Shades of Morning by Marlo Schalesky

Marnie Wittier has made many mistakes in her life, but she has left those behind and has tried to move forward by starting Books and Brew, a bookstore\coffee shop combo. But her old life has found her in the form of Emmit, the Downs syndrome teenage son of her dead sister. Social services has named her next of kin, forcing Taylor Cole, her ex-boyfriend, to relinquish custody of Emmit to her. But Marnie does not want to raise a child, especially not a stubborn Downs syndrome boy who's always finding objects from her past in her house to show her. Marnie does not understand why she is being forced to remember all her mistakes, and Taylor does not understand why the boy had to be taken from him. The answers to their dilemnas lie only in their reconciliation with their past together.
Marlo Schalesky once again crafts an interesting plot built on well-developed characters that makes the reader think she's going to write another five star book. However, she seems to be obsessed with love stories with a "twist", and these twists are ruining perfectly fine plots. As she did in If Tomorrow Never Comes, she invents an outlandish twist that is supposed to be surprising, yet only creates plot holes and causes the reader to scratch his head. If she would only return to the type of twist she used in Beyond the Night, she could be writing five star plots over and over again.
Marnie, Taylor, and several other characters are very well-developed with imperfections-past and present. Marlo subtly brings each character up to the present, exposing and developing personalities along the way. Marlo has always done this, and there is nothing wrong with it. She has also always created few characters, allowing her to give each one special attention. There is no villain, since the main characters are their own worst enemies. There is nothing wrong with the character department, proving that Marlo needs no help developing characters; she merely needs to be consistent as she has been.
There is an obvious romantic subplot between Taylor and Marnie, yet it is not cheesy at first. It is quite realistic in the past, yet this trend deteriorates in the present. However, this is not a cheap romance that there seems to be an overabundance of on the market. There is a key character death, naturally. The biggest and most blaring problem with the entire book is the strange end. As was the case with If Tomorrow Never Comes, Marlo's "twist" creates more questions than it answers. This twist is no plausible, probable, or explained. It is slightly more possible than the twist in her previous novel, yet no explination is given for how it was accomplished. This end makes the reader go back and read several sections near the beginning of the book in order to discover an answer, yet there is no answer.
Shades of Morning is not the disaster If Tomorrow Never Comes was, yet Marlo is damaging her reputation as an author by writing such strange ends. These ends make her appear unintelligent or ignorant. She has all the potential in the world if she will only be more realistic with her twists.
4 stars

If Tomorrow Never Comes by Marlo Schalesky

Jimmy and Kinna met each other at a young age. They met almost every day on the beach to build sandcastles and to play in their imaginary world where their fathers could not try to control their lives. As they grew up, they grew closer and closer together. Jimmy was always there for Kinna when her dates stood her up. This eventually to turned into a lifelong relationship called marriage. When they were a young couple, they dreamed of having children and of buying a house on the beach. It was simple. But now twenty years have passed and Kinna is still barren. The two of them have grown apart so that they barely love each other anymore. But when Kinna rescues an old woman from the waves at the beach, things begin to change for Jimmy and Kinna. Things beyond their control start happening that force them to face the wrong choices they have made in their past in order to build a strong future.

I would say infertility plots are worn out and finished, but Marlo has showed us a new way. Perhaps not the best or most realistic way, but a different way nonetheless. But when one really thinks about this new way Marlo has invented, several things do not add up. Marlo tries to play Ted Dekker in this plot in a very non-Ted Dekker way. She is basically not being who she really is but is trying to be someone else, when she could just be herself and write another five star plot.

For starts, the characters, namely Jimmy and Kinna, are superb. Not only do they have complete personalities, but they also have imperfection. Marlo has proved the point that fewer characters equal good characters because the author has more time to give the characters personal attention. Besides Jimmy and Kinna, there are only three other characters really. Marlo has definitely not failed us in the character department.

As for the end of the book, it's just plain juvenile. It is based on the unrealistic time warping and therefore cannot be determined whether such a thing would really happen. As I said, why did Marlo have to abandon what she had going in Beyond the Night? It seems like she felt like she had to be different. This is not the kind of different we are looking for. This kind of different only leaves us scratching our heads. But besides the time warp issue, there is also one other unnecessary dramatic scene that puts a damper on the basically good body of the book. I don't know where Marlo left her originality while writing the end of this book or even how this made it past the editor. It also makes me wonder whether Marlo had any other good ideas besides Beyond the Night. But she can still redeem herself in the future by returning to her originality of old.

3 stars

Beyond the Night by Marlo Schalesky

While driving in the rain one evening, Paul and Maddie veer off the road in order to not hit a deer that was standing in it, thus landing Maddie in the hospital with serious injuries. During the hospital stay, Paul thinks back to how he met his wife and how they fell in love. About how they felt when Maddie was suddenly going blind and how they were both afraid to profess their love to each other. Paul comforts himself with these memories and with prayer to the only One Who can heal his wife, but it ultimately comes down to Paul letting go and letting God do His own work.

Simple plot, original end. While the first half of the book seems typical except for good character development, the last few chapters make the whole book worth reading. It utilizes good characters instead of wasting them with a useless, typical end. And the best part about it is that Marlo pleased the public with this original end. She got away with it. It takes a good author to pull that off.

As I said, Marlo does a very good job of subtly developing her characters instead of forcing their personalities into your face. The character inaction and the purposes of each character are true to their personalities, showing signs of a good author. Granted, there are a few unnecessary, typical characters, but this does not detract from the rating because one hardly notices them.

Throughout the plot, it looked like Marlo was going to ruin this good book with a typical, sensational end. But instead, she surprised me by inserting the realistic end into this situation. She is not afraid to do such a thing, which means she has deep-seeded originality. The original end is topped off with another surprise that helps the reader understand one of the character's purposes more clearly.

The only advice I have for Marlo is to eliminate unnecessary characters or give them personalities. Other than that, keep up the originality! The market needs it.

5 stars