One Pink Line by Dina Silver
Published by Amazon Publishing
Publish Date: October 20, 2011
261 Pages
Source: Book – Kindle purchase,
Published by Amazon Publishing
Publish Date: October 20, 2011
261 Pages
Source: Book – Kindle purchase,
Can the love of a lifetime be forever changed by one pink line? Dina Silver’s tender, absorbing novel, One Pink Line, is a warmhearted, wry story of love, loss and family, as seen through the prism of one singular, spirited young couple who find themselves in a predicament that changes the course of their lives, and those closest to them. With heart, humor and compassion, this debut work of women’s fiction is certain to stir anyone who relishes a good laugh, can stand a good cry, and, above all believes in the redemptive power of love.
This unique, contemporary story gives readers a dual perspective. Sydney Shephard, a sweet-tempered, strong-natured college senior is young, in love with an exceptional man, and unexpectedly pregnant. Faced with a child she never planned for, she is forced to relay this news to her neurotic mother, relinquish her youth, and risk losing the love of her life. Then there’s Grace, a daughter, who believed she was a product of this great love, grows to realize her existence is not what she assumed, and is left with profound and puzzling questions about who she really is.
Spanning generations and every imaginable emotion, One Pink Line reveals how two points of view can be dramatically at odds, and perhaps ultimately reconciled. Simultaneously deeply felt and lighthearted, One Pink Line deftly mines how the choices we make are able to alter so many lives, and how doing the right thing and living honestly can bring unexpected, hard-won happiness. It’s a must-read for anyone who craves a great love story, absorbing characters, and plenty of laughs along the way. -(summary from Goodreads)
This unique, contemporary story gives readers a dual perspective. Sydney Shephard, a sweet-tempered, strong-natured college senior is young, in love with an exceptional man, and unexpectedly pregnant. Faced with a child she never planned for, she is forced to relay this news to her neurotic mother, relinquish her youth, and risk losing the love of her life. Then there’s Grace, a daughter, who believed she was a product of this great love, grows to realize her existence is not what she assumed, and is left with profound and puzzling questions about who she really is.
Spanning generations and every imaginable emotion, One Pink Line reveals how two points of view can be dramatically at odds, and perhaps ultimately reconciled. Simultaneously deeply felt and lighthearted, One Pink Line deftly mines how the choices we make are able to alter so many lives, and how doing the right thing and living honestly can bring unexpected, hard-won happiness. It’s a must-read for anyone who craves a great love story, absorbing characters, and plenty of laughs along the way. -(summary from Goodreads)
One Pink Line by Dina Silver
My Thoughts: I recently read Finding Bliss by Dina Silver and really enjoyed it, to the extent that I immediately sought out more of her work. I found One Pink Line, did the ole’ Kindle one-click that I love so much, and saw that the audiobook was on sale as well. Score! So One Pink Line is one of those books that I listened to while reading along and you guys, I just loved it. After two books by Author Dina Silver, I feel safe in saying that I’m a solid fan of her work.
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One Pink Line by Dina Silver is a book that read like two stories – two stories that were intertwined for most of the book but eventually found a converging point. We have Sydney’s story and we have Grace’s story. One is in the past; one is in the present.
