Book Goodies

Connecting Readers and Authors

  • Home
  • Authors: Tell Readers About Your Book
  • Advertising
    • Buy Home Page Features
    • Advertise Your Bargain Book
    • List Your Free eBook
    • Feature Your PermaFree Book
    • BookGoodies Multi-site Landing Pages And Book Buyer’s Guides
    • Author Advertising PrePay and Save!
  • Deals Newsletter
  • Featured Books
    • Buyer’s Guides
  • Book and Kindle Sleeves
  • Use Coupon Code BookGoodies10 for 10% off your purchase from the BookGoodies Store!
  • Free Books
  • PermaFree Books
  • Featured Free and Bargain Books
  • Bargain Books Under $3
  • Buyer’s Guides
  • Interviews With Authors
    • Podcasts with Authors
  • Authors Start Here
    • Authors: Tell Readers About Your Book
    • BookGoodies MEGA Submit Book Buyers Guide
    • Submit Your Interview
    • Feature Your Free Books
    • Feature Your Bargain Books
  • Giveaways from BookGoodies
You are here: Home / Bargains and Freebies / Bargain Books Under $3 / Dappled by Lisa Brown

Dappled by Lisa Brown

By Book Goodies Leave a Comment

“During Colleen’s absences, Jane would write stories to try to fill the time… and there was a feeling like she was carrying heavy shopping bags, but somehow on the inside…’’

Colleen is not like other mothers, and Jane knows she’s not like other teenagers.
Finding out she has a skin condition that will gradually give her the appearance of a Dalmatian is only further confirmation she’ll never fit in.
At least she’s well on her way to creating the perfect camouflage… until she meets someone who’s determined to strip it all off.

Jane’s story journeys between her adult years in Perth, Western Australia, to her adolescence in the coastal tree-lined town of Denmark further south, where dreams for aspiring creatives (sometimes) come true… and where she falls in love. Along the way, Jane faces the struggles that come with being human and learns to realise that sometimes, someone loving us at our worst can set us free to become our best.

Targeted Age Group:: Adult and young adult readership

What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
When I wrote Dappled, I wanted a book that explored many themes, including love, loss, friendship, mental illness, disability, and self-acceptance.
Being a group therapist and OT working in mental health and teaching neuropsychiatry and recovery, these themes were already close to my heart.
But Dappled is also about a young woman, Jane and her journey with vitiligo. Having vitiligo too, I wanted to read a book about someone else with the rare skin condition that understood the struggles, however, was also warm, hopeful and affirming.
I couldn’t find that book… so I decided to write it.

How Did You Come up With Your Characters?
The characters of Dappled are partly inspired by people I know, partly a product of my imagination. I wanted to create a collection of unforgettable characters, who were also entirely relatable. There are also a lot of parallels between myself and Dappled's main character, Jane.

