Ellis Island - Giveaway and Review

All of us dream someday to find the perfect person to marry. Sometimes we find that person in our very best friend we have grown up with. Now much older we see them in a different light. Once just someone who we would climb trees with, scour the land for small animals and even walk us home from school, now they have matured into something much more. We shared a friendship and a love that isn't known until you find it in your best friend like John Hogan and Ellie Flaherty.

Ellie's spent her childhood growing up under her father's watchful eye being the priest of the village in which they lived. Living a life that he considers proper he wants only the best ethical life for Ellie, however when Ellie sees fit to fall in love with John and runs away to get married, it will create a dividing line for Ellie between her and her family.

Now living with John struggling to make ends meet in a run down college in the midst of war between the Irish and the British, Ellie worries that John efforts in helping out in the war will be their undoing. When he is wounded and can no longer walk, Ellie fears that now they will wind up poor since John can no longer work.

Receiving hope in the form of a letter from her friend from school, Shelia offers Ellie hope in working in America for a rich lady in need of help. Seeing an opportunity to help John with paying for an expensive surgery to make him walk again, Ellie sees no choice but to head to America long enough to make John well again.

In the novel Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan we see the difficult choices that people had to make in living their homelands in hopes of coming to America for a better life. What some find here isn't the land of dreams being fulfilled while others are seeing that and so much more than they ever thought possible. Ellie will be faced to make a choice to return to her life with John with all his letters pleading for her to return, or see the possibilities for them all to come to America and make it in a land of hopes and dreams.

I received this book compliments of TLC Book Tours and Harper Collins publishers for my honest review. I LOVED how open and honest this story is of the struggle of leaving home for the possibility of something better like so many emigrants did back in the 1900's. While the work is hard at first many find their efforts worth it when little by little they see the prosperity just waiting for those willing to work hard for it. This book rates a 4.5 out of 5 stars. It does contain some profanity that may offend readers but since my goal is to provide an honest review, I must disclose this.

For more information about this book, the author and where to purchase a copy of this book, please click on the link below:

Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan

You can also find more by visiting Kate's website by clicking here.

Thanks to the generosity of TLC Book Tours, they are offering a copy of this book as a giveaway for those following my blog. Here are the guidelines to enter.

1. Be a follower of my blog, Reviews From The Heart.

2. Be a resident of the US or have a US shipping address.

3. Please include your email with you comment as I need a way to contact you if you are the lucky winner. You can use the words (at) or (dot) instead of the symbols.

4. Leave a comment and let me know why'd you love to win a copy of this book. The giveaway will end on July 14th. I will notify the winner by email.