Sydney is one of the female leads that we follow from a young age until adulthood. We see her in love with her boyfriend, Ethan, from high school all the way throughout the book. Their relationship is cute and precious, and my heart followed their ups and downs, even as they took their relationship into a long-distance status while attending college. Nearing the end of her college career, Sydney encounters a life-altering challenge when something happens – a poor choice, a bad decision, whatever you want to call it – and she finds herself pregnant. The father of her child is a friend who, upon finding out about the baby, decides he wants no part of the pregnancy nor the child’s life, and walks away from Sydney and the baby for good. Of course, by this point, I was completely invested in Sydney and her life, so I was very emotional as she had to:
- face the consequences of this one-life-altering-choice, this one moment in time
- tell her mother, who was never the supportive and loving mother that she had really and truly needed
- tell Ethan, the man she was in love with and had been for years – oh how this crushed me
- live with her decision to keep the child and the constant opinions and judgments of various other people
- figure out exactly who the people were in her life that she could count on not to judge her but to lift her up, encourage her, motivate her, and love her despite the choices she made in her past
Sydney had a tough time throughout her pregnancy being alone in a big city, doing everything basically by herself – but she graduated, found a job, and a tiny apartment. Life was tough (oh, so tough to read) but she did the best she could and I had so much respect for her as a character. Throughout everything, Ethan – sweet, wonderful Ethan – remained close to her despite still being far away in another city. He was not her boyfriend anymore – Sydney’s own shame and self-inflicted guilt caused her to hold him a little further away than either of them would’ve liked – but he was always there. He visited often, brought her things, and spent so much time with her and with the baby. Ethan grew to love the child, which was so sweet to read! When life threw lemons – I mean, BIG HUGE LEMONS – he was there, and they got through things together. When life had joys, he was there for those too.
Then there was Grace’s story – Grace’s story followed a much smaller timeline. She was young when her story began and not much older at the end of the book. Grace had grown up with her mother, who adored her, and her father, who adored her. She had a brother that annoyed her (naturally) and life was good. The heartbreaking point of Grace’s story is when she accidentally realizes that the father that she grew up with isn’t her biological father, and good gracious, talk about heartbreak city at their house. Tons of emotions from Grace and her mother and of course, her father – the one that raised her. Then we get to read about Grace wanting to meet her biological father and how her mother tries to convince her that it isn’t such a great idea. The ups and downs of Grace’s POV is a really well-crafted story-line to balance out the serious side of Sydney’s story and I appreciated that.
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Okay, so what you may have figured out by now is that Grace is Sydney’s daughter. So these two stories are taking place at two different periods in time. One is the story of how Grace came to be, and the other is the story of Grace wanting desperately to figure out how she came to be. Both are two very different points of view of sorta/kinda the same thing, and it is really a wonderful thing to be able to read both perspectives.
Sydney is a strong and courageous character, but for all of her fierce determination to carry her child, have the baby, and make a life for herself – she’s completely vulnerable too. While we get to see her hold her chin up and her shoulders high, we also get to see her exhausted sometimes, and sometimes she breaks down and cries. I absolutely love characters that aren’t afraid to be imperfect. Thankfully Sydney has a very strong support system of wonderfully constructed secondary characters that are all developed and easy to love (except for the father of the baby, who is a royal, class-A jerk). Sydney is independent (as much as she can be) but she’s not afraid to take help when it is offered – this is such an important thing in life, so I’m glad that the author chose to write this into this character. I can understand why Ethan loves Sydney so much because I love her (just not in the same way) and I love how her story completes itself at the end of the book in her POV.
Grace is a smart girl – vibrant and headstrong. These are traits that she learned from her mother and her father. She’s always been comfortable in her own skin, but when she learns that she isn’t cut from the cloth of the two parents that have raised her, she has a yearning that most of us don’t really understand – she feels the desperate need to know where she came from. Even after she finds out that her father had no desire to be a part of her life, she still feels like she needs to see him, to talk to him, just to be close to him at least one time. She has to know, to try. (I can only understand this – to a degree – because of a family member that I am close to that went through a very similar situation. I understood Grace’s persistence in seeking out her “real” dad.) This persistence, though, caused her to act out at various times throughout the story, and while I didn’t like the behavior of this younger Grace, I can certainly understand the emotional instability of an underdeveloped adolescent. I loved Grace and felt for her. And I loved where the story took her by the time it ended in her POV.
In the parts of the story that were Grace’s POV, Sydney had grown to be such a wonderful mother – she had used her own mother’s example from her childhood to determine what type of parent she wanted to become. So awesome to see!
