The Wisdom of Hair Blog Tour: Review & Giveaway

The Wisdom of Hair
Author: Kim Boykin
Genre: Adult Women's Fiction
Release Date: March 5, 2013
Publisher: Berkley Trade
 
Description:

Life can be beautiful, but it takes a little work...

“The problem with cutting your own hair is that once you start, you just keep cutting, trying to fix it, and the truth is, some things can never be fixed. The day of my daddy’s funeral, I cut my bangs until they were the length of those little paintbrushes that come with dime-store watercolor sets. I was nine years old. People asked me why I did it, but I was too young then to know I was changing my hair because I wanted to change my life.” 
In 1983, on her nineteenth birthday, Zora Adams finally says goodbye to her alcoholic mother and their tiny town in the mountains of South Carolina. Living with a woman who dresses like Judy Garland and brings home a different man each night is not a pretty existence, and Zora is ready for life to be beautiful.

With the help of a beloved teacher, she moves to a coastal town and enrolls in the Davenport School of Beauty. Under the tutelage of Mrs. Cathcart, she learns the art of fixing hair, and becomes fast friends with the lively Sara Jane Farquhar, a natural hair stylist. She also falls hard for handsome young widower Winston Sawyer, who is drowning his grief in bourbon. She couldn’t save Mama, but maybe she can save him.

As Zora practices finger waves, updos, and spit curls, she also comes to learn that few things are permanent in this life—except real love, lasting friendship, and, ultimately… forgiveness.  

The Wisdom of Hair is a heartwarming and fun book that tells the tale of Zora Adams - a young woman who leaves her alcoholic mother when she turns nineteen. Zora makes her way to a coastal town and enrolls in the Davenport School of Beauty, where she learns the ins and outs of styling and fixing hair. Along the way, Zora finds great friendship with a fellow hair stylist named Sara Jane; and she also finds herself falling in love with a young widower named Winston. While learning how to fix and style hair, Zora finds herself learning much more about life, love, and friendship than she bargained for.

This was a truly uplifting and captivating novel that is the epitome of women's fiction. Zora is a great main character and the reader will easily identify with her. She is a devoted friend and daughter, but realizes that her dreams are far from her life living in a small town with her drunk of a mother. Although Zora has wonderful qualities, like every real person, she also has flaws - which I thought made her more accessible and realistic. She learns a lot throughout the course of the novel and the reader gets to watch her character grow and mature. The topics that the book deals with are common but important - lessons that all of us must learn at one point or another in life. It deals with life, love, family, forgiveness, friendship, and finding yourself - all of which are deep yet uplifting for the reader to experience alongside Zora. The setting was perfect and I loved reading about the town on the coast along with the assortment of smaller characters that Zora comes across. The descriptions were vivid and detailed, which enabled me to really immerse myself in Zora's life. The writing was very well done with a quick pace and seamless flow. I definitely recommend this novel for fans of women's fiction and chick lit.

I was born in Augusta, Georgia, but raised in South Carolina in a home with two girly sisters and great parents. So when you read my stuff if there is ever some deranged mama or daddy terrorizing the protagonist, I want to make it clear, it’s not them.
I had a happy, boring childhood, which sucks if you’re a writer because you have to create your own crazy. PLUS after you’re published and you’re being interviewed, for some reason, it’s very appealing that the author actually lived in Crazy Town or somewhere in the general vicinity.

What I did have going for me was two things. One, my grandfather, Bryan Standridge, was an amazing storyteller. He held court under an old mimosa tree on the side of his yard, and people used to come by in droves just to hear him tell stories. He told tales about growing up in rural Georgia and shared his unique take on the world. As a child, I was enthralled, but when I started to write, really write, I realized what a master teacher of pacing and sensory detail he was.

The other major influence on my writing is my ADHDness. Of course when I was a kid, nobody knew what that was. Compared to my older sisters, I knew something was “wrong” with me, so I learned to multitask like crazy and excel at things I did well to make up for things I couldn’t do like math and sitting still.

Today, I’m an empty nester of two kids with a husband, three dogs, and 126 rose bushes. I write stories about strong southern women because that’s what I know. I’m an accomplished public speaker, which basically means I’m good at talking.

If this doesn’t tell you what you want to know, check out my blog for a few laughs and some good stuff on writing, gardening, food, and, of course, hair.

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1 Winner will receive the Kindle pictured above. (WiFi, 6in Display) 4 Winners will get 2 ARCS each, on for them self and one for their hair stylist!

Shipping in the US only, no PO Boxes. Must be 13+ to Enter

 

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