My Goodreads and Amazon review of Heart and Salt by Elaina Battista-Parsons (Rating 5) – Grains and Gifts. Heart and Salt by Elaina Battista-Parsons is a collection of stories about young women growing up and into themselves. They test themselves, and others. They tend toward skepticism, and take life with a grain of salt. Yet they have rare moments of pure heart that deliver epiphanies to them and offer gifts to readers. The tales explore the relationships that those on the cusp of adulthood grapple with: finding the “right” romantic partner, making friends who let you be yourself, navigating parental expectations, marking your “place” in the world, be it the Jersey shore or a small New England town. The recurring and well-named character Feather, literally a self-described lightweight, epitomizes this transitional stage. She’s in the middle, unable to commit, never quite belonging wherever she lands. As a fiction writer myself (see my Amazon author page and Goodreads author page), I appreciate Battita-Parsons’s ability to make readers believe in the characters more than they believe in themselves. Heart and Salt authentically captures the trying years between late girlhood and early womanhood, planting the hope that these seekers will eventually ground themselves and allow their individual talents to shine.
Growing from girlhood to womanhood
Why writers read: “Books are people who have managed to stay alive by hiding between the covers of a book.” – E. B. White