As I was reading/listening, I admit that I loved the book the entire way through – but it wasn’t until I was completely finished and pondering the story for a while that I realized a few things and how some of the parts were interconnected. Author Dina Silver weaved this story together so well; it felt seamless. I have to admit that even as I bought this story, the idea of reading it made me feel a little bit worried: would it be too heavy, this book about pregnancy and single motherhood, etc? But really, even though the topics and issues addressed in the book are serious issues, there is so much positive in it and even some humor to balance it out, and the author did a great job of never making me feel bogged down with the weight of this story. I’m certain that this was at least in part due to the alternating points-of-view – changing up between Sydney and Grace every few pages kept the story moving, flowing well at a great pace that didn’t sit heavy in my heart and mind. I loved the structure. And I’ve mentioned that I love the secondary characters – they’re all vibrant and fun (except that one awful father-of-the-baby!).
Audiobook Notes: The audiobook format of One Pink Line by Dina Silver is published by Brilliance Audio and is 7 hours, 11 minutes, Unabridged. It is narrated by Amy McFadden and Cristina Panfilio, both of whom are experienced narrators. Each of these women did a great job at reading their parts and making the emotions (lots of them!) behind all of the characters believable and at times, palpable. Their voices sound smooth and soothing, and even similar, which was actually kind of neat because Sydney and Grace are mother and daughter. I would not hesitate to listen to audiobooks voiced by either of these narrators again.
Ultimately, One Pink Line is a great adult contemporary book that also straddles the line and reaches into the new adult contemporary category. Because Sydney grows up and spends time in so many parts of her life, I feel like there is crossover appeal between mature young adults and adults as well. There is romance in this book too, and it is lovely although it is also heartbreaking at times. Don’t worry though, friends, this one is a HEA, and I’m super-happy that I read it. I recommend One Pink Line to fans of New Adult and Adult Contemporary with romance and issues, and fans of books with a college setting.
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One Pink Line will appeal to fans of:
New Adult/Adult Contemporary Romance
with issues.
Romance: No triangle.
Alternating POV’s.
Romance: No triangle.
Alternating POV’s.
No worries, HEA.
One Pink Line by Dina Silver
is currently available for purchase.
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About Asheley
Asheley is a Southern girl. She loves Carolina blue skies, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and NC craft beer. She loves all things history but prefers books over everything.
You can find her somewhere in North Carolina, daydreaming about the ocean.
Find Asheley on Litsy @intothehallofbooks!
I want. I WANT I WANT I WANT! Usually I don't feel this way with most adult reviews, but wow, this sounds amazing! I can imagine how emotional some of the scenes will be and I agree, I love a character who isn't afraid to be imperfect. I love the dual narrative of it and the narrators sound amazing as well. Thanks for sharing it, amazing review, Asheley!
This is an interesting book because I think it really straddles the line between adult and new adult – it's SO GOOD with the dual perspectives and how the two storylines converge finally. Such a great story – I initially was worried that it might be too heavy but it really wasn't. I think you'll like it!
This book sounds AMAZING. I love dual storylines that meet up and converge–love them. And even though this sounds kinda gut wrenching it also seems really rewarding at the same time:)
And parts of it remind me of Sugar Daddy, the L. Kleypas book I have been going on and on about to you ad nauseum, my sincere apologies- so again, I think you are going to like that one too. I swear I really am not trying to shove my agenda on you in this comment, Ash;)
I need to check out this author–she's completely new to me. Thanks for putting her on my radar!
You know, there was a little bit of gut-wrenching, but the well-placed breaks in the POV's made it so that my gut stayed pretty intact and it never became too heavy or too hard to read. I liked the structure and how well Dina Silver managed to convey her story without breaking me down with what could have been a really tough topic. It was well done.
I promise, I'm gonna read the Kleypas books. I've put the three Travis books in my "Remember Me" list on the library website! Soon!
Oh yeah, this author has another book I've recently read, Finding Bliss, and I really enjoyed that one as well. I think I liked this one a little better. She has one other out that I haven't gotten to yet but I will eventually! I think she's one that I'll be watching for sure.