Book Sample
Even her pregnancy with Daniel had been an accident. A beautiful, glorious accident but an accident all the same. In fact, she’d cried when they’d found out she was pregnant so soon after Bradley. They’d both felt completely out of their depth at the prospect of having a toddler with CP and a newborn thrown into the mix. But Peter had always maintained it was going to be fine – they were an unconquerable duo and they would cope. And cope they did. She breastfed Daniel between appointments with doctors and physios. He took his first cheeky steps in the hospital foyer, while they’d been waiting to see Bradley’s paediatrician. As a child, Daniel spent long hours in hospital waiting rooms entertaining himself by drawing treasure maps and striking up conversations with strangers. But that was his normal and Sue could rarely remember him complaining.
One day on one of the numerous trips home from the hospital Bradley informed Daniel he’d been an accident, adding rather unkindly, “And if Mum and D-Dad had any idea how noisy y-you were going to be, they’d have put you right back in!”
There were a few beats of silence in which Sue’s heart broke a little. Just as she was about to say something she heard Daniel’s indignant, but still rather cheerful response from the back seat: “Yeah, I already know about being a mistake, Brad. But Dad says the best damn mistake they ever made! Right, Mum?”
“Absolutely right, sweetheart,’’ Sue replied, eyes watering a little.
That was Danny all over. Always making lemonade out of lemons.
Of course, all the appointments were hardest on Bradley. But she and Peter rarely stopped to consider they were hard on Daniel too.
They hadn’t even picked up on the fact he had dyslexia until he was eight for God’s sake and even that was a referral initiated by his Year 3 teacher. She remembered he had been so good natured about their negligence, as if they’d simply forgotten to pack his excursion money in his school bag one day.
A couple of years ago, a dear friend who’d moved to the UK when Daniel was still a toddler had asked after Sue’s boys in an email. She’d said: It’s so sad how the years fly by… If I saw your lovely boys on the street I wouldn’t know them … if you could describe each of them to me in one or two words what words would you use?
Strangely, Sue had already known what her response was, almost as if she had been waiting for the question. Bradley is the pragmatist, Danny is the empath, she had said.
Sue vividly remembered Danny’s Year 3 teacher pulling her aside after school one day, saying to her Danny still jumbled up the ‘i’ and ‘e’ in his name and was struggling to keep up in class. She suggested some activities Sue could do at home with him, which, to her shame, Sue didn’t consistently follow … she was so caught up in Bradley’s needs at the time.
But his young teacher, Mrs Barrett, had also added, “And Sue? Although Daniel may get behind in class sometimes… I just wanted you to know he is such a sweetheart. He is the only child in my class who seems to always notice if I’m a little stressed and seems to see it as his personal responsibility to make it better. Sometimes he’ll even tell the other kids to shut up on my behalf if I look a bit rattled! ‘Quiet guys, Mrs Barrett is trying to think!’ He’s also always the first to go over and sit with a new kid. Whatever challenges Daniel may experience as he goes through school, I imagine that sweet quality will remain in him throughout his life – a special gift.’’
She’d never forgotten that.
As the boys grew older, Sue had noticed a protective hardening develop in Bradley. He was naturally cautious and measured by nature and he had street-smarts. To be honest, the kid could even be downright cynical at times.
But not so in Danny.
She feared for Bradley in a logistical sense, whereas for Danny, her concerns were grounded in his emotional vulnerability.
As she watched Danny grow—now more than ever—she couldn’t help but wonder, how could an enthusiasm so endless not be slowly deflated by the harsh realities of life?
How could a heart so tender, not be broken?
Sometimes it seemed like a curse, just as much as it was a gift.

Links to Purchase Print Books
Buy Dappled Print Edition at Amazon
Buy Dappled Print Edition at Barnes and Noble
Buy Dappled Print book for sale at Book Depository

Links to Purchase eBooks – Click links for book samples and reviews
Buy Dappled On Amazon

Have you read this book? Tell us what you thought! All information was provided by the author and not edited by us. This is so you get to know the author better.

Filed Under: Bargain Books Under $3, Kindle Unlimited eBooks, Women's Fiction Tagged With: contemporary romance, Family, lisa brown, Love, Mental Health, psychological fiction



Are you looking for ebook deals? We have them! We also have free ebooks - check them out!



 

Sign up for our email newsletter to get daily notices about free, bargain and featured books.Be notified of instant access to free books AND Amazon Gift Card and book giveaways.

 

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

10 − four =

Join Our Newsletter

Fiction

  • Fiction
  • Action & Adventure
  • Drama
  • Fantasy
  • Historical
  • Horror
  • Mystery/Suspense
  • Paranormal
  • Romance
  • Romance – Erotica
  • Science Fiction
  • Women’s Fiction
  • Fiction Audio Books

Try Kindle Unlimited Today

Listen to Your Favorite Books

Nonfiction

  • Art/Photography/Coffee Table
  • Biographies & Memoirs
  • Body/Mind/Spirit
  • Business Books
  • Cooking and Food Books
  • Crafts and Hobbies
  • Educational/How-to
  • Essays
  • Faith and Religion
  • Gardening Books
  • Health & Fitness
  • Humor
  • Inspiration and Photography Books
  • Pet and Animal Books
  • Science and Math
  • Travel
  • Nonfiction Audio Books

More Good Stuff

  • Featured Books
  • Children and Young Adult Books
  • *Reading Room
    • Interviews With Authors
    • Audio Books
      • Nonfiction Audio Books
      • Fiction Audio Books
  • Spanish
  • Giveaways from BookGoodies
  • Readers: What Podcasts Do You Listen To?
  • Readers: What Devices do You Use to Read eBooks?
  • Readers: What Do You Like on an Author’s Website?

For Authors

  • Authors: Tell Readers About Your Book
  • Author Interview – Tell Us About Yourself
  • BookGoodies MEGA Submit Book Buyers Guide
  • Advertise Your Bargain Books
  • Advertise Your Free eBook
  • Advertise Your PermaFree Book
  • Universal Link Tool for Amazon Books
  • Subscribe to Our Newsletters
  • BookGoodies News

Copyright © 2021 BookGoodies Network