Meet Author
Yessi Smith
Life’s A Cappella
Publication Date:November 15, 2013
Synopsis
I want to tell you how great my life was. How I lived without regrets. With constant laughter. Without any tears. I want to tell you how I lived each moment to the fullest. How each breath I took was fresh and full of life. With eagerness. Without any fear.
I want to tell you all of that, but then my story would be masked with lies and not worth telling.
My life didn’t start until I left my past. And I left everything. My mother, my friends, my name.
My new name, the name everyone knows me by is Erin Lewis.
Four years after finding the courage to leave her hometown in Alabama, Erin is finally happy with where her life has led her. Not only is she secure in her environment, but the relationships she has formed center her, making her forget how damaged she once was. Before she can fully settle into her new life, her past crashes into her present, unraveling a set of events that destroy the very foundation she has built her new life on.
I want to tell you all of that, but then my story would be masked with lies and not worth telling.
My life didn’t start until I left my past. And I left everything. My mother, my friends, my name.
My new name, the name everyone knows me by is Erin Lewis.
Four years after finding the courage to leave her hometown in Alabama, Erin is finally happy with where her life has led her. Not only is she secure in her environment, but the relationships she has formed center her, making her forget how damaged she once was. Before she can fully settle into her new life, her past crashes into her present, unraveling a set of events that destroy the very foundation she has built her new life on.
Excerpt
I want to tell you how great my life was. How I lived without regrets. With constant laughter. Without any tears. I want to tell you how I lived each moment to the fullest. How each breath I took was fresh and full of life. With eagerness. Without any fear.
I want to tell you all of that, but then my story would be masked with lies and not worth telling.
The truth is I was born into a family in which the word “family” in and of itself was laughable. I never met my father and there are times I wish I would never have met my mother. Try as hard as she might, she never fully accomplished the task of ending her life. Which, really, was a shame. How much easier my life would have been if she had just ceased to exist.
While her anger was something to be reckoned with, the malice induced by her addictions was something that should be avoided altogether.
I learned at a very young age that home was not a place I wanted to be.
I should have stayed in my hometown in Alabama, pissing my life away until I wound up another statistic; pregnant with a fatherless baby. That should have been my story, but I never received that particular script, so I forged my way in my own manner.
My life didn’t start until I left my past. And I left everything. My mother, my friends, my name. Yes, my name. I will not tell you what my name used to be because it is irrelevant. That person should never have existed.
My new name, the name everyone knows me by is Erin Lewis. It is a name common enough so that I can blend, but bright enough so that I may shine. And that is what I want, to shine so brightly that the darkness of my past is but a small speck of dust.
Reviews
Life’s A Cappella…..the song that life sings for us, it changes day by day, as circumstances change. How we react to life and those circumstances depends on the music that we fill our life with. Whether it be a love ballad, or a dark song of heart ache and depression. Erin lived by the notes of different songs, letting the music flow freely through her veins enveloping her to live like a free-spirited phoenix. Although her young life had been scarred of turmoil and heartache, she refused to let that define who she is today, as she lived each day to the fullest, paving a new road in her new life. She had erased her past. She had new friends that she loved, and cherished, and was slowly beginning to fall in love. The record skipped and the song changed as did Erin’s life, dramatically. It takes overwhelming heartache and loss for Erin to open her eyes to see that no matter how far you run, your past is still there, lurking in the dark, but it’s the choices that you make, that determine your future.
A debut novel…such a surprise, for a beautifully written novel. Life’s A Cappella is absolutely captivating. From the beginning, I felt free, then sadness, heartache, and happiness. I could feel each of Erin’s emotions tug at my heart as I read Life’s A Cappella. Yessi Smith is a very creative author, tangling her love for music, with such a story. The story feels so real and authentic, it connects you to the character, as you feel every ounce of emotion with them and for them. I can’t wait to read more from this up and coming literary rock star!! – Author Silla Webb (Amazon)
A debut novel…such a surprise, for a beautifully written novel. Life’s A Cappella is absolutely captivating. From the beginning, I felt free, then sadness, heartache, and happiness. I could feel each of Erin’s emotions tug at my heart as I read Life’s A Cappella. Yessi Smith is a very creative author, tangling her love for music, with such a story. The story feels so real and authentic, it connects you to the character, as you feel every ounce of emotion with them and for them. I can’t wait to read more from this up and coming literary rock star!! – Author Silla Webb (Amazon)
Yessi will have you on an emotional rollercoaster. I did some ugly crying reading this book. Erin just wants to forget the past that she left behind in Alabama and start her new life in Miami. With new best friends, well first best friends, she has learned a new life is what she needed. In life you never what is going to happen and it can always throw something at you to see if you will fail or succeed. Erin learns this all to well. With the loss of love and a friend you can only hope something. Yessi will have you on an emotional rollercoaster. I did some ugly crying reading this book. Erin just wants to forget the past that she left behind in Alabama and start her new life in Miami. With new best friends, well first best friends, she has learned a new life is what she needed. In life you never what is going to happen and it can always throw something at you to see if you will fail or succeed. Erin learns this all to well. With the loss of love and a friend you can only hope something good will happen but when that ray of hope comes in a tiny package do you know what you would do. Do you fight like Hell for what you want or back down? Erin doesn’t know how to back down so she decides it’s time to fight like Hell for what she wants but is it to late to start the fight. I hope you all enjoy this book as much as I did. This is a great debut book for Yessi and I can only hope there is going to be more from her!
This is a really touching story of Erin, a young woman who left her old life behind her.
She is finally settled into her new life. She has made good friends & is in a relationship, and is trying very hard to forget her old life.
Then tragedy hits & she is thrown back into her old life. Erin then has to face her demons to go forward into a completely new life.
This story tackled a very sad topic very well, not too over the top, but with just enough detail to touch you.
I found myself very emotional, crying & laughing.
This is a really good read.
Anna-marie rated it 4 of 5 stars (Goodreads)
About the Author
I’m a Hispanic living in South Florida with my redneck husband from Texas and our “half breed” son, who is actually the reason I started writing again after years of celibacy. My son loves stories, but not the kind you can read in an existing book. No, he’d rather make up a story, complete with our own illustrations. So, thank you, Son, for igniting a flame I had let go out. I also live with two dogs: a neurotic Border Collie we call Nitro and a midget Rottweiler named Nisa. I have always found my sanctuary at the beach and in music and writing. I wish I could write rhymes so I could become a famous rapper, but rhyming is completely lost on me. I have a Bachelor’s degree in Business Management and a Master’s in Human Resource Management. I have held several jobs, from picking up dog crap to upper management positions. And now I am hoping to leave the business world behind so I can live full time in a world that does not exist until I place my fingers on a keyboard and bring them to fruition.
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