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The Wedding Gift  By  cover art

The Wedding Gift

By: Marlen Suyapa Bodden
Narrated by: Jenna Lamia, January LaVoy
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Publisher's summary

When Cornelius Allen gives his daughter Clarissa’s hand in marriage, he presents her with a wedding gift: the young slave she grew up with, Sarah. Sarah is also Allen’s daughter and Clarissa’s sister, a product of his longtime relationship with his house slave, Emmeline. When Clarissa’s husband suspects that their newborn son is illegitimate, Clarissa and Sarah are sent back to her parents, Cornelius and Theodora, in shame, setting in motion a series of events that will destroy this once-powerful family.

Told through alternating viewpoints of Sarah and Theodora Allen, Cornelius’ wife, The Wedding Gift is a stunning novel that shows where the complicated and compelling bonds and relationships between women explored in novels like The Help and The Secret Life of Bees began. Marlen Suyapa Bodden's novel is an intimate portrait that shows where this particular American story and dynamic all started and will leave listeners breathless.

Includes a reading group guide read by the author.

©2013 Marlen Suyapa Bodden (P)2013 Macmillan Audio

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What listeners say about The Wedding Gift

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

This book made you want to keep turning the page's!

Enjoyed the book and the characters very much!
The book took you back in time to our history of slavery and their lives.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

I love this book so much I felt like I was there!

This book kept me intrigued until the very end! loved the ending OMG!! PERFECT!!! LOL PERFECT!!!

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it!

love the way the story was told, great plot, didn't always see things coming, highly recommend

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Loved it.

If you could sum up The Wedding Gift in three words, what would they be?

Captivating, great narration.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Wedding Gift?

The end

What about Jenna Lamia and January LaVoy ’s performance did you like?

Both readers have a wonderful ability to transform from one character to another and remain believable. When looking for a good book, I pick something from my list of favorite authors and good narrators. Because I needed to branch out to something different from my usual type of book, I picked "The Wedding Gift". It was a great choice and Jenna Lamia and January Lavoy are now at the top of the list of good narrators along with Barbara Rosenblat, who is my favorite.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

"The Wedding Gift gives you a better understanding of what it felt like to be a slave at the mercy of man's beliefs, that because of the color of your skin, your value was less than the rest of humanity."

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

REALLY GOOD BOOK....

With the exception of the Author wanting to tell each character side of the same events the book was really good. I felt like things were being repeated a lot so that’s a little redundant. Overall this book is excellent. The end tho....OMG I DID NOT SEE THAT COMING! I FINISHED IT WANTING MORE. I REALLY WISH SHE HAD WRITTEN ANOTHER EXTENSION OF THIS STORY. LIKE THE BOOKS YELLOW CROCUS AND MUSTARD SEED. THERE ARE SO MANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS ABOUT WHAT HAPPEN TO EVERYONE. PLEASE CONSIDER WRITING MORE. Readers you won’t be disappointed!

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Very predictable

It was a very predictable book but still very interesting. I probably wouldn’t recommend it to anyone else to read.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Awesome narration!

This story is told in the first person alternating between two characters. Jenna Lamia and January LaVoy do an outstanding job of bringing them to life. They also master the task of doing different voices when they are relating conversations the character is part of or listens to. The writing may not be the most artistically descriptive or flowery, but the characters felt very real and made you care about what happens to them. I would recommend this book to anyone who liked The Kitchen House or The Invention of Wings.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Surprise......

This book was more than I could hope for as far as entertainment. The narrators made the book very lively, The author kept me intrigued to know more and more about each character, and the ending O.M.G.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

So good

I should’ve suspected the end, but I didn’t. It was a good story. It kept me engrossed. Slavery stories are always hard. I would definitely recommend this book.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

I was up past 4 a.m. listening to this book!

What did you like best about this story?

The author was very vivid, I could see the characters and scenery.

Which character – as performed by Jenna Lamia and January LaVoy – was your favorite?

Sarah

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes, absolutely.

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17 people found this helpful