for a long time, that's when you know you are on to something good. When you find yourself thinking about different characters and what they should have done differently, and then realize that it has been days or weeks since you have read the book, that is when you know the author did an amazing job.
Belatedly, I would like to add that the editing and proofreading job done in this book was impeccable. Also, I forgot to mention this earlier but everything is written from an English perspective so take that into account when reading. Accordingly, I am giving The Donor 4 out of 4 stars. Kudos to Mrs Stevie Turner!
*********************************************************************************************
A FAMILY DRAMA, 10 Mar. 2016
****
By
This review is from: The Donor (Kindle Edition)
I've not read anything by this author before, nor do I normally read this type of story but I was interested enough by the synopsis to give it a go.
The story begins when Clare is still a teenager when she meets Ross who's a singer in a band. Clare is totally in love with Ross and eventually brings him home to me her family. Her father who's a doctor and very opinionated where his daughters are concerned takes an instant dislike to Ross whom he views a long haired layabout. Undaunted Clare is besotted with Ross and introduces him to her older sister Izzy who's back home for a break from medical school after a bad breakup with her boyfriend. Once Ross and Izzy meet all bets are off, Izzy is more vibrant sexually experienced and this leaves poor Clare out in the cold. When Clare finds out about her sister and Ross a family feud begins that lasts for over three decades.
This feels so realistic all the drama and jealousy and refusing to talk things out it was so believable. The chapters are from the various characters POV. Clare and Izzy's mother is desperate for her daughters to reconcile, her fathers animosity towards Ross increases as he blames him for the feud between his daughters, but the more successful Ross's band becomes the more entrenched Claire becomes with her hatred towards her sister and Ross. Christmas's, illness, even death cannot deter Clare from her anger and hatred. It's easy to dislike Izzy and Ross, while initially feeling sorry for Clare, but as the story unfolds my opinion changed the longer it went on it was such a waste of their lives.
**********************************************************************************************
A fractured family brought back together through fate By simharper@hotmail.com on 1 Nov. 2016
5*
Format: Kindle Edition
The Donor is the first book by Stevie Turner and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this book (completing it in just two days) It won't be my last.
Clare is a teenager, who on a journey home from a music festival meets her first love (a inspiring rock musician called Ross). She is completely mesmerised by him and falls head over heels. He too seems somewhat smitten by her. He promises that at the end of the week he will come to her home and take her to one of his gigs. This was in the 1970's before the age of mobile phones.
Clare is concerned about how her doctor father will react when he meets Ross (who in her father's eyes would be seen as nothing more than a waste of space).
Clare goes ahead and introduces Ross to her mother, father and older sister Izzy and here is when things fall apart.
Izzy is home from medical school for the holidays and is nursing a broken heart, this is quickly fixed when she meets the 'Greek Adonis' Ross. She quickly forgets her ex and starts to see Ross behind her sister's back. When her guilt gets the better of her she tells Clare.
So begins a thirty year family feud, that only ends when Izzy needs something from Clare that only she can give, they are reunited through this and Clare regrets the time she spent basically hating her sister and now sees the time they spent apart as a waste of time.
Thanks NetGalley and Patchwork Press for the chance to read this book in exchange of my honest opinion.
**********************************************************************************************
20th March 2018
Thanks to Jaye Marie and Anita Dawes for this review on their WordPress blog:
The Donor is the story of an ordinary family, before tragedy strikes and rips it apart. Two very different sisters become entrenched in a bitter feud, one with far-reaching consequences for all of their family.
I always think that the mark of a good read is how quickly you feel at home with both the location and the characters inside a book, and I had my feet under the table, so to speak, in no time at all!
This was the first book I have ever read where all of the characters speak directly to me, making me feel as if I were part of them, although it was an uncomfortable place to be when the arguments start.
Tragedy strikes more than once, building sorrow and tension in equal measure. The author handles these emotionally charged scenes with a unique and compelling touch, but you will need at least one box of tissues!
**********************************************************************************************