This week, I got the opportunity to interview Amy Bourret, author of Mothers and Other Liars.  I ended up on a blog tour of this book earlier in the month and I really enjoyed it.  I contacted Amy with a few questions and she was more than generous with her answers.  Enjoy!

Lovely Little Shelf: I thought that a clever little part of the book was how Lark got her name, from a candy bar wrapper.  Did you come up with the name first or the concept of Lark’s name coming from a “found object”?

Amy Bouret: She gave me her name first, and then told me where it came from.

LLS: What are your favorite pizza toppings?

AB: Chicken, artichoke and goat cheese

LLS: I want a piece of Ruby’s furniture!  Did you base this job on someone you know/somewhere you shop or did you just kind of make it up?

AB: A little of both. As a kid, I loved “helping” my grandfather with his refinishing projects, and have done a few myself (the pie safe is autobiographical!). I’ve also been concerned about the environment forever – I joined the Sugar Bears Ecology Club when I was 6 – so I loved the idea of “repurposing” old furniture. I’d like a piece of Ruby’s work, too!

LLS: I thought that the decisions that Ruby had to make were truly gut-wrenching.  Did you know going into it what she would decide or were you as surprised as the readers?

AB: I didn’t even know the choices she would face. That’s the fun for me in writing is letting the story carry you where it wants to go. And yes, I was very surprised at where it went.

LLS: I saw an immediate connection between Mothers and Other Liars and Jodi Picoult’s books, not only in storyline but in style.  Was this intentional? Do you read her a lot?

AB: I have read some of Jodi’s work and am flattered to be compared to her, but no, I did not intentionally forge a connection. I hope my work is not deriviate of anyone. I just try to write honestly and well.

LLS: I read on your website that while you don’t have children yourself, you have practiced child advocacy law.  How do you think those two facts shaped your novel?

AB: I don’t know how not having a child shaped the novel, because I can’t compare the experience with writing it while having a child. I WAS a child and I HAVE a mother, so I think there is some of me in each of Ruby and Lark – as well as some of my mother, my sister, my nieces and a whole lot of other people who i have crossed paths with along the way.

The child advocacy part is easier to answer. That work is so rewarding but is also heartbreaking, and I think my experiences definitely shaped the decision that Ruby made at that rest stop.

LLS: What is your favorite 80’s band?

AB: I love Bon Jovi, THE 80’s Hair Band. I also love the Eagles.

LLS: What are you reading right now? What were your favorite books as a kid?

AB: Right now I’m reading lots of poetry and nonfiction. I’m working on my next novel, and I try to protect my characters’ voices while they feel fragile by not letting other voices into my head.

Mothers & Other Liars hits the shelves August 3rd.  For more info on the book and more info on Amy, go check out her website.  It is pretty and full of good stuff.

The Book: Mothers and Other Liars, by Amy Bourret

The Story: I was lucky enough to end up on an ARC tour started by Jennie, over at Life is Short. Read Fast. She read it and mailed it on to me.  To check out her review, head over here and read up!  I’ll let you know as the rest of the girls post their reviews too.

When she is 19, Ruby is sort of on the run from situations in her life.  At a gas station, she hears a strange noise and finds a baby in a trash can.  Running on nothing but emotion, she packs the baby into her car and for 9 years raises it as her own.  Early in the book, she finds out the situation that surrounded the baby, her daughter Lark, being abandoned and she has some big decisions to make.

At the same time, she is pregnant with her first biological child and is going through a whole different set of parenting-emotions and trying to balance out what is happening in her life and what is the “right” way to handle it.

What I thought: When Jennie sent me this book, she warned me that it may be hard to read for mothers and mothers-t0-be and to get my tissues ready.  I kinda like a good book-related cry, so I was excited.  When the book made it to me, I cringed a little because the big blurb on the back compares it to Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos, which I just hated.

I didn’t see any similarity at all with Love Walked In, but what I did find was that if I had not known who wrote it, it could have easily passed as a Jodi Piccoult book.  Family drama that leads to a court room drama all interlaced with emotional writing and plot twists?  All there.  I don’t know if that is what the author had in mind when she wrote this book, but I couldn’t get past in my mind.  To be fair, however, I liked Jodi Piccoult quite a bit the first few books I read by her.  Her formula-writing is what bothers me, so I enjoyed this one more because I didn’t anticipate what was coming.

I loved the characters here.  I found myself empathizing completely with both Ruby and Lark.  In fact, I fell pretty much in love with Lark.  She was this fun, independent, smart kid who also had a little attitude and spunk.  As she got put through the ringer over and over, my heart really did just crack for her and I wanted to shake all the adults involve and scream at them.  I thought that Ruby was faced with one of the harder decisions that a mother can be faced with.  It kind of put me in the mindset of “what would I do?” and I kind of think that Ruby made decisions that I could never make, whether that is good or bad, I really don’t know.  Made me really think though.

I thought that the writing was kinda mediocre, but not terrible.  I got kind of tired of the “flowery” over-emotional writing at a certain point, but that is pure old personal preference.  I’m sure that some readers will just fall in love with it.

In Conclusion: I’d say that if you are a Jodi Piccoult lover, watch the shelves for this in August.  I think it comes out on the 3rd. You’ll love it.  I’m going to echo Jennie and say that if you are dealing with a lot of mommy-hormones right now, maybe read this when that has calmed down a little bit or just be prepared to have your guts twisted up a little bit.