. Rumor Has It: Tour Stop! Review, Excerpt, Int Giveaway: Tangi's Teardrops

Confession time! Yeah, I’ve had a few of them. Back in January, Tangi’s Teardrops, popped up in my Amazon Kindle feed. I remember being in total awe of the cover. This beautiful child of color on the cover with a castle in the background and that was enough for me to download a copy. I didn’t even read the synopsis. Sadly, it took this tour to bump it up on my reading list. Regardless, I’m still in awe of this cover, I’m so happy to be participating in this blog tour and I’m so happy I read it!

Thank you to the Making Connections Blog Tour for allowing me to participate and although I had a kindle version, thank you to the author for providing me with an Epub format.

The Review

Tangi's Teardrops by Liz Grace Davis

Genre: YA

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Goodreads Says: When Tangi's father dies, he leaves her nothing but three empty bottles. A kind uncle takes the poverty-stricken girl and her stepsisters in, and for a time life gets better on his farm. But Tangi remains a lonely outsider; her stepsisters tease her for her crippled leg, and the housekeepers use her like a servant.

Just before her thirteenth birthday, Tangi learns the truth about her father's strange legacy: the three bottles aren't empty any more. They're filled with all the tears she's cried since her father died, and her tears are enchanted. She must use them to travel to Rosevine, the world of her dead mother. Tangi not only belongs there but is necessary to keep Rosevine alive.

Tangi's tears will save Rosevine, and Rosevine will save Tangi from a cruelty-filled life, except for one thing: Tangi's lost the bottles.

As I mentioned before I hadn’t read the synopsis. I just knew I wanted and had to read the book.

I’m not sure if the author meant for this book to be a re-telling of Cinderella, but right off, I made that connection.

Even with the Cinderella connection, the author did an incredible job in creating a very unique story. Predictable will never be a word I will use to describe this book. I was very impressed with how well developed this world and its characters were.

I loved the fact that it was set in Africa, making Tangi’s world even more interesting because in my world, anything African is exotic, interesting and desirable. (I LOVE AFRICA!) From the very beginning I found myself connected to Tangi. I felt Tangi’s angst, sadness, hope, and happiness throughout her story. The entire time I was rooting for her to find her “happily ever after”. To be able to invoke so many feelings in one book, without breaking stride, will always be a wonder and a plus for me. It’s something that not all authors know how to do well, yet this author pulled it off.

The writing was impressive and flowed exactly like a fairy tale yet was consistently modern. It's hard to explain the writing style but it carries a very different feel. It was soothing and it was like nothing I’ve ever read before.

Like a true fairy tale, this read is full of magic and within its pages you will find many lessons to be learned and very positive messages to walk away with. The author meant this read to be YA but I honestly think that this would be a wonderful read for people of all ages.

The Excerpt

It was hard to find an excerpt that would be new (not part of the synopsis) but non-spoiler-ish too. Having lived with Tangi for more than half the book, I found this excerpt to be emotional and hopefully after reading the book you will too.

She reached out and pressed the cool, glinting diamond and the gate swung open.

Nothing could compare to the splendor before her. Stretched out in front of her was a path of seashells, strewn with multi colored petals, the colors of the rainbow she had just seen. Tall rose trees framed both sides of the path. Rose trees? Everything seemed to be possible in this place.

Cupping her mouth with both hands, she giggled. Then she stretched out her arms as if she had wings, and shouted, "I'm free